1 research outputs found
The Outcome of the Protoplanetary Disk of Very Massive Stars
We suggest that planets, brown dwarfs, and even low mass stars can be formed
by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks around very massive stars M>~100 solar
masses. We discuss how fragmentation conditions make the formation of very
massive planetary systems around very massive stars favorable. Such planetary
systems are likely to be composed of brown dwarfs and low mass stars of
~0.1-0.3 solar masses, at orbital separations of ~ few x 100 - 10^4 AU. In
particular, scaling from solar-like stars suggests that hundreds of
Mercury-like planets might orbit very massive stars at ~1000 AU, where
conditions might favor liquid water. Such fragmentation objects can be
excellent targets for the James Webb Space Telescope and other large telescopes
working in the IR bands. We predict that deep observations of very massive
stars would reveal these fragmentation objects, orbiting in the same orbital
plane in cases where there are more than one object.Comment: Accepted to New Astronom