Chondrule Accretion with a Growing Protoplanet

Abstract

Chondrules are primitive materials in the solar system. They were formed in about the first 3 Myr of the solar system’s history. This timescale is longer than that of Mars formation, and it is conceivable that protoplanets, planetesimals, and chondrules might have existed simultaneously in the solar nebula. Due to protoplanets’ perturbation on the planetesimal dynamics and chondrule accretion on them, all the formed chondrules are unlikely to be accreted by the planetesimals. We investigate the amount of chondrules accreted by planetesimals in such a condition. We assume that a protoplanet is in oligarchic growth, and we perform analytical calculations of chondrule accretion by both a protoplanet and planetesimals. Through the oligarchic growth stage, planetesimals accrete about half of the formed chondrules. The smallest planetesimals get the largest amount of chondrules, compared with the amount accreted by more massive planetesimals. We perform a parameter study and find that this fraction is not greatly changed for a wide range of parameter sets.