On the origin of cometary nuclei in the presolar nebula

If we assume that the cometary nuclei originated by the gravitational instability of a dust layer, which formed in the equatorial plane of the outer parts of the presolar nebula (PSN) during a period of approximate equilibrium between gravity, centrifugal force, and the pressure gradient, a simple relation is derived between the PSN's temperature and the upper limit to the mass of the planetesimals. It contains, besides the density of the cometary nuclei_p, only the fraction (by mass) of the condensable elements in the PSN, which became part of the dust particle disc, which, on the basis of available observational evidence on the solid particles in interplanetary and interstellar space and of theoretical considerations on the relationship between them and on the sedimentation process, is found to be of the order of ~10%; this estimate will require still further justification. Assuming a temperature in the range 15–20 K, an equatorial diameter of the PSN of 0.1 pc and_p few 0.1 g/cm³, upper limits for the planetesimal's mass of 10¹⁸g and for their radius of 10 km are obtained (on the basis of conservation of circulation, of mass and of angular momentum in the differentially rotating disc), in fair agreement with observation. With the dispersion of those parts of the PSN — of an assumed original mass of 2–3M —, which did not become part of the Sun or the planets, by the young Sun's activity, the planetesimals must have lost a large part of their gravitational binding energy and their orbits must have become so large (semimajor axis several 10⁴ A.U. or more, if not negative), that stellar perturbations produced the distribution in configurational and in velocity space now observed.Paper dedicated to Professor Hannes Alfvén on the occasion of his 70th birthday, 30 May, 1978.The earlier work done since about 1950 in the U.S.S.R. is described in Safronov (1972).