FORMATION OF PLANETS IN GASEOUS VORTICES AND THE LAW OF PLANETARY DISTANCES

The protoplanetary nebula probably passed through the stage of an accretion disk, which contained the gaseous and dust components. Its evolution led to the formation of planetesimals, which eventually accumulated into the planets. Due to the difficulties of the 'standard' model of the Solar System formation, there has been a revival of the theories of the 'persistent gaseous vortices' recently. The assumption that planets formed near the centers of the vortices in one of the theories (Barge and Sommeria 1995) yields an implicit law of planetary distances. Within the accepted range 1/2 <= q <= 3/4 of the main parameter of the nebula (the inverse power of the radial temperature dependence), the law predicts an increase of the planetary distances that is considerably stronger than linear on the logarithmic scale. An acceptable fit, to the observed distances can be obtained only for q = 3/4 and if Pluto is excluded. An explicit but approximate planetary distance law shows a misleadingly good fit.