• DOI:10.1098/rsta.1984.0078
• Corpus ID: 120193937

The evolution of rotation in the early history of the Solar System

@article{Woolfson1984TheEO,
  title={The evolution of rotation in the early history of the Solar System},
  author={Michael Mark Woolfson},
  journal={Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences},
  year={1984},
  volume={313},
  pages={18 - 5}
}

• M. Woolfson
• Published 27 November 1984
• Physics, Geology
• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Theories that require the co-genetic formation of the Sun and planets have difficulty in explaining the slow rotation of the Sun. An analysis is made of various mechanisms for slowing down the core of an evolving nebula. Two of these involve a high magnetic dipole moment for the early Sun. The first envisages magnetic linkage to an external plasma but requires a dipole moment 106 times that of the present Sun. The other is based on the co-rotation of m atter leaving the Sun during a T Tauri stage, and requires a dipole moment 104 times the present value. A mechanical process for transferring angular momentum outward involving dissipation in a solar-nebula disc is incapable of giving what is required. Two processes of star formation in a turbulent cloud are discussed. Both are capable of giving a slowly rotating Sun. Various models for producing planets are examined in relation to the spin they would produce. Planets formed from floccules would be spinning quickly but could evolve in such a way as to give observed spins for giant planets and also satellite families. Accretion models are very sensitive to assumptions, and parameters and can be adjusted to explain almost any observation. Protoplanets formed in elliptical orbits would acquire spin angular momentum through solar tidal action and would evolve to give reasonable spin rates and regular satellite families. The various tilts of their spin axes could be explained by interactions between protoplanets in the early Solar System.