Water ice is one of the most abundant materials in dense molecular clouds and in the outer reaches of protoplanetary disks. In contrast to other materials (e.g., silicates), water ice is assumed to be stickier due to its higher specific surface energy, leading to faster or more efficient growth in mutual collisions. However, experiments investigating the stickiness of water ice have been scarce, particularly in the astrophysically relevant micrometer-sized region and at low temperatures. In this work, we present an experimental setup to grow aggregates composed of μm-sized water-ice particles, which we used to measure the sticking and erosion thresholds of the ice particles at different temperatures between 114 K and 260 K. We show with our experiments that for low temperatures (below ∼210 K), μm-sized water-ice particles stick below a threshold velocity of 9.6 m s −1 , which is approximately 10 times higher than the sticking threshold of μm-sized silica particles. Furthermore, erosion of the grown ice aggregates is observed for velocities above 15.3 m s −1 . A comparison of the experimentally derived sticking threshold with model predictions is performed to determine important material properties of water ice, i.e., the specific surface energy and the viscous relaxation time. Our experimental results indicate that the presence of water ice in the outer reaches of protoplanetary disks can enhance the growth of planetesimals by direct sticking of particles.

Airless planetary bodies are covered by a dusty layer called regolith. The grain size of the regolith determines the temperature and the mechanical strength of the surface layers. Thus, knowledge of the grain size of planetary regolith helps to prepare future landing and/or sample-return missions. In this work, we present a method to determine the grain size of planetary regolith by using remote measurements of the thermal inertia. We found that small bodies in the Solar System (diameter less than ~100 km) are covered by relatively coarse regolith grains with typical particle sizes in the millimeter to centimeter regime, whereas large objects possess very fine regolith with grain sizes between 10 and 100 micrometer.Comment: Accepted by Icaru

When comet nuclei approach the Sun, the increasing energy flux through the surface layers leads to sublimation of the underlying ices and subsequent outgassing that promotes the observed emission of gas and dust. While the release of gas can be straightforwardly understood by solving the heat-transport equation and taking into account the finite permeability of the ice-free dust layer close to the surface of the comet nucleus, the ejection of dust additionally requires that the forces binding the dust particles to the comet nucleus must be overcome by the forces caused by the sublimation process. This relates to the question of how large the tensile strength of the overlying dust layer is. Homogeneous layers of micrometer-sized dust particles reach tensile strengths of typically 10 Then we experimentally measure the tensile strengths of layers of laboratory dust aggregates and confirm the values derived by the model. To explain the comet activity driven by the evaporation of water ice, we derive a minimum size for the dust aggregates of ∼ 1 mm, in agreement with meteoroid observations and dustagglomeration models in the solar nebula. Finally we conclude that cometesimals must have formed by gravitational instability, because all alternative formation models lead to higher tensile strengths of the surface layers.

Coagulation models assume a higher sticking threshold for micrometer-sized ice particles than for micrometer-sized silicate particles. However, in contrast to silicates, laboratory investigations of the collision properties of micrometer-sized ice particles (in particular, of the most abundant water ice) have not been conducted yet. Thus, we used two different experimental methods to produce micrometer-sized water ice particles, i. e. by spraying water droplets into liquid nitrogen and by spraying water droplets into a cold nitrogen atmosphere. The mean particle radii of the ice particles produced with these experimental methods are (1.49 ± 0.79) µm and (1.45 ± 0.65) µm. Ice aggregates composed of the micrometer-sized ice particles are highly porous (volume filling factor: φ = 0.11 ± 0.01) or rather compact (volume filling factor: φ = 0.72 ± 0.04), depending on the method of production. Furthermore, the critical rolling friction force of F Roll,ice = (114.8 ± 23.8) × 10 −10 N was measured for micrometer-sized ice particles, which exceeds the critical rolling friction force of micrometer-sized SiO 2 particles (F Roll,S iO 2 = (12.1 ± 3.6) × 10 −10 N). This result implies that the adhesive bonding between micrometer-sized ice particles is stronger than the bonding strength between SiO 2 particles. An estimation of the specific surface energy of micrometer-sized ice particles, derived from the measured critical rolling friction forces and the surface energy of micrometer-sized SiO 2 particles, results in γ ice = 0.190 J m −2 .

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