Collège De France (général)

Alessandro MorbidelliChaire Formation planétaire : de la Terre aux exoplanètesCollège de FranceAnnée 2025-2026David NesvornýConférence - David Nesvorný : Formation of Equal-Size Binaries in the Kuiper BeltDavid NesvornýSouthwest Research Institute, USARésuméA critical step in the emergence of planets within a protoplanetary disk is the accretion of planetesimals - bodies ranging from 1 to 1,000 kilometers in size - formed from smaller solid constituents. However, this process remains poorly understood, largely due to limited observational constraints on the complex physical mechanisms involved in planetesimal formation. In the outer Solar System, the best place to look for clues is the Kuiper belt, where a population of icy planetesimals survived to this day. We present evidence that Kuiper Belt planetesimals formed via the streaming instability, a process in which aerodynamically concentrated clumps of pebbles undergo gravitational collapse to form 100-kilometer-class bodies. This mechanism explains the high