Why is Mercury so far from the Sun? | astrobites
https://astrobites.org/2016/08/12/why-is-mercury-so-far-from-the-sun/
Our solar system is different from many others. While Mercury never gets closer than 0.3 AU from the Sun, many of the exoplanets we have
discovered make our closest planet look distant. About 50% of all systems have multiple planets tightly packed within that distance,
leaving astronomers to wonder why our solar system and the other half of planetary systems do not have any close-in planets.
It is a common quip in planet formation and protoplanetary disks that if you have any type of problem whatsoever that you do not understand,
you should try to solve it with magnetic fields! The author of this paper – Jake Simon – puts this problem-solving technique to good use.
Simon specifically asks: Does a disk’s magnetic field alignment affect whether planetesimals can form at less than 0.3 AU?
