Dynamics of self-gravitating dust clouds in astrophysical plasmas

Abstract

Due to the gravitational force, clouds of dust and gas in the interstellar medium can contract and form stars and planet systems. We here show that if the dust grains are electrically charged then the self‐gravitation can be balanced by the ion pressure, and the collapse can be halted. In this case, the dust cloud may form soft dust planets, having the weight of a small moon or satellite, but a radius larger than of our Sun. There exist a critical mass beyond which the dust cloud collapses and forms a solid planet.