Transporting solids of different sizes is an essential process in the evolution of protoplanetary disks and planet formation .
Large solids are supposed to drift inward ; high-temperature minerals found in comets are assumed to have been transported outward .
From low-gravity experiments on parabolic flights we studied the light-induced erosion of dusty bodies caused by a solid-state greenhouse effect and photophoresis within a dust bed ’ s upper layers .
Tje gravity levels studied were 0.16 g , 0.38 g , 1 g , and 1.7 g .
The light flux during the experiments was 12 \pm 2 kW m ^ { -2 } and the ambient pressure was 6 \pm 0.9 mbar .
Light-induced erosion is strongly gravity dependent , which is in agreement with a developed model .
In particular for small dusty bodies ( ( sub ) -planetesimals ) , efficient erosion is possible at the optically thin inner edges of protoplanetary disks .
Light-induced erosion prevents significant parts of a larger body from moving too close to the host star and be being subsequently accreted .
The small dust produced continues to be subject to photophoresis and is partially transported upward and outward over the surface of the disk ; the resulting small dust particles observed over the disk ’ s lifetime .
The fraction of eroded dust participates in subsequent cycles of growth during planetesimal formation .
Another fraction of dust might be collected by a body of planetary size if this body is already present close to the disk edge .
Either way , light induced erosion is an efficient recycling process in protoplanetary disks .