Related papers: A Collisional Origin to Earth's Non-chondritic Com…
Pairwise collisions between terrestrial embryos are the dominant means of accretion during the last stage of planet formation. Hence, their realistic treatment in N-body studies is critical to accurately model the formation of terrestrial…
Numerical simulations of the stochastic end stage of planet formation typically begin with a population of embryos and planetesimals that grow into planets by merging. We analyzed the impact parameters of collisions leading to the growth of…
During the formation of rocky planets, the surface environments of growing protoplanets were dramatically different from those of present-day planets. The release of gravitational energy during accretion would have maintained a molten…
Differentiation in terrestrial planets is expected to include the formation of a metallic iron core. We predict the existence of terrestrial planets that have differentiated but have no metallic core--planets that are effectively a giant…
Chondrites are the likely building blocks of Earth, and identifying the group of chondrite that best represents Earth is a key to resolving the state of the early Earth. The origin of chondrites, however, remains controversial partly…
Meteorites are classified as either non-carbonaceous- (NC) or carbonaceous (CC), representing bodies that likely formed in the inner- or outer solar system, respectively. Despite its location in the inner solar system, the Earth is thought…
Conventional planet formation theory suggests that chondritic materials have delivered crucial atmospheric and hydrospheric elements such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and hydrogen (H) onto primitive Earth. However, recent measurements…
The Al/Si and Mg/Si ratios in non-carbonaceous chondrites are lower than the solar (i.e., CI-chondritic) values, in sharp contrast to the non-CI carbonaceous meteorites and the Earth, which are enriched in refractory elements and have Mg/Si…
Nucleosynthetic Fe isotopic anomalies in meteorites may be used to reconstruct the early dynamical evolution of the solar system and to identify the origin and nature of the material that built planets. Using high-precision iron isotopic…
It is reasonable to assume that the structure of a planet and the interior distribution of its components are determined by its formation history. We thus follow the growth of a planet from a small embryo through its subsequent evolution.…
The presence of highly siderophile elements in Earth's mantle indicates that a small percentage of Earth's mass was delivered after the last giant impact in a stage of 'late accretion.' There is ongoing debate about the nature of…
It is generally accepted that silicate-metal (`rocky') planet formation relies on coagulation from a mixture of sub-Mars sized planetary embryos and (smaller) planetesimals that dynamically emerge from the evolving circum-solar disc in the…
Previous research suggests that impacts between planetary embryos and planetesimals during the late stages of planet formation can often determine the percentages of core and mantle material that compose the newly formed planets in a…
Evidence is now compelling that most externally-polluted white dwarfs derive their heavy atoms by accretion from asteroids - the building blocks of rocky planets. Optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy of a small sample of suitable white…
Earth's water, intrinsic oxidation state, and metal core density are fundamental chemical features of our planet. Studies of exoplanets provide a useful context for elucidating the source of these chemical traits. Planet formation and…
The final stage of planet formation is dominated by collisions between planetary embryos. The dynamics of this stage determine the orbital configuration and the mass and composition of planets in the system. In the solar system, late giant…
The bulk chemical compositions of planets are uncertain, even for major elements such as Mg and Si. This is due to the fact that the samples available for study all originate from relatively shallow depths. Comparison of the stable isotope…
Understanding the origin of the Earth requires determining the original formation location of its building material. Based on the similar Fe isotopic composition of Earth's mantle and Ivuna-type (CI) chondrites, a prior study has argued…
Recently, I showed that the "standard model" of solar system formation is wrong,yielding the contradiction of terrestrial planets having insufficiently massive cores, and showed instead the consistency of Eucken's 1944 concept of planets…
The final stage of terrestrial planet formation is known as the giant impact stage where protoplanets collide with one another to form planets. So far this stage has been mainly investigated by N-body simulations with an assumption of…