Related papers: Forming Mercury by Giant Impacts
The proposed multi-impact model explains the formation of the Moon, Charon, and binary asteroids without invoking catastrophic cosmic events. The main elements of the new model are as follows: a. A primordial, low-mass proto-satellite disk…
Almost all meteorite impacts occur at oblique incidence angles, but the effect of impact angle on crater size is not well understood, especially for large craters. To improve oblique impact crater scaling, we present a suite of simulations…
The solar system planets are benchmarks for the planet formation theory. Yet two paradigms coexist for the four terrestrial planets: the prolonged collisional growth among planetesimals lasting $>100$ million years (Myr) and the fast…
The rate at which giant planets accumulate solids and gas is a critical component of planet formation models, yet it is extremely challenging to predict from first principles. Characterizing the heavy element (everything other than hydrogen…
The Earths core formation process has decisive effect in the chemical differentiation between the Earths core and its mantle. Here, we propose a new core formation model which is caused by a special giant impact. This model suggests that…
Impactors of different types and sizes can produce a final crater of the same diameter on a planet under certain conditions. We derive the condition for such "isocrater impacts" from scaling laws, as well as relations that describe how the…
The Earth's Moon is thought to have formed by an impact between the Earth and an impactor around 4.5 billion years ago. This impact could have been so energetic that it could have mixed and homogenized the Earth's mantle. However, this view…
The probability of the formation and decay of a dinuclear system is investigated for a wide range of relative orbital angular momentum values. The mass and angular distributions of the quasifission fragments are studied to understand the…
The meteoritical record shows both iron partitioning and tungsten isotopic partitioning between matrix and chondrules. Tungsten is not abundant enough to have driven its own isotopic partitioning, but if tungsten were correlated with iron,…
The giant impact hypothesis is the dominant theory explaining the formation of our Moon. However, its inability to produce an isotopically similar Earth-Moon system with correct angular momentum has cast a shadow on its validity.…
Recent high-precision measurements of the isotopic composition of lunar rocks demonstrate that the bulk silicate Earth and the Moon show an unexpectedly high degree of similarity. This is inconsistent with one of the primary results of…
Impact bombardment on Mercury in the solar system late accretion phase (ca. 4.4 to 3.8 Ga) caused considerable mechanical, chemical and thermal reworking of its silicate reservoirs (crust and mantle). Depending on the frequency, size and…
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…
The Moon is traditionally thought to have coalesced from the debris ejected by a giant impact onto the early Earth. However, such models struggle to explain the similar isotopic compositions of Earth and lunar rocks at the same time as the…
The bulk density of a planet, as measured by mass and radius, is a result of planet structure and composition. Relative proportions of iron core, rocky mantle, and gaseous envelopes are degenerate for a given density. This degeneracy is…
Giant impacts have been suggested to explain various characteristics of terrestrial planets and their moons. However, so far in most models only the immediate effects of the collisions have been considered, while the long-term interior…
Because of the high energies involved, giant impacts that occur during planetary accretion cause large degrees of melting. The depth of melting in the target body after each collision determines the pressure and temperature conditions of…
Numerous exoplanets with masses ranging from Earth to Neptune and radii larger than Earth have been found through observations. These planets possess atmospheres that range in mass fractions from 1% to 30%, reflecting the diversity of…
The last phase of the formation of rocky planets is dominated by collisions among Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos. Simulations of this phase need to handle the difficulty of including the post-impact material without saturating the…
According to planetary interior models, some giant planets contain large metal masses with large metal-mass fractions. HD 149026b and TOI-849b are characteristic examples of these giant planets. It has been suggested that the envelope mass…