Related papers: Thermal evolution of the early Moon
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…
Sub-Neptunes and Neptunes are often modeled with distinct, fully convective layers. Yet, there are several arguments for compositions gradients that can inhibit convection. In these regions, energy transport depends on the thermal…
Late accretion is a process that strongly modulated surface geomorphic and geochemical features of Mercury. Yet, the fate of the impactors and their effects on Mercury's surface through the bombardment epoch are not clear. Using Monte-Carlo…
We report on simulations of the formation of the first stars in the Universe, where we identify regions of hot atomic gas (fH2 < 10-6) at densities above 10-14 g/cc, heated to temperatures ranging between 3000 and 8000 K. Within this…
Traditional thermal evolution models of giant planets employ arbitrary initial conditions selected more for computational expediency than physical accuracy. Since the initial conditions are eventually forgotten by the evolving planet, this…
A better understanding of the ice-ocean couplings is required to better characterise the hydrosphere of the icy moons. Using global numerical simulations in spherical geometry, we have investigated here the interplay between rotating…
In the core accretion model, gas-giant planets first form a solid core, which then accretes gas from a protoplanetary disk when the core exceeds a critical mass. Here, we model the atmosphere of a core that grows by accreting ice-rich…
Analysis of Callisto's moments of inertia, derived from Galileo's gravity data, suggests that its structure is not fully differentiated. This possibly undifferentiated state contrasts sharply with the globally molten state inferred in its…
Understanding the physics of planetary magma oceans has been the subject of growing efforts, in light of the increasing abundance of Solar system samples and extrasolar surveys. A rocky planet harboring such an ocean is likely to interact…
The object that resulted in the creation of the Moon started in the same orbital path as Earth around the Sun, but at Earth's L4. This proto-Moon (PM) was 4 times less massive than the usual Giant Impact (GI) object "Theia" and was captured…
The timeline of the lunar bombardment in the first Gy of the Solar System remains unclear. Some basin-forming impacts occurred 3.9-3.7Gy ago. Many other basins formed before, but their exact ages are not precisely known. There are two…
Impacts between planetesimals have largely been ruled out as a heat source in the early Solar System, by calculations that show them to be an inefficient heat source and unlikely to cause global heating. However, the long-term, localized…
We study protoplanetary disc evolution assuming that angular momentum transport is driven by gravitational instability at large radii, and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the hot inner regions. At radii of the order of 1 AU such…
According to the giant impact theory, the Moon formed by accreting the circum-terrestrial debris disk produced by Theia colliding with the proto-Earth. The giant impact theory can explain most of the properties of the Earth-Moon system,…
The pre-main-sequence evolution of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs is studied numerically starting from the formation of a protostellar/proto-brown dwarf seed and taking into account the mass accretion onto the central object during the…
A magma ocean is expected to exist on the dayside of tide-locked planets if surface temperature exceeds the melting temperature of typical crust. As highly prioritized targets for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), more information…
The discovery of protoplanets and circumplanetary disks provides a unique opportunity to characterize planet formation through observations. Massive protoplanets shape the physical and chemical structure of their host circumstellar disk by…
We build a conceptual coupled model of the climate and tidal evolution of the Earth-Moon system to find the influence of the former on the latter. An energy balance model is applied to calculate steady-state temperature field from the mean…
We investigate the properties of the first galaxies at z > 10 with highly resolved numerical simulations, starting from cosmological initial conditions and taking into account all relevant primordial chemistry and cooling. A first galaxy is…
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…