Related papers: Forming Iron-rich Planets with Giant Impacts
We use new interior models of cold planets to investigate the mass-radius relationships of solid exoplanets, considering planets made primarily of iron, silicates, water, and carbon compounds. We find that the mass-radius relationships for…
Observations of exoplanetary spectra are leading to unprecedented constraints on their atmospheric elemental abundances, particularly O/H, C/H, and C/O ratios. Recent studies suggest that elemental ratios could provide important constraints…
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…
Direct imaging (DI) surveys suggest that gas giants beyond 20 AU are rare around FGK stars. However, it is not clear what this means for the formation frequency of Gravitational Instability (GI) protoplanets due to uncertainties in gap…
As a formation route for objects such as giant planets and low-mass stars in protostellar discs (as well as stars in AGN discs), theories of self-gravitating disc fragmentation need to be able to predict the initial masses of fragments. We…
Rubble-pile asteroids can form through the self-gravitational reaccumulation of fragments produced during large-scale collisions. To investigate how differentiated bodies are disrupted and how iron-rich rubble piles may form, we performed…
Head-on giant impacts (collisions between planet-size bodies) are frequently used to study the planet formation process as they present an extreme configuration where the two colliding bodies are greatly disturbed. With limited computing…
Although current sensitivity limits are such that true Solar System analogs remain challenging to detect, numerous planetary systems have been discovered that are very different from our own Solar System. The majority of systems harbor a…
Models based on variable miscibility among hydrogen, molten silicate, and molten iron, coupled with atmospheric escape, can reproduce the observed occurrence density structure of sub-Neptunes and super-Earths in mass-radius space. The…
At present, the giant impact (GI) is the most widely accepted model for the origin of the Moon. Most of the numerical simulations of GI have been carried out with the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. Recently, however, it has…
We present a new numerical framework to model the formation and evolution of giant planets. The code is based on the further development of the stellar evolution toolkit Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). The model…
We explore volcanic outgassing on purely rocky, stagnant-lid exoplanets of different interior structures, compositions, thermal states, and age. We focus on planets in the mass range of 1-8 ME (Earth masses). We derive scaling laws to…
Exomoons orbiting terrestrial or super-terrestrial exoplanets have not yet been discovered; their possible existence and properties are therefore still an unresolved question. Here we explore the collisional formation of exomoons through…
In recent years, many wide orbit circumbinary giant planets have been discovered; some of these may have formed by gravitational fragmentation of circumbinary discs. The aim of this work is to investigate the lower mass limit for…
We investigate the coupling between rock-size solids and gas during the formation of gas giant planets by disk fragmentation in the outer regions of massive disks. In this study, we use three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamics simulations…
We model large-scale ($\approx$2000km) impacts on a Mars-like planet using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code. The effects of material strength and of using different Equations of State on the post-impact material and temperature…
Recent exoplanet surveys revealed that for solar-type stars, close-in Super-Earths are ubiquitous and many of them are in multi-planet systems. These systems are more compact than the Solar System's terrestrial planets. However, there have…
Mercury's core mass fraction (CMF) is ~0.7, more than double that of the other rocky planets in the solar system, which have CMFs of ~0.3. The origin of Mercury's large, iron-rich core remains unknown. Adding to this mystery, an elusive…
The stellar mass dependence of the unbiased giant planet occurrence rate may be the best statistical tool to constrain the formation of such planets. This rate rises and falls as a function of stellar mass, peaking around stars of $\sim…
Systems of close-in super-Earths display striking diversity in planetary bulk density and composition. Giant impacts are expected to play a role in the formation of many of these worlds. Previous works, focused on the mechanical shock…