Mixing in the Aftermath of the Giant Impact -- Implications for Planet Formation

Details Mixing in the Aftermath of the Giant Impact -- Implications for Planet Formation Mixing in the Aftermath of the Giant Impact -- Implications for Planet Formation

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.6603p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #66.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.617

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Simulations of the moon-forming impact (e.g. Canup 2004) have demonstrated that most of the material that goes into orbit comes from the impactor rather than the Earth. Measurements of lunar samples, however, reveal an oxygen isotope composition indistinguishable from the Earth, and clearly distinct from meteorites coming from Mars and Vesta.
The observed heterogeneity in the inner solar system suggests that the impactor may have had a different composition than the Earth. Modeling (Ziegler et al. 2006) of the oxygen isotope composition of terrestrial planets in the context of the standard picture of planet formation indicates that it is 'not very likely' for the proto-Earth and impactor to have had the same composition to within the current limits of detectability.
Following the giant impact, the Earth-Moon system will be largely molten and partially vaporized. Here, we show that mixing between the molten Earth and circumterrestrial disk, mediated by exchange with the common silicate vapor atmosphere, can homogenize the terrestrial and lunar reservoirs, eliminating any pre-existing isotopic differences between the proto-Earth and the impactor.
We will present results showing the disk parameters for which mixing between the Earth and the proto-lunar disk is efficient. The implications of this model for the origin of water on Earth will be discussed.

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