Robert A. Marcus et al 2009 ApJ 700 L118 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/L118
Robert A. Marcus1, Sarah T. Stewart2, Dimitar Sasselov1 and Lars Hernquist1
Show affiliationsThe 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 impacts have been proposed for Mercury, Earth, Mars, and Pluto. In the case of Mercury, this giant impact may have significantly altered the bulk composition of the planet. Here we present the results of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of high-velocity (up to ~5v esc) collisions between 1 and 10 M ⊕ planets of initially terrestrial composition to investigate the end stages of formation of extrasolar super-Earths. As found in previous simulations of collisions between smaller bodies, when collision energies exceed simple merging, giant impacts are divided into two regimes: (1) disruption and (2) hit-and-run (a grazing inelastic collision and projectile escape). Disruption occurs when the impact parameter is near zero, when the projectile mass is small compared to the target, or at extremely high velocities. In the disruption regime, we derive the criteria for catastrophic disruption (when half the total colliding mass is lost), the transition energy between accretion and erosion, and a scaling law for the change in bulk composition (iron-to-silicate ratio) resulting from collisional stripping of a mantle.
planetary systems: formation; planets and satellites: formation
96.10.+i General, solar nebula, and cosmogony
85A30 Hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic problems (See also 76Y05)
Issue 2 (2009 August 1)
Received 2009 May 15, accepted for publication 2009 June 23
Published 2009 July 13
Robert A. Marcus et al 2009 ApJ 700 L118
Robert A. Marcus et al. 2010 ApJ 712 L73
Rory Barnes et al 2009 ApJ 700 L30
P J Keall et al 2004 Phys. Med. Biol. 49 2053
Yuan-Chuan Tai et al 2003 Phys. Med. Biol. 48 1519
Toni Neicu et al 2003 Phys. Med. Biol. 48 587
S S Vedam et al 2003 Phys. Med. Biol. 48 45
B. Levrard et al 2009 ApJ 692 L9
Manuela Campanelli 2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 S387
W Fundamenski 2005 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 47 R163