Estimating the characteristics of ejecta from magma ocean for water production on the protoplanet
Speaker: Akifumi Matsumura
Abstract:
How water is delivered to rocky planets during the planet-forming stage is a major issue in planetary science. While many previous studies considered water delivery by icy planetesimals, we consider water production by chemical interaction between the primordial atmosphere and the surface of the magma ocean of a rocky planet growing through planetesimal accretion. Previous studies based on this idea assumed that iron oxides in the magma ocean and atmospheric hydrogen are always in constant contact, which must be examined; namely, we need to consider properly how to bring the magma into contact with the atmosphere. In this study, we focus on the reaction between the atmospheric gas and the materials ejected from the magma ocean when planetesimals collide with the magma ocean surface during the growth phase of a planet. I am currently studying the scatter of magma upon the impact of planetesimals on the planet’s surface and its influence on the atmospheric composition. In this talk, I will describe our progress in the research to date and future research plans.