Project Description
We request funds to continue our state-of-the-art modeling of the late stage of the terrestrial planet formation process. We have developed a novel approach in which, for the first time, accurate SPH simulations of collisions (and, therefore, the transfer of water from one object to another) are carried out while the entire system is evolving and N-body orbital integrations are in progress. The objects of our focus are planetary embryos and the impact scenarios of our interest are embryo-embryo and planetesimal-embryo collisions. Our proposed plan will advance the models of the formation of Earth and the origin of its water toward a more realistic scenario, one that can be informed by geological data, produce planets with much less overestimation of mass and overabundance of water, and more reliable orbital elements. To do so, we plan to carry out simulations for different distributions of protoplanetary bodies, different water contents of planetary embryos, and different orbital configurations of giant planets. The results not only will advance terrestrial planet formation toward a realistic scenario, they will also enable us to address some of the fundamental questions that arise from the current models. Our simulations can also be extended to extrasolar planetary systems to make viable predictions.