The energy budget and figure of Earth during recovery from the Moon-forming giant impact

Lock, Simon J.; Stewart, Sarah T.; Ćuk, Matija

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115885

The energy budget and figure of Earth during recovery from the Moon-forming giant impact

Journal Article · Wed Oct 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Earth and Planetary Science Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115885· OSTI ID:1801143

^[1]; Stewart, Sarah T. ^[2]; Ćuk, Matija ^[3]

California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); OSTI
Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA (United States)

Quantifying the energy budget of Earth in the first few million years following the Moon-forming giant impact is vital to understanding Earth's initial thermal state and the dynamics of lunar tidal evolution. After the impact, the body was substantially vaporized and rotating rapidly, very different from the planet we know today. The subsequent evolution of Earth's energy budget, as the body cooled and angular momentum was transferred during lunar tidal recession, has not been accurately calculated with all relevant energy components included. In this work, we use giant impact simulations and planetary structure models to calculate the energy budget at stages in Earth's evolution. We show that the figure and internal structure of Earth changed substantially during its post-impact evolution and that changes in kinetic, potential, and internal energy were all significant. These changes have important implications for the dynamics of tidal recession and the thermal structure of early Earth.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: NESSF; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0002937

OSTI ID:: 1801143

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1775733

Journal Information:: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Journal Name: Earth and Planetary Science Letters Journal Issue: C Vol. 530; ISSN 0012-821X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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The Energy Budgets of Giant Impacts Carter, P. J.; Lock, S. J.; Stewart, S. T. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Vol. 125, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019je006042	journal	January 2020
The energy budgets of giant impacts Carter, Philip J.; Lock, Simon J.; Stewart, Sarah T. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1912.04936	text	January 2019

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