Synestia
Sign in to savethumb|Artistic impression A synestia is a hypothesized structure for the debris field generated by the collision of planets: a rapidly spinning doughnut-shaped mass of vaporized rock. The term was coined in 2017 by Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, taken from Hestia, goddess of the hearth, combined with syn- meaning together. In computer simulations of giant impacts of rotating objects, a synestia can form if the total angular momentum is greater than the co-rotational limit. Beyond the co-rotational limit, the velocity at the equator of a body would exceed the orbital velocity.
Article
5 sectionsContents
- Composition
- Giant-impact hypothesis
- See also
- Notes and references
- External links
thumb|Artistic impression A synestia is a hypothesized structure for the debris field generated by the collision of planets: a rapidly spinning doughnut-shaped mass of vaporized rock. The term was coined in 2017 by Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, taken from Hestia, goddess of the hearth, combined with syn- meaning together. In computer simulations of giant impacts of rotating objects, a synestia can form if the total angular momentum is greater than the co-rotational limit. Beyond the co-rotational limit, the velocity at the equator of a body would exceed the orbital velocity.
In the case of a synestia, the result is an inner region rotating at a single rate with a loosely connected torus orbiting beyond it. Synestias also have differences in the mantles, both thermally and in their composition, from previous terrestrial evolution models due partially to a lower interior pressure.