Dr Philip J Carter

July 2026: Growing Planets Produce Extreme Dust Signatures – Carter & Leinhardt (2026)
In this paper, available on arXiv, we present simulations of giant impacts and derive a scaling law for the vaporized ejecta mass produced. We use this to show that giant impacts amongst bodies orders of magnitude larger than the mass of dust observed are required to explain extreme debris disks.
An executable version of the paper is available on GitHub.

December 2025: A ‘New Hope’ for Moon formation – Davies et al. (2025)
In this paper, published in MNRAS, we present new simulations of a the multiple-impact model of the formation of our Moon. For the first time we model the impacts in the presence of an existing moonlet and follow the evolution through multiple impacts. After a 'chain' of ~4 impacts the composition of the Earth and Moon can be more similar than in the 'canonical' scenario, providing a better match to measured compositions. See the full paper or the article in New Scientist for more detail.

March 2025: IVANS model for chondrule formation – Stewart et al. (2025)
In this paper, published in PSJ, we present the Impact Vapor And Nebular Shocks model for the formation of chondrules and chondrites. We show how high velocity collisions between planetesimals produce vapor plumes that cause shocks in the nebula capable of melting dust, and how the expansion of the plume reverses, producing mixtures matching chondrites.
See chondrules.net for more details or read the full paper.

October 2024: Exploring the catastrophic regime: thermodynamics and disintegration in head-on planetary collisions – Dou et al. (2024b)
In this paper, published in MNRAS, we investigate the thermodynamics of high-energy, head-on giant impacts. We describe a new regime of 'fragmentary disintegration' for high-energy collisions, and explore the origins of this phenomenon.

March 2024: Formation of super-Mercuries via giant impacts – Dou et al. (2024a)
In this paper, published in MNRAS, we modelled mantle-stripping in giant impacts between rocky planets. We derived new scaling relations that predict the mass and core mass resulting from impacts and discuss the collisions needed to form Mercury-like planets with high iron core masses.

August 2023: A super-massive Neptune-sized planet – Naponiello et al. (2023)
In this paper by Naponiello et al., published in Nature, we present the discovery of the ultra-dense Neptune-sized planet TOI-1853b. With a mass of 73 Earth masses and a density of 9.7 grams per cubic centimetre, TOI-1853b presents a challenge for conventional theories planet formation. Our simulations show that the initial planetary body would likely have needed to be water-rich and suffer an extreme giant impact at a speed of greater than 75 km/s in order to produce TOI-1853b as it is observed.
See also coverage from: Space.com, Phys.org.