Planetary Science Colloquium
发布时间：2026-04-07 | 【 大 中 小 】
发布时间：2026-04-07 | 【 大 中 小 】 | 【打印】 【关闭】
- Title: Impact-Induced Core Heating and ItsImplications for Habitable Planets
- Speaker: You Zhou
- Date & Time: Tuesday, April 7, 2026
- Time: 10:00 AM
- Venue: Large Meeting Room, 3rd Floor
- Tencent Meeting: 632-779-907AbstractGiant impacts fundamentally influence the thermal evolution of terrestrial planets and their habitability. Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations, we show that such impacts can generate a superheated core, whose subsequent cooling drives sustained secondary mantle melting. This process efficiently homogenizes mantle heterogeneities and leads to diverse evolutionary outcomes, including whole-mantle melting, basal melt layer formation, or early plume activity. Importantly, core superheating can significantly delay the onset of a core dynamo, thereby altering the timing of magnetic field generation. These results highlight the critical role of impact-induced core heating in regulating the long-term habitability of rocky planets.
About the SpeakerDr. You Zhou is an Associate Professor and Ph.D. supervisor, and a member of the Planetary Physics Committee of the Chinese Geophysical Society. His research focuses on numerical simulations of high-velocity planetary impacts, with particular emphasis on their roles in shaping planetary initial composition, internal structure, and early evolutionary states. In recent years, he has led four projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and one subproject of the National Key Research and Development Program. He has published more than 20 papers as first or corresponding author in leading journals, including Astronomy & Astrophysics and Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Looking forward to seeing you there and engaging in a productive discussion.Best regards,Shengxia Gong
