Planetary Science Laboratory
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester
Team
I am a planetary scientist and an assistant professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (primary), Physics and Astronomy (secondary), Laboratory for Laser Energetics (secondary) at the University of Rochester.
We are studying origin and evolution of planets and moons in the solar system and beyond.
Miki Nakajima
Assistant Professor
Graduate Students
Scott D. Hull
The Moon likely formed from the gravitational collapse of a dust and vapor disk created by a "giant impact" event in which the Earth and a Mars-sized body collided. I use smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations to model real-time giant impact events with the Earth, and then assess both the dynamics and the geochemical outcomes of the model. These studies have implications for understanding the energies and dynamics required to form the observable Earth-Moon system and beyond.
Sarah Harter
I use shock compression experiments at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) to recreate these high density and pressure environments to be recreate planetary interior conditions. From these calculations, I would also like to understand how planetary magnetic fields evolve over time in Earth and other planets in the solar system and beyond.
I use a shock physics code called iSALE (impact Simplified Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) to computationally recreate the Sudbury basin crater. Understanding Sudbury's formation channel enhances our knowledge of geology as a result of catastrophic event which in turn constrains our current interpretation of Earth's formation. My goal is to progress from impact analysis and apply it to research in planetary crustal formation and evolution.
Nicolas Litza
I am a first-year graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and a former undergraduate at the University of Rochester. I have a broad range of interests in astrophysics and planetary science, and my work with Professor Nakajima was recreating the Vredefort impact, Earth’s largest verified impact crater, using iSALE simulations and comparing those results to geophysical evidence. My PhD work is focused on exoplanets, particularly atmospheres and astrobiology.
I was an undergrad at the University of Rochester, majoring in Physics and Astronomy. I have been working on the simulation of large impact events, specifically the Imbrium Basin, using iSALE shock code. Analysis of the ejecta curtains created from each event yields pressure and temperature distributions that can be related to physical evidence.
Undergraduate Students
Arnav Sharma
Natalie Allen (JHU)
Soren Helhoski (Brown U.)
Angel Paz
Postdoctoral Scholars
Victor Lherm
My research interests lie primarily in the formation and evolution of planetary interiors using experimental, numerical and analytical methods in fluid dynamics. My research is dealing with heat and chemical partitioning between metal and silicates during the formation of terrestrial planets. I mainly focus on mixing processes responsible for metal-silicate equilibration in early magma oceans, both during planetary impacts and in the following post-impact flow. I am also interested in the origin of the early Earth magnetic field, investigating in particular dynamo simulations in an early magma ocean.
Ian Szumila
I am interested in the impact process and shocked minerals especially zircon and its high pressure polymorph, reidite. My research involves studying how the impact process affects microstructural and geochemical signatures in minerals from target rock or produced in a melt sheet. By applying machine learning techniques to geochemical datasets, I can learn and identify new patterns in mineral trace element geochemistry. Experimental work to understand isotope fractionations driven by diffusion, shock, or other processes and the geochemical insights provided is another theme of my research. (Co-Mentoring with Prof. Dustin Trail)
Alumni
Jeremy Atkins Undergraduate student, 2018 -- 2021
Pham Nguyen Graduate student, 2019 -- 2020
Tyler Labree REU Summer student, 2019
research
My goal is to build theoretical models to explain geochemical, geophysical, and astronomical observations. My research focuses on the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets. Click the images below for details!
classes
Physics of Planetary Interiors (2019, 2020, 2022)
Geodynamics (2019, 2021)
Designing your space mission (2020, 2021)
simulations
moon formation
According to the canonical model, the proto-Earth was hit by a Mars-sized object approximately 4.5 billion years ago. The movie below shows entropy of the mantle (the extent of shock heating) in the red-yellow colors and iron core in grey. We developed a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code from the ground up where a fluid is expressed as a collection of spherical particles.
Feel free to download the movie from here: [canonical - entropy]
Please cite Nakajima and Stevenson (2014, 2015).
It may take a few seconds to load the movies ... please stay patient!
Canonical Moon-forming impact
Canonical Moon-forming impact
Canonical impact model
A number of impact models have been suggested, including (1) canonical model, where the proto-Earth is hit by a Mars-sized impactor, (2) fast-spinning Earth model, where the rapidly rotating proto-Earth is hit by a small impactor, (3) half-Earths model, where two half-Earth objects collide, and (4) multiple impact model, where the Moon formed out of multiple small impacts.
We perform numerical simulations to represent (1)-(3) models as below. The green and yellow represent the mantle of the proto-Earth and impactor, whereas grey and white represent their iron cores, respectively.
Feel free to download the movie from here:
[canonical - material] [fast-spinning Earth - material] [half-Earths - material]
Moon-forming impact models
Moon-forming impact models
Canonical impact model
Fast-spinning Earth
Half-Earths model
selected publications
peer-reviewed
Green indicates contributions from the team members
Allen, N., Nakajima, M., Wuennemann, K., Helhoski, S., and Trail, D. Modeling the Vredefort Crater impact with iSALE. Submitted.
Canup, R., Righter, K., Dauphas, N., Pahlevan, K., Cuk, M., Lock, S. J., Stewart, S. T., Salmon, J., Rufu, R., Nakajima, M., Magna, T. Origin of the Moon, New Views of the Moon II. in press.
Nakajima, M., and Genda, H., Asphaug, E. I., and Ida, S. Large planets may not form fractionally large moons. Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 568 [Nature Communications].
Tarduno, J. A., Cottrell, R. D., Lawrence, K., Bono, R. K., Huang, W., Johnson, C. L., Blackman, E. G., Smirnov, A. V., Nakajima, M., Neal, C. R., Zhou, T., Ibanez-Mejia, M., Oda, H., and Crummins, B., 2021. Absence of a long-lived lunar paleomagnetosphere. Science Advances, 7, eabi7647. [Science Advances]
Nakajima, M., Golabek, G. J., Wuennemann, K., Rubie, D. C., Burger, C., Melosh, H. J., Jacobson, S. A., Manske, L., Hull, S. D. 2021. Scaling laws for the geometry of an impact-induced magma ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 568, 116983. [SienceDirect][arXiv]
Quillen, A. C., Zaidouni, F., Nakajima, M., Wright, E., 2021. Accretion of Ornamental Equatorial Ridges on Pan, Atlas and Daphnis. Icarus, 357, 114260. [Icarus]
Wright, E., Quillen, A. C., South, J., Nelson, R. C., Sánchez, P., Martini, L., Schwartz, S. R., Nakajima, M., Asphaug, E. 2020. Boulder stranding in ejecta launched by an impact generated seismic pulse. Icarus, 337, 113424. [ScienceDirect]
Quillen, A. C., Martini, L., and Nakajima, M., 2019. Near/far side asymmetry in the tidally heated Moon. Icarus, 329, 182-196. [ScienceDirect]
Nakajima, M., and Stevenson, D. J., 2018. Inefficient volatile loss from the Moon-forming disk: reconciling the giant impact hypothesis and a wet Moon. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 478, 117-126. [ScienceDirect]
Jacobson, S. A., Rubie, D. C., Hernlund, J., Morbidellie, A., and Nakajima, M., 2017. Formation, Stratification and Mixing of the Cores of Earth and Venus. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 474, 375-386. [ScienceDirect]
Hauri, E. H., Saal, A. E., Nakajima, M., Anand, M., Rutherford, M. J., Van Orman, J. A., and Le Voyer, M., 2017. Origin and Evolution of Water in the Moon's Interior. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 45, 89-111. [Annual Reviews]
Nakajima, M., and Ingersoll, A. P., 2016. Controlled boiling on Enceladus. 1. Model of the vapor-driven jets. Icarus, 272, 309-318. [ScienceDirect]
Ingersoll, A. P., and Nakajima, M., Controlled boiling on Enceladus. 2. Model of the liquid-filled cracks. Icarus, 272, 319-326. [ScienceDirect]
Nakajima, M., and Stevenson, D. J., 2015. Melting and Mixing States of the Earth’s Mantle after the Moon-Forming Impact, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 427, 286-95.
Nakajima, M., Stevenson, D. J., 2014. Investigation of the Initial State of the Moon- Forming Disk: Bridging SPH Simulations and Hydrostatic Models. Icarus, 233, 259-267.
Nakajima, M., 2016. Core Science: Stratified by a Sunken Impactor. Nature Geoscience, News & Views, 9, 734-735. [Nature Geoscience]
Nakajima, M., and Stevenson, D. J. Dynamical mixing of planetary cores by giant impacts.
other publications
in preparation
contact
Phone: (585) 276-6617
Address: 227 Hutchison Hall, P.O. Box 270221
Rochester NY, 14627