ITC Seminar - Patrick Mullen (Illinois)

Abstract: The canonical giant impact hypothesis suggests that ~4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized impactor struck the proto-Earth in an off-centered collision. The impact debris, comprised of melted and vaporized silicates, wraps around the proto-Earth forming a Keplerian disk.  From this "protolunar disk”, the Moon is thought to have formed. This talk aims to investigate the role of magnetic fields in a giant impact scenario.  Specifically, I will describe a suite of 3-D numerical MHD simulations that study the amplification of magnetic field strengths due to the giant impact and the early evolution of the protolunar disk.