Impact erosion of planetary atmospheres
dc.contributor.author | Walker, James C. G. | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2006-04-07T19:25:32Z | |
dc.date.available | 2006-04-07T19:25:32Z | |
dc.date.issued | 1986-10 | en_US |
dc.identifier.citation | Walker, James C. G. (1986/10)."Impact erosion of planetary atmospheres." Icarus 68(1): 87-98. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/26018> | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WGF-47314T5-1BH/2/bd78ab9dea677266c638f3ae1155b53f | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/26018 | |
dc.description.abstract | The impact of a large extraterrestrial body onto a planet deposits considerable energy in the atmosphere. If the radius of the impactor is much larger than an atmospheric scale height and its velocity much larger than the planetary escape velocity, some of the planetary atmosphere may be driven off into space. The process is analyzed theoretically in this paper. The amount of gas that escapes is equal to the amount of gas intercepted by the impacting body multiplied by a factor not very different from unity. Escape occurs only if the velocity of the impacting body exceeds the planetary escape velocity. At large impact velocities the enhancement factor, which is the factor multiplying the amount of atmosphere intercepted by the impacting body, approaches a constant value approximately equal to 1012/Ve2, where Ve is the escape velocity (in cm/sec). The enhancement factor is independent of atmospheric mass or surface pressure. Ablation of the impacting body and the planetary surface adds to the mass of gas that must be accelerated into space if escape is to occur. As a result, impact erosion of the atmosphere does not occur from a planet with an escape velocity in excess of 10 km/sec. | en_US |
dc.format.extent | 936822 bytes | |
dc.format.extent | 3118 bytes | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.format.mimetype | text/plain | |
dc.language.iso | en_US | |
dc.publisher | Elsevier | en_US |
dc.title | Impact erosion of planetary atmospheres | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |
dc.rights.robots | IndexNoFollow | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbsecondlevel | Astronomy | en_US |
dc.subject.hlbtoplevel | Science | en_US |
dc.description.peerreviewed | Peer Reviewed | en_US |
dc.contributor.affiliationum | Space Physics Research Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA | en_US |
dc.description.bitstreamurl | http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26018/1/0000089.pdf | en_US |
dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0019-1035(86)90076-X | en_US |
dc.identifier.source | Icarus | en_US |
dc.owningcollname | Interdisciplinary and Peer-Reviewed |
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