Research

I use numerical simulations of planet formation to study the earliest history of the solar system. By modeling the accretion and differentiation of Earth and Earth-like planets, we can interpret the chemical and physical characteristics of the Earth and other planetary bodies.

Varying the accretion history of the Earth

Many different astrophysics simulations can reproduce the physical properties of the inner solar system planets (masses, semi-major axes, eccentricities). However, the geochemical consequences of these numerical simulations are unclear: can these simulations reproduce the mantle of the Earth? I presented work on this at Goldschmidt Conference 2024.

nathan2023AGU_vanadium_poster.pdf

Vanadium isotopes in the accreting Earth

Vanadium composition of Earth, Mars, and chondrites shows increasing isotopic fractionation in correlation parent body mass size. This implies that a whole-body process that scales with planetary mass - such as core-formation - is responsible for this isotopic signature. We use a multi-stage core formation model to determine the effects of many stages of core formation on vanadium isotopic composition of a growing planet.

nathan2023icarus.pdf

Mars' formation

We simulate the accretion and differentiation of Earth and Mars, and constrain the origin of the building blocks of Mars to the region exterior to 1.7AU in the protoplantary disk

Fe isotopes during core formation

The effect of metal-silicate equilibration during terrestrial core formation on the Fe isotopic composition of the Earth is unclear. We model this process in a multi-stage core accretion scenario to determine the effect this has on the growing Earth's composition.

Contributing author:

dale2023icarus.pdf

Improved modeling of differentiation during Earth's accretion

K.I. Dale, D.C. Rubie, M. Nakajima, S. Jacobson, G. Nathan, G.J. Golabek, S. Cambioni, A. Morbidelli

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