
Synestia
Sign in to savethumb|Artistic impression A synestia is a hypothesized structure for the debris field generated by the collision of planets: a rapidly spinning doughnut-shaped mass of vaporized rock. The term was coined in 2017 by Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, taken from Hestia, goddess of the hearth, combined with syn- meaning together. In computer simulations of giant impacts of rotating objects, a synestia can form if the total angular momentum is greater than the co-rotational limit. Beyond the co-rotational limit, the velocity at the equator of a body would exceed the orbital velocity.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 172 inbound references to Synestia, and connects out to Earth, Moon and planet.
It is catalogued under topics including Hypothetical astronomical objects, Hypothetical bodies of the Solar System and Rotation.
Vinony links it to 10 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Synestia artistic recreation-bpk.jpg
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Composition
- Giant-impact hypothesis
- See also
- Notes and references
- External links
thumb|Artistic impression A synestia is a hypothesized structure for the debris field generated by the collision of planets: a rapidly spinning doughnut-shaped mass of vaporized rock. The term was coined in 2017 by Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, taken from Hestia, goddess of the hearth, combined with syn- meaning together. In computer simulations of giant impacts of rotating objects, a synestia can form if the total angular momentum is greater than the co-rotational limit. Beyond the co-rotational limit, the velocity at the equator of a body would exceed the orbital velocity.
In the case of a synestia, the result is an inner region rotating at a single rate with a loosely connected torus orbiting beyond it. Synestias also have differences in the mantles, both thermally and in their composition, from previous terrestrial evolution models due partially to a lower interior pressure.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Synestia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.