Research Interests
Effects of impacts on atmospheres of terrestrial planets
Impacts play a key role in shaping the atmospheric composition of rocky planets. For instance, new chemical species can form from reactions induced by shock-heating upon formation of the vapor plume and its interaction with the atmosphere. Questions that have not been addressed are: which species are formed from the atmosphere-plume interaction? In what amount are those species formed? How do those species depend on the composition of both the projectile and the target? Answering the above questions would shed light on the net effect that impacts’ plume chemistry has on atmospheric composition and evolution. From the impactor flux for a given planet, it would be possible to reconstruct the history for abundances of specific compounds. Given the ubiquitous nature of impacts, results can be applied to the Solar System terrestrial planets as well as to rocky exoplanets for which impactor flux models are available. Furthermore, the formation of prebiotic compounds can put constraints on the potential for specific projectile/target compositions to create conditions for carbon-based life to develop.
I am interested in investigating the interaction between vapor plume and background atmosphere to quantify the net production of prebiotic species (HCN, NH3, CH4) from the impactor flux on terrestrial planets, to understand the astrobiological potential of impacts on solar and extra solar system rocky worlds. I couple shock physics and kinetics models to estimate the chemical outcome of this interaction, and assess how their abundance depends on impact scenario and target atmosphere.
Gaseous planet atmospheres
Outer planets played a critical role in shaping the architecture of our solar system. In their similarity of being comprises of mainly gas, those planets are differ from each other as a result of their formation and evolutionary pathway. Notably, a large number of exoplanets fall in the gaseous planet size category. Therefore, characterizing gas and ice giants is key to enable comparative planetology with extra solar planets.
I am interested in characterizing their atmospheric composition and evolution by coupling remote sensing data and radiative transfer modeling, to understand what processes influence their variability.
Thermal evolution of lava worlds
During accretion, terrestrial planets are subject to high energy impacts that melt the solid surface, generating a magma ocean. Being an ubiquitous process in planetary formation, rocky worlds undergo a magma ocean stage, including our own solar system inner planets. The magma ocean formation and crystallization is believed to set the planet’s geologic history, including core formation, tectonics initiation, magnetic field presence and volatiles distribution in the mantle and the atmosphere. Therefore, understanding the thermal evolution of lava worlds can help us understand the past history of rocky planets in our solar system, as well as the present and future state of exoplanets having an extant magma ocean.
I build thermal evolution model to understand how the magma ocean crystallization is affected by non-synchronous rotation, e.g., when the planet is in a spin-orbit resonance. Furthermore, I am interested in predicting the chemistry occurring at the interface of surface and atmosphere, which has important implications for volatile partitioning and habitability.
Mission formulation
Space missions enable unmatchable data collection to expand our understanding of the Universe. Reminiscent of my aerospace background, I am deeply interested in mission design, starting from the scientific question to be answered and arriving to a set of instrument and measurements that provide an answer to those questions, contributing to the advancement of the field of planetary sciences.