Fig. 4: Numerical results of vapour expansion and condensation processes.
From: Pollution resistance of Saturn’s ring particles during micrometeoroid impact
a, Silicate vapour expansion (SiO2 ANEOS EOS): (i) T−P evolution; (ii) 1/ρvap−T evolution. Black lines correspond to cases of vimp = 30, 40 and 50 km s–1 cases, as marked. The initial conditions are obtained from the impact simulations. b, The same as a but for the case of water vapour (five-phase H2O EOS). In all cases of water vapour, because the vapour density is too low when the system reaches the two-phase boundary, viable nucleation hardly occurs, remaining as neutral/ionized atoms and/or molecules. The grey lines in a (i) and b (i) indicate the two-phase boundary. The blue and red lines in a (ii) and b (ii) indicate the two-phase boundaries that separate the liquid and vapour regions from the liquid–vapour region, respectively (the vapour dome). The Hugoniot curve for vimp = 5− 52 km s–1 is displayed with orange lines, and open circles are plotted at intervals of 1 km s–1.
