Determine the ejecta-radius distribution in dust-cloud impacts

Determine the primary-ejecta radius produced under realistic high-velocity debris-dust impacts on planetesimals, in order to constrain the resulting dust-cloud thickness and chondrule-conversion efficiency.

Background

The dust-cloud model adopts a fiducial primary-ejecta radius of 5 mm, but the authors state that this value is not constrained. Because the cloud thickness scales with the ejecta stopping time and therefore with ejecta radius, the assumed radius directly affects the modeled chondrule-production efficiency.

The paper indicates that smaller ejecta produce thinner clouds and lower conversion efficiencies, leaving the physical ejecta size distribution as an unresolved experimental issue.

References

However, this choice is not constrained, and in practice $R_{\rm ej}$ should be determined by future detailed experiments.

— The dust-rich, gas-depleted protosolar disk as the birthplace of chondrules  (2608.16204 - Arakawa et al., 17 Aug 2026) in Appendix A.4, Section “Dependence on the ejecta radius”