Pytesimal¶
Pytesimal models the conductive cooling of planetesimals with temperature-dependent material properties.
Pytesimal is a finite difference code to perform numerical models of a conductively cooling planetesimal, both with constant and temperature-dependent properties. It returns a thermal history of the planetesimal, and the estimated timing and depth of pallasite meteorite genesis. The conduction equation is solved numerically using an explicit finite difference scheme, FTCS (Forward-Time Central-Space). FTCS gives first-order convergence in time and second-order in space, and is conditionally stable when applied to the heat equation. In 1D, it must satisfy Von Neumann stability analysis - please see Murphy Quinlan et al. (2021) for more information on choice of time-step.
The code currently recreates the cases described in Murphy Quinlan et al. (2021). References for the default parameters used can be found therein. We plan to extend it and make it more modular in future updates.
