The science behind steelmaking is helping us understand the formation of the planets, in a unique collaboration between researchers at Swinburne University of Technology.

Professor Geoff Brooks, from the Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences has teamed up with Dr Sarah Maddison, from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Together they are using mathematical models used for steelmaking to try and determine what compounds form during the initial stages of planet formation.

The researchers have already developed a scientific model that can be applied to the first stages of planet formation, and are now working to refine it so that it can take into account complex behaviours.

They are being helped by Vianney Taquet, a fourth year physics student from the University Paris-11, who is six weeks into a three month stint in Australia to work on the project.

While the team’s research interests appear to be worlds apart, according to Brooks they are much more closely aligned than it would seem.

“There are aspects of the science behind steelmaking that are very similar to that of planet formation. In steelmaking furnaces you will find molten metal, with a layer of crust on top. Similarly the centre of the Earth is molten metal, also with an outer crust,” he said.

The steel industry has developed models that show how extremely high temperatures can determine the grade of steel that is produced. Swinburne’s researchers are taking this know-how and applying it to the concept of planet formation.

“For example, if we look at an object that is entirely iron we are able to tell what temperature it has experienced. Working backwards, this then tells us what process it has gone through,” said Brooks.

According to Maddison, the same principles can help them understand the earliest stages of planet formation. “Meteorites represent some of the oldest material in the Solar System. Using this method we are able to pick up a meteorite and determine the physical conditions, like the temperature and density of protoplanetary disks, from which compounds in that rock formed.”