Roger Fu, MIT Graduate Student
/ education /
BA in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Astrophysics, Harvard College 2009
/ description /
I joined the paleomagnetism lab in spring 2011. My current work focuses on characterizing the magnetic fields in the early solar system. These ancient fields may have strung through the ionized gas of the protosolar disk or were generated by core dynamos in the earliest planetary embryos. In either case, knowledge of these magnetic fields helps us tell the story of how a giant cloud dust and gas became the solar system with which we are familiar today.
I am running several projects in parallel. All of them revolve around understanding the early solar and the process of accretion. One project involves measuring some of the earliest solids in the solar system- chondritic meteorites- for traces of the magnetic field of the primordial protosolar disk. The nature of these magnetic fields have broad implications for the dynamics of the protosolar disk and accretion as a whole. I'm also modeling self-gravity-driven deformation of large asteroids, especially 4 Vesta, during their early history. Internal heating of asteroids shortly after their formation may have led to global-scale deformation and faulting, much like the tectonic processes observed on the terrestrial planets and icy satellites.
In the past I have worked on asteroid dynamos, the interior dynamics of icy super-Earths, phyllosilicates on Mars, X-ray observations of distant galaxies, molecules in circumstellar envelopes, and the indigenous astronomy of the Pewenche people of South America. I still work on some of these topics part-time. Email me if you'd like to chat about anything on (or not on) this page!
/ email /
rogerfu@MIT.EDU
/ mailing address /
54-712
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
/ phone numbers /
(510) 304-9435
/ list of publications /
R. R. Fu, B. P. Weiss, D. L. Shuster, J. Gattacceca, T. L. Grove, C. Suavet, E. A. Lima, L. Li, A. T. Kuan (2012) An Ancient Core Dynamo in Asteroid Vesta, Science, 338, 238-241 / link / / supplementary information /
R. R. Fu and B. P. Weiss (2012) Detrital remanent magnetization in the solar nebula, Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets, 117, E02003 / link /
R. R. Fu, A. Moullet, N. A. Patel, J. Biersteker, K. L. Derose, K. H. Young (2012) Arcsecond resolution mapping of Sulfur Dioxide emission in the circumstellar envelope of VY Canis Majoris, The Astrophysical Journal, 746:42, 1-12 / link /
R. Fu, R.J. O'Connell, and D.D. Sasselov (2010) The Interior Dynamics of Water Planets, The Astrophysical Journal, 807, 1326-1334 / link /
E. Z. Noe Dobrea, J. L. Bishop, N. K. McKeown, R. Fu, et al (2010) Mineralogy and stratigraphy of phyllosilicate‐bearing and dark mantling units in the greater Mawrth Vallis/west Arabia Terra area: Constraints on geological origin, Journal of Geophysical Research, 115
G. Trinchieri, S. Pellegrini, G. Fabbiano, R. Fu, N. J. Brassington et al. (2008) Discovery of Hot Gas in Outflow in NGC 3379, The Astrophysical Journal, 688, 1000-1008