SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Tong Fang

Publications and source records attributed to Tong Fang.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

SatSurfGS: Generalizable 2D Gaussian Splatting for Sparse-View Satellite Surface Reconstruction

Sparse-view satellite image surface reconstruction remains highly challenging, fundamentally because the reliability of multi-view matching under satellite imaging conditions is strongly spatially heterogeneous. Affected by large photometric differences, weak textures, and repetitive textures, multi-view geometric constraints are often sparse, unevenly distributed, and locally unreliable. Although 2D Gaussian Splatting (2DGS) is more suitable than 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) for the explicit representation of continuous surfaces, research on generalizable feed-forward 2DGS frameworks for sparse-view satellite surface reconstruction is still lacking. To address this issue, we propose SatSurfGS, a generalizable sparse-view surface reconstruction method for satellite imagery based on 2DGS. The proposed method builds a coarse-to-fine Gaussian attribute prediction framework and explicitly models local geometric reliability at three levels: feature learning, Gaussian parameter estimation, and training optimization. Specifically, we propose a confidence-aware monocular multi-view feature fusion module to adaptively integrate monocular priors and multi-view matching features according to local confidence; a cross-stage self-consistency residual guidance module to stabilize stage-wise Gaussian parameter refinement using the residual between the rendered height map from the previous stage and the current-stage MVS height map, together with confidence information; and a confidence bidirectional routing loss to achieve differentiated allocation of geometric and appearance supervision. Experiments on satellite datasets show that the proposed method achieves improved rendering quality, surface reconstruction accuracy, cross-dataset generalization, and inference efficiency compared with representative generalizable baselines and competitive per-scene optimization methods.

cs.CV

The Moon-forming Impact as a Constraint for the Inner Solar System's Formation

The solar system planets are benchmarks for the planet formation theory. Yet two paradigms coexist for the four terrestrial planets: the prolonged collisional growth among planetesimals lasting $>100$ million years (Myr) and the fast formation via planetesimals accreting pebbles within 10 Myr. Despite their dramatic difference, we can hardly tell which theory is more relevant to the true history of the terrestrial planets' formation. Here, we show that the Moon's origin puts stringent constraints on the pebble accretion scenario, rendering it less favourable. In the pebble accretion model, the one-off giant impact between proto-Earth and Theia rarely (probability $<$ 1\textperthousand) occurs at the right timing and configuration for the Moon formation. Even if a potential impact happens by chance, giant impact simulations reveal perfect mixing between proto-Earth and Theia, leaving no room for the observed primordial Earth mantle heterogeneity and the compositional difference, though small, between Earth and the Moon. Thus, the Earth-Moon system along other terrestrial planets should preferably form from chaotic collisional growth in the inner solar system.

astro-ph.EP

Planetesimal Growth in Evolving Protoplanetary Disks: Constraints from the Pebble Supply

In the core accretion model, planetesimals grow by mutual collisions and engulfing millimeter-to-centimeter particles, i.e., pebbles. Pebble accretion can significantly increase the accretion efficiency and help explain the presence of planets on wide orbits. However, the pebble supply is typically parameterized as a coherent pebble mass flux, sometimes being constant in space and time. Here we solve the dust advection and diffusion within viciously evolving protoplanetary disks to determine the pebble supply self-consistently. The pebbles are then accreted by planetesimals interacting with the gas disk via gas drag and gravitational torque. The pebble supply is variable with space and decays with time quickly, with a pebble flux below 10 $M_\oplus$ Myr$^{-1}$ after 1 Myr in our models. As a result, only when massive planetesimals ($>$ 0.01 $M_\oplus$) are luckily produced by the streaming instability or the disk has low viscosity ($α\sim 0.0001$) can the herd of planetesimals grow over a Mars mass within 2 Myr. By then, planetesimals only capture pebbles about 50 times their mass and as little as 10 times beyond 20 au due to limited pebble supply. Further studies considering multiple dust species in various disk conditions are warranted to fully assess the realistic pebble supply and its influence on planetesimal growth.

astro-ph.EP

ET White Paper: To Find the First Earth 2.0

We propose to develop a wide-field and ultra-high-precision photometric survey mission, temporarily named "Earth 2.0 (ET)". This mission is designed to measure, for the first time, the occurrence rate and the orbital distributions of Earth-sized planets. ET consists of seven 30cm telescopes, to be launched to the Earth-Sun's L2 point. Six of these are transit telescopes with a field of view of 500 square degrees. Staring in the direction that encompasses the original Kepler field for four continuous years, this monitoring will return tens of thousands of transiting planets, including the elusive Earth twins orbiting solar-type stars. The seventh telescope is a 30cm microlensing telescope that will monitor an area of 4 square degrees toward the galactic bulge. This, combined with simultaneous ground-based KMTNet observations, will measure masses for hundreds of long-period and free-floating planets. Together, the transit and the microlensing telescopes will revolutionize our understandings of terrestrial planets across a large swath of orbital distances and free space. In addition, the survey data will also facilitate studies in the fields of asteroseismology, Galactic archeology, time-domain sciences, and black holes in binaries.

astro-ph.IM

Extreme close encounters between proto-Mercury and proto-Venus in terrestrial planet formation

Modern models of terrestrial planet formation require solids depletion interior to 0.5-0.7 au in the planetesimal disk to explain the small mass of Mercury. Earth and Venus analogues emerge after ~100 Myr collisional growth while Mercury form in the diffusive tails of the planetesimal disk. We carried out 250 N-body simulations of planetesimal disks with mass confined to 0.7-1.0 au to study the statistics of close encounters which were recently proposed as an explanation for the high iron mass fraction in Mercury by Deng (2020). We formed 39 Mercury analogues in total and all proto-Mercury analogues were scattered inward by proto-Venus. Proto-Mercury typically experiences 6 extreme close encounters (closest approach smaller than 6 Venus radii) with Proto-Venus after Proto-Venus acquires 0.7 Venus Mass. At such close separation, the tidal interaction can already affect the orbital motion significantly such that the N-body treatment itself is invalid. More and closer encounters are expected should tidal dissipation of orbital angular momentum accounted. Hybrid N-body hydrodynamic simulations, treating orbital and encounter dynamics self-consistently, are desirable to evaluate the degree of tidal mantle stripping of proto-Mercury.

astro-ph.EP