Early Solar System Volatile Distribution

早期太阳系波动分布

• 批准号: 1413736
• 负责人: Karen Meech
• 金额: $ 51.7万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1413736&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Early; Solar; System; Volatile; Distribution

This award funds work to compare the distribution and abundance of volatiles in the early solar system with those in protoplanetary disks around other stars, and test models of planetary formation. The PI and her team will focus on measuring the abundance ratio of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide (CO2) gases in a diverse set of small icy bodies, including comets and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), orbiting the Sun at large distances. CO and CO2 are both key volatiles that are among the primary drivers of comet activity and are important tracers for studying the chemical composition of the early solar system. The researchers will accomplish this with analysis of new observations and existing databases of comets and KBOs. The PI will train and mentor two postdoctoral researchers and work with computer science and electrical engineering students graduate students in a summer school program using astronomical data.Specific objectives include conducting optical follow up for newly discovered and previously known active comets in order to estimate CO/CO2 gas fluxes, obtaining high resolution near-IR spectra and sub-mm observations on bright comets seen by the WISE telescope in order to detect CO, employing Finson-Probstein dust dynamical models, utilize data from the Pan STARRS1 survey telescope, and the team's existing photometry database to create simple sublimation models to understand the activity over a range of distances. They will also develop ways to visualize portions of the data set in a 3D mini-CAVE environment to enable new types of science exploration.

该奖项资助的工作是比较早期太阳系中挥发物的分布和丰度与其他恒星周围的原行星盘中挥发物的分布和丰度，并测试行星形成的模型。PI和她的团队将专注于测量各种小型冰体（包括彗星和柯伊伯带天体（kbo））中一氧化碳（CO）与二氧化碳（CO2）气体的丰度比，这些冰体绕太阳运行的距离很远。CO和CO2都是关键的挥发物，是彗星活动的主要驱动力之一，也是研究早期太阳系化学成分的重要示踪剂。研究人员将通过分析新的观测结果和现有的彗星和柯伊伯带天体数据库来完成这项工作。PI将培训和指导两名博士后研究人员，并与计算机科学和电气工程专业的研究生一起在暑期学校项目中使用天文数据。具体目标包括对新发现的和以前已知的活跃彗星进行光学跟踪，以估计CO/CO2气体通量；获得WISE望远镜观测到的明亮彗星的高分辨率近红外光谱和亚毫米观测结果，以探测CO；采用Finson-Probstein尘埃动力学模型，利用Pan STARRS1巡天望远镜的数据；该团队现有的光度数据库可以创建简单的升华模型，以了解在一定距离范围内的活动。他们还将开发在3D迷你洞穴环境中可视化部分数据集的方法，以实现新型的科学探索。