Planetesimal formation, giant planet migration, and stellar accretion in our solar system and beyond

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Graham Edwards is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at Dartmouth College. Edwards will perform a computational statistical study of meteorite chemical composition to elucidate planetary formation processes in the early Solar System. Results from this study will refine our understanding of the history of the Solar System and inform models of extrasolar systems. For the education component of this project, Edwards will develop a museum outreach program to explore how scientists use meteorites to study Solar System history and planet formation.This project will extract meteorite chemical compositions from the largest centralized collection of publicly available meteorite data to study (1) relationships between meteorites and their constituent components, (2) timescales of giant planet migration, and (3) the role of the protoplanetary disk in shaping the solar composition. This statistical study will test whether bulk chemical clustering improves upon standard methods of grouping meteorites into families and whether constituent chondrites or chondrite matrices formed from a shared reservoir of material. The project will also test whether the deficit of refractory elements in the solar photosphere is due to their preferential incorporation in protoplanetary bodies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.