Solar System Origin & Evolution at Imperial

太阳系起源

• 批准号: ST/J001260/1
• 负责人: Gareth Collins
• 金额: $ 175.12万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FJ001260%2F1
• 关键词: Solar; System; Origin; Evolution; Imperial

How did dust and gas produce a planet capable of supporting life? This is one of the most fundamental of questions, and engages everyone from school children to scientists. Our planet formed 4.5 billion years ago along with the Sun and the other planets and minor bodies in our Solar System, and it is the only habitable world yet discovered on which life evolved. By understanding the details of how our Solar System formed we can hope to find an answer.We now know much about how stars and their accompanying planetary systems form in general. We know that stars form by the collapse of interstellar clouds of dust and gas. Planets are constructed in disks known as planetary nebula formed by the rotation of the collapsing gas cloud. It was in the solar nebula, surrounding the young Sun, that all the objects in our Solar System were created through a process called accretion.There is, however, a long list of details we don't know about how our Solar System formed. Why, for example, are all the planets so different? Why is Venus an inferno with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, Mars a frozen rock with a thin atmosphere, and Earth a haven for life? The answer lies in events that predated the assembly of these planets, it lies in the early history of the nebula and the events that occurred as fine-dust stuck together to form larger objects known as planetesimals, and as those planetesimals changed through collisions, heating and the effects of water to become the building blocks of planets. Our research intends to follow the evolution of planetary materials from the sources of dust prior to solar system formation, through the assembly of precursor objects within the solar nebula to the alteration of these objects as they became planets.The source of presolar dust provides a context to our solar system. From what types of star was dust derived and how did dust from these different sources mix and change in the solar nebula? These questions can be answered by analysis of isotopes of high temperature, refractory elements, within meteorites - rocks from asteroids that preserve a history of the early solar system. Meteorites, together with cosmic dust particles, also retain the fine-dust particles from the solar nebula. These dust grains are smaller than a millionth of a metre but modern microanalysis can expose their minerals and compositions. We will study the fine-grained components of meteorites and cosmic dust to investigate how fine-dust began accumulating in the solar nebula, how heating by an early hot nebula and repeated short heating events affected aggregates of dust grains, and whether magnetic fields helped control the distribution of dust in the solar nebula.In addition to the rocky and metallic materials that make up the planets, our research will examine the fate of organic materials that were crucial to the origins of life. Through newly developed methods we can trace this history of organic matter in meteorites from their formation in interstellar space, through the solar nebula and into planetesimals. This research will examine the effect of events also recorded in rocky and metallic fine-dust on the organic components of the early planetary materials from which the first living things on Earth were constructed.Once the planets finally formed, their materials continued to change. Our research focuses on the planet Mars, which provides a second example of a planetary body on which life could have appeared. We will trace the evolution of water and organics from planetary formation to the present day. Research on landforms on Mars will examine a crucial period in the planet's history, when global climate change transformed the planet into an arid wasteland, to evaluate the opportunity for organisms to adapt and survive. Research on the survival or organic compounds in martian soil will test whether the signature of life can still be detected on the planet.

尘埃和气体是如何产生一颗能够支持生命的行星的？这是最基本的问题之一，从学生到科学家，每个人都参与其中。我们的星球形成于45亿年前，沿着与太阳和太阳系中的其他行星和小天体一起，它是迄今为止发现的唯一一个生命进化的可居住世界。通过了解太阳系形成的细节，我们有望找到答案。我们现在对恒星和伴随它们的行星系统一般是如何形成的有了很多了解。我们知道恒星是由星际尘埃和气体云坍缩形成的。行星被构造在被称为行星状星云的圆盘中，由坍缩的气体云旋转形成。正是在围绕着年轻太阳的太阳星云中，我们太阳系中的所有物体都是通过一个叫做吸积的过程产生的。然而，关于我们太阳系是如何形成的，我们还不知道一长串细节。例如，为什么所有的行星都如此不同？为什么金星是一个有着厚厚的二氧化碳大气层的地狱，火星是一个有着稀薄大气层的冰冻岩石，而地球是生命的天堂？答案在于这些行星聚集之前发生的事件，它存在于星云的早期历史中，以及发生在细尘粘在一起形成更大物体的事件，这些小行星通过碰撞，加热和水的影响而改变，成为行星的基石。我们的研究旨在跟踪行星材料的演变，从太阳系形成之前的尘埃来源，到太阳星云内的前驱物体的组装，再到这些物体成为行星时的变化。太阳前尘埃的来源为我们的太阳系提供了背景。尘埃来自哪种类型的星星，这些不同来源的尘埃在太阳星云中是如何混合和变化的？这些问题可以通过分析陨石中高温难熔元素的同位素来回答-陨石是来自小行星的岩石，保存了早期太阳系的历史。陨石与宇宙尘埃颗粒一起，也保留了来自太阳星云的细小尘埃颗粒。这些尘埃颗粒小于百万分之一米，但现代微量分析可以揭示它们的矿物质和成分。我们将研究陨石和宇宙尘埃的细粒成分，以探讨细尘埃是如何开始在太阳星云中积累的，早期热星云的加热和重复的短暂加热事件如何影响尘埃颗粒的聚集，以及磁场是否有助于控制太阳星云中尘埃的分布。除了构成行星的岩石和金属材料外，我们的研究将探讨对生命起源至关重要的有机物质的命运。通过新开发的方法，我们可以追溯陨石中有机物质的历史，从它们在星际空间中形成，穿过太阳星云，进入微行星。这项研究将研究岩石和金属细尘中记录的事件对构成地球上第一批生物的早期行星材料的有机成分的影响。一旦行星最终形成，它们的材料就会继续变化。我们的研究重点是火星，它提供了第二个可能出现生命的行星体的例子。我们将追踪水和有机物从行星形成到现在的演变。对火星地貌的研究将考察火星历史上的一个关键时期，当时全球气候变化将火星变成了一个干旱的荒地，以评估生物体适应和生存的机会。对火星土壤中的有机化合物的研究将测试是否仍然可以在这个星球上检测到生命的迹象。

项目成果

Global Scale Impacts

全球范围的影响

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1504.02389
• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Asphaug E

MarcoPolo-R near earth asteroid sample return mission

• DOI: 10.1007/s10686-011-9231-8
• 发表时间: 2011-07
• 期刊: Experimental Astronomy
• 影响因子: 3
• 作者: M. Barucci;A. Cheng;P. Michel;L. Benner;R. Binzel;P. Bland;H. Böhnhardt;J. Brucato;A. Campo Bagatin;P. Cerroni;E. Dotto;A. Fitzsimmons;I. Franchi;S. Green;L. Lara;J. Licandro;B. Marty;K. Muinonen;A. Nathues;J. Oberst;A. Rivkin;F. Robert;R. Saladino;J. Trigo-Rodríguez;S. Ulamec;M. Zolensky

The Australian Desert Fireball Network: a new era for planetary science

• DOI: 10.1080/08120099.2011.595428
• 发表时间: 2012-03
• 期刊: Australian Journal of Earth Sciences
• 影响因子: 1.2
• 作者: P. Bland;P. Spurný;A. Bevan;K. Howard;M. Towner;G. Benedix;R. Greenwood;L. Shrbený;I. Franchi;G. Deacon;J. Borovička;Z. Ceplecha;D. Vaughan;R. Hough

Asteroids IV

小行星四号

• DOI: 10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816532131-ch034
• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Asphaug E

A Common Reference Material for Cadmium Isotope Studies - NIST SRM 3108

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-908x.2012.00175.x
• 发表时间: 2013-03-01
• 期刊: GEOSTANDARDS AND GEOANALYTICAL RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 3.8
• 作者: Abouchami, Wafa;Galer, Stephen J. G.;Holdship, Philip F.
• 通讯作者: Holdship, Philip F.