Planetary Science at Kent 2019 - 2022

太阳系引起了许多人的兴趣，但关于它还有许多问题有待解答：它里面有什么？随着时间的推移，这种情况发生了怎样的变化？它是如何演变成现在的状态的？现在，或者曾经，太阳系的其他地方有生命吗？我们的工作不能指望明确地回答这些大问题，但将在提高我们对这些问题的理解方面发挥重要作用。我们广泛研究的一个领域是撞击研究——这是一个影响太阳系中所有天体的主要过程，贯穿它们的存在。通过使用我们自己的特殊枪，我们可以小规模地重现太阳系中发生的事情。但我们是在受控条件下进行的，使用已知的起始材料，这样我们就可以深入了解影响过程以及这些事件所带来的变化。我们提出的工作将解决诸如生命所需的复杂有机分子如何在撞击期间在冰体上自然形成等问题。我们还将研究如何很好地测量从土卫二南极附近自然喷出的羽流中含有的水。此外，当宇宙飞船飞过太阳系天体或收集太空尘埃（来自彗星或小行星）时，在收集样本的过程中会发生高速撞击。高速撞击会扭曲航天器上仪器的记录，或者极大地改变撞击粒子。我们的枪也可以在这里提供帮助——通过在实验室中复制这个过程。我们可以弄清楚当尘埃颗粒撞击这些航天器时发生了什么，因此可以通过它们产生的撞击特征来解释撞击颗粒的细节。这可以用来解释它们来自的身体的细节，因为粒子的含量将取决于形成的条件。例如，有些矿物质只有在液态水存在的情况下才会形成，所以如果它们出现在样本中，就意味着它们来自的身体上有一段时间的液态水。我们工作的另一个重点是研究太阳系小天体的内部、表面和大气特性，以帮助了解这些天体是如何形成的，以及自那以后哪些过程对它们起了作用，并在今天继续这样做。我们对阳光如何影响小行星的物理特性和动力学特别感兴趣。为了帮助解决这个问题，我们将使用雷达。雷达回波强度的测量可以揭示小行星的许多特征，这些特征通常只有通过航天器访问才能获得，并且可以让我们确定详细的3D形状。然而，分析过程非常耗时，可能需要数月才能完成一颗小行星。我们将开发一种新的技术来分析小行星雷达回波，这种技术将利用机器学习方法，特别是“神经网络”。我们训练系统为研究人员做出许多决策，目前对任何3D形状构建都至关重要。我们还将利用这项新技术进行一个雷达观测计划。

The Solar System intrigues many people, but there are many questions that remain to be answered about it: What is in it? How has this changed over time? How did it evolve into its current state? Is there currently, or has there ever been, life elsewhere in the solar system? Our work cannot hope to definitively answer such big questions, but will play an important part in improving our understanding of these issues.One area in which we work extensively is the study of impacts - these are a major process that has affected all of the bodies in our solar system, throughout their existence. By using our own special gun we can recreate on a small scale what goes on in the Solar System. But we do so under controlled conditions, using well known starting materials, so that we can gain insights into the impact process and the changes that these events drive. Our proposed work will tackle issues such as how complex organic molecules needed for life, can form naturally on icy bodies during impacts. We will also look at how well we can measure what is in the water ejected naturally from Enceladus in plumes emerging from near its South pole. Further, when spacecraft fly past Solar System bodies or collect space dust (from comets or asteroids), high speed impacts occur as samples are collected. The high speed impacts can distort what the instruments on spacecraft record, or change the impacting particle quite dramatically. Our gun can also help here too - by reproducing this process in the laboratory. We can work out what happens to dust particles when they impact these spacecraft and therefore make it possible to interpret details of the impacting particle from the impact feature they create. This can then be used to interpret details about the body they came from, since the content of particles will depend on the conditions formed in. For example, some minerals only form in the presence of liquid water, so if they are present in a sample it means that liquid water was available for some time on the body they came from. The other focus of our work is the study of internal, surface and atmospheric properties of Solar System Small Bodies, in order to help understand how these bodies formed and what processes have been acting on them since, and continue to do so today. We are particularly interested in how sunlight influences the physical properties and dynamics of asteroids. To help with this we will use radar. Measurements of the strength of the radar echo can reveal many features on asteroids, which are usually only achieved by a spacecraft visit, and can allow us to determine a detailed 3D shape. However, the analysis process is extremely time-consuming and can take months to complete for a single asteroid. We will develop a new technique for analysing asteroid radar echo's that will utilize machine learning approaches, specifically 'Neural Networks'. We train the system to make many of the decisions for the researcher, currently vital for any 3D shape construction. We will also conduct a programme of radar observations, using this new technique.