The Emergence of Habitable Conditions in the Solar System

太阳系中适宜居住条件的出现

• 批准号: ST/V000586/1
• 负责人: Charles Cockell
• 金额: $ 104.92万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FV000586%2F1
• 关键词: Emergence; Habitable; Conditions; Solar; System

How do solar systems emerge from the violence of the protoplanetary disc to be habitable environments for life? Although there is much focus on the present-day habitability of bodies in our Solar System, there is remarkably little understanding of how Solar System bodies have evolved over time and what the starting conditions were that led to potentially habitable aqueous environments. We can only really assess whether habitable conditions might be common in the Universe (one key objective of STFC's science priorities) if we understand the factors that canalise a Solar System towards or away from habitable conditions. This is the fundamental aim of the work we propose here.One major challenge is understanding the volatile inventory of the early Solar System and what volatiles were available in early Solar System bodies that could have led to habitable aqueous environments. To address this problem we need to have a better grasp of the composition of early Solar System materials. One enormously important class of such bodies is comets. In this work, we will significantly advance our understanding of the taxonomy and composition of comets. Although comets are not the only providers of volatiles in the early Solar System, they provide key insights into the materials from which solar systems are made and that define the boundary conditions for early volatiles and potential fluids. Once these volatiles coalesced into planetary bodies, they led to the many aqueous environments we observe in the Solar System today (early Mars, Europa, Enceladus, even asteroids such as Ceres). However, how have these aqueous environments evolved. What happens when solutions of early volatiles freeze and what solutions result? How do key volatiles, such as ammonia, which depress the freezing point, alter these solutions? Most crucially, how does habitability alter in these evolving fluids? We will address these questions by linking planetary sciences with astrobiology (microbiology) to investigate and advance our understanding of how the habitability of early Solar System solutions have evolved over time.An unseen elephant in the room in terms of planetary habitability is gravity. It is pervasive in all environments, even if its influence is caused by its near absence. Using our heritage of flying space experiments, we will use equipment we have developed for spaceflight to study the growth of organisms on primitive asteroidal material (chondritic material) in the BioAsteroid experiment on the International Space Station. Comparisons with data gathered in our previous BioRock experiment using basalt will allow us to investigate the growth and habitability of early Solar System bodies and materials and, in particular, the habitability of chondritic small Solar System bodies under low gravity regimes. This work will give us important new insights into the role of gravity in defining the habitability of solar system bodies.STFC has a scientific priority to find out if life is unique to Earth, but to eventually look for life in habitable environments, we have to be able to distinguish it from non-life. Chemical processes are known to generate pseudo-biosignatures - morphologies and chemical signatures that look like life. Yet we know very little about how early Solar System environments, such as in icy moons and early Mars, might have generated false signatures of life. Understanding how early solar systems might generate signatures of life-like materials is essential if we are to avoid being misled into thinking we have found life. We will significantly advance our understanding of the ability of the early Solar System to produce such pseudo-biosignatures.In summary, our proposed projects fit together into a coherent and systematic programme of study to understand how the early Solar System evolved into habitable conditions and how we might reliably seek signatures of life within habitable planetary environments.

太阳系是如何从原行星盘的暴力中脱颖而出成为生命的宜居环境的？虽然人们对太阳系中天体的可居住性有很多关注，但对太阳系天体如何随着时间的推移而演变以及导致潜在可居住水环境的起始条件的了解非常少。我们只能真正评估适居条件是否可能在宇宙中普遍存在（STFC科学优先事项的一个关键目标），如果我们了解使太阳系接近或远离适居条件的因素。这是我们在这里提出的工作的基本目标。一个主要挑战是了解早期太阳系的挥发物库存，以及早期太阳系天体中存在哪些挥发物可能导致可居住的含水环境。为了解决这个问题，我们需要更好地掌握早期太阳系物质的组成。其中一类非常重要的天体是彗星。在这项工作中，我们将大大推进我们对彗星的分类和组成的理解。虽然彗星不是早期太阳系中挥发物的唯一提供者，但它们为太阳系的形成提供了关键的见解，并为早期挥发物和潜在流体定义了边界条件。一旦这些挥发物合并成行星体，它们就导致了我们今天在太阳系中观察到的许多水环境（早期的火星，欧罗巴，土卫二，甚至是谷神星等小行星）。然而，这些水环境是如何演变的。当早期挥发物的溶液冻结时会发生什么？会产生什么样的溶液？关键的挥发物，如降低冰点的氨，是如何改变这些溶液的？最关键的是，在这些不断演化的流体中，可居住性是如何改变的？我们将通过将行星科学与天体生物学（微生物学）联系起来来解决这些问题，以调查和推进我们对早期太阳系解决方案的可居住性如何随着时间的推移而演变的理解。在行星可居住性方面，房间里看不见的大象是重力。它在所有环境中都是普遍存在的，即使它的影响是由于它的几乎不存在而造成的。我们将利用我们在空间飞行实验方面的传统，在国际空间站的生物小行星实验中，使用我们为空间飞行开发的设备研究生物体在原始小行星材料（南极材料）上的生长情况。与我们以前使用玄武岩的生物岩石实验中收集的数据进行比较，将使我们能够研究早期太阳系天体和材料的生长和可居住性，特别是低重力状态下太阳系小天体的可居住性。这项工作将使我们对引力在定义太阳系天体的可居住性方面的作用有重要的新见解。STFC的科学优先事项是查明地球是否独有生命，但要最终在可居住环境中寻找生命，我们必须能够将其与非生命区分开来。已知化学过程会产生伪生物特征--看起来像生命的形态和化学特征。然而，我们对太阳系早期的环境，如冰冷的卫星和早期的火星，可能产生了错误的生命特征知之甚少。了解早期太阳系如何产生类生命物质的特征是至关重要的，如果我们要避免被误导认为我们已经发现了生命。我们将大大推进我们对早期太阳系产生这种伪生物特征的能力的理解。总之，我们提出的项目适合于一个连贯和系统的研究计划，以了解早期太阳系如何演变成可居住的条件，以及我们如何可靠地在可居住的行星环境中寻找生命的特征。

项目成果

Instantaneous Habitable Windows in the Parameter Space of Enceladus' Ocean

土卫二海洋参数空间中的瞬时宜居窗口

• DOI: 10.1029/2021je006951
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Planets
• 作者: Higgins P

Bridging the gap between microbial limits and extremes in space: space microbial biotechnology in the next 15 years.

• DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.13927
• 发表时间: 2022-01
• 期刊: Microbial biotechnology
• 影响因子: 5.7
• 作者: Cockell CS

VLT spectropolarimetry of comet 67P: dust environment around the end of its intense southern summer

彗星 67P 的 VLT 分光偏振测量：强烈的南方夏季末期的尘埃环境

• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202141865
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• 影响因子: 6.5
• 作者: Kwon Y

Future space experiment platforms for astrobiology and astrochemistry research.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41526-023-00292-1
• 发表时间: 2023-06-12
• 期刊: NPJ MICROGRAVITY
• 影响因子: 5.1
• 作者: Elsaesser, Andreas;Burr, David J.;Mabey, Paul;Urso, Riccardo Giovanni;Billi, Daniela;Cockell, Charles;Cottin, Herve;Kish, Adrienne;Leys, Natalie;van Loon, Jack J. W. A.;Mateo-Marti, Eva;Moissl-Eichinger, Christine;Onofri, Silvano;Quinn, Richard C.;Rabbow, Elke;Rettberg, Petra;Noetzel, Rosa de la Torre;Slenzka, Klaus;Ricco, Antonio J.;de Vera, Jean-Pierre;Westall, Frances
• 通讯作者: Westall, Frances

Sustained and comparative habitability beyond Earth

• DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-02158-8
• 发表时间: 2023-12-28
• 期刊: NATURE ASTRONOMY
• 影响因子: 14.1
• 作者: Cockell，Charles S.;Simons，Mark;Vance，Steven D.
• 通讯作者: Vance，Steven D.