Planet formation and evolution: observational and dynamical studies

行星是如何形成的？何时何地？在我们太阳系的外围地区曾经有过其他的行星吗？还有可能吗？关于类木行星的形成，遥远的巨行星卫星能告诉我们什么？我们如何将研究太阳系的知识与我们在研究其他恒星周围的圆盘和行星时收集的信息结合起来？太阳系的小天体是如何形成和演化的？它们目前的大小分布是否能告诉我们“星子”和行星是如何形成的？这项NSERC拨款将支持与这些问题相关的一系列研究。气态巨行星中比氦重的元素过多的谜团将通过轨道动力学的大规模数值模拟来探索，以研究小物体是如何被运送到生长中的行星上的。这个主题是在两种主要的巨行星形成理论之间做出决定的极少数途径之一。为了解决在遥远的太阳系外是否存在更大的矮行星的问题，我建议用世界级望远镜上的现代马赛克CCD相机对天空的大片区域进行望远镜调查。这些调查将是第一次对超过100个天文单位的大型遥远行星进行敏感的大面积研究。撞击轰击的年表问题和神秘的“月球大灾难”的性质将通过使用各种各样的宇宙化学和航天器数据的动力学研究来解决。对这个问题的探索可能需要研制一套月球科学装置，以便安置在月球上。

How did the planets form? When and where? Were there ever other planets in the outer regions of our Solar System, and is it possible that there still are?  What can the distant satellites of the giant planets tell us about the formation of these jovian planets?  How do we combine the knowledge of studies of our own Solar System with the information we are gathering in studying disks and planets around other stars?  How did the small-body populations of our Solar System form and evolve?  Does their current size distribution tell us anything about how 'planetesimals' and then planets formed?This NSERC grant will support a suite of research related to these questions. The puzzle of the overabundance of elements heavier than helium in the gas giant planets will be explored via large-scale numerical simulations of orbital dynamics to study how small objects are delivered to the growing plaents. This topic is one of the very few avenues to decide between the two main theories of giant planet formation.In order to address the issue of whether even larger dwarf planets are present in the distant outer Solar System, I propose to conduct telescopic surveys of huge areas of sky made possible by modern mosaic CCD cameras on world-class telescopes.  These surveys will be the first large-area studies to be sensitive to large distant planets beyond 100 astronomical units.The issue of the chronology of the impact bombardment and the nature of the mysterious ``lunar cataclysm'' will be approached via dynamical studies that use a wide variety of cosmochemical and spacecraft data.  The exploration of this question may necessitate the development of a lunar science package to be emplaced on the Moon.