Origin an physical structure of small solar system bodies

太阳系小天体物理结构的起源

• 批准号: 238330-2011
• 负责人: Brown, Peter
• 金额: $ 3.5万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=570397
• 关键词: Origin; physical; structure; small; solar

The small bodies of the solar system (asteroids, comets) are relics formed during the birth of our solar system. They contain primitive material which has not experienced substantial processing. Their physical structure, chemistry and dynamical evolution offer a unique window into the early solar system providing strong constraints for solar system formation models. The small debris liberated from these bodies, called meteoroids, occasionally collides with the Earth. Accretion of meteoric material is believed responsible for delivery of much of the Earth's water inventory and meteors contributed substantially, through shock synthesis during their atmospheric passage, to the organic compounds available on the early Earth, thereby playing a role in the emergence of early life. While we are all made of stardust, the most immediate pre-biotic process leading to life may well be associated with meteors. This proposal's goal is to perform a broad survey of the small bodies of the solar system using their debris (meteoroids) as a proxy for parent body structure. In particular, I intend to study the ablation behaviour of meteoroids in the Earth's atmosphere (meteors) from specific meteor showers to better understand particular parent bodies. These measurements will be performed using two existing facilities: an automated radar (the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar) and two automated optical meteor stations (the Canadian Automated Meteor Observatory) both novel facilities for meteor observation, without peer globally. Using these observations it is possible to infer properties of the original meteoroid, such as its material strength, bulk density, chemical composition and physical structure. Knowing the orbits of each recorded meteoroid, we are then able to link these measurements back to the originating parent body or class of parent bodies. From this information we gain a better understanding of where each meteoroid comes from, what processes may have operated on its immediate parent as well as the overall ecology of near-Earth space. By understanding the makeup of meteoroids and how they have interacted with the Earth we are looking back in time to the earliest stages of the Earth's history when bombardment from above formed our world.

太阳系的小天体(小行星、彗星)是我们太阳系诞生时形成的遗迹。它们含有未经实质性加工的原始材料。它们的物理结构、化学和动力学演化为研究早期太阳系提供了一个独特的窗口，为太阳系形成模型提供了强有力的约束。从这些天体中释放出来的小碎片被称为流星体，偶尔会与地球相撞。据信，大气物质的积聚是造成地球上大部分水库存的原因，而流星在其大气层飞行过程中通过激波合成对早期地球上可获得的有机化合物做出了重大贡献，从而在早期生命的出现中发挥了作用。虽然我们都是由星尘组成的，但导致生命的最直接的生物前过程很可能与流星有关。这项提议的目标是利用它们的碎片(流星体)作为母体结构的替代品，对太阳系的小型天体进行广泛的调查。特别是，我打算研究特定流星雨对地球大气层(流星)中流星体的烧蚀行为，以更好地了解特定的母体。这些测量将使用现有的两个设施进行：一个自动雷达(加拿大流星轨道雷达)和两个自动光学流星站(加拿大自动流星观测站)，这两个设施都是用于流星观测的新设施，没有全球同行。利用这些观测结果，就有可能推断出原始流星体的性质，如其材料强度、体积密度、化学成分和物理结构。知道每个记录的流星体的轨道后，我们就能够将这些测量结果与原始母体或母体类别联系起来。从这些信息中，我们更好地了解了每个流星体来自哪里，哪些过程可能对其直系母体起了作用，以及近地空间的整体生态。通过了解流星体的组成以及它们是如何与地球相互作用的，我们正在回顾地球历史的最早阶段，当时来自上方的轰击形成了我们的世界。