A Spectrophotometric Investigation of the Evolutionary History of the Inner Asteroid Belt

Gaffey博士这项研究的目标是改善我们的 通过调查了解太阳系内的微行星： (a)内带小行星的演化历史;（B） 早期后增生加热事件的性质， 这些机构以及陨石母体;（c） 内带碰撞演化;（d）岩浆性质 小行星天体的差异;以及（e） 早期内太阳系的小行星群， 吸积形成大型类地行星。 小行星和陨石是太阳系内部唯一 这一时期的残余和形成之后， 太阳系 小行星提供了一个条件的“地图”， 在早期的内太阳系的过程，而陨石 提供一个“日历”的事件发生在这一时期。 地球上的望远镜观测可以用来确定 这些小行星的表面矿物 矿物学 组成记录了小行星的形成条件 包括其热演化、变质作用或岩浆作用 分化和碰撞历史。 加菲博士将从 研究小行星的组成 原始太阳星云的变化，热的模式， 小行星带内的碰撞过程， 太阳和早期地球的性质， 一个类似的星子种群

The goals of this research by Dr. Gaffey are to improve our understanding of inner Solar System planetesimals by investigating: (a) the evolutionary history of the inner belt asteroids; (b) the nature of the early post-accretionary heating event which effected these bodies as well as the meteorite parent bodies; (c) the collisional evolution of the inner belt; (d) the nature of magmatic differentiation in small planetary objects; and (e) the nature of the planetesimal population in the early inner Solar System which accreted to form the large terrestrial planets. The asteroids and the meteorites are the sole inner Solar System remnants of the period during and just after the formation of the Solar System. Asteroids provide a "map" of the conditions and processes in the early inner Solar System while the meteorites provide a "calendar" of the events occurring during this period. Earth-based telescopic observations can be used to determine the surface mineralogies of these minor planets. The mineralogical composition records the conditions of formation of that asteroid including its thermal evolution, metamorphism or magmatic differentiation, and collisional history. Dr. Gaffey will derive histories of individual asteroids to investigate the compositional variations of the original solar nebula, the pattern of thermal and collisional processes within the asteroid belt, the early evolution of the Sun, and the nature of the early Earth which accreted from a similar population of planetesimals.