CAREER: Bridging Minor Planet and Meteor Science in the Era of Big Data

小行星(也称为小行星)是古代太阳系的原始遗迹。到目前为止，所有坠落到地球上的陨石都被认为是来自小行星。这些陨石是我们与大约45亿年前太阳系形成的最早时期的唯一直接联系。了解流星和小行星之间的联系将有助于天文学家开发出更好的关于年轻地球条件的理论。这项拟议的工作将部署一个摄像机网络，以提高亚利桑那州上空的流星探测速度，创建这些流星的数据库，以便能够在撞击地球之前对它们的轨道进行新的研究，自动搜索这些天体的母行星，并开发一种工具，追溯搜索现有的数据集，以寻找撞击前探测到的大型流星。PI将与北亚利桑那大学视觉通信系的工作人员和学生合作开发一个互动展览，使普通公众用户能够可视化流星路径和小行星轨道。展览将在洛厄尔天文台的游客中心和流星陨石坑游客中心展出。NAU和NSF REU的本科生将参与这项工作。这项研究还将对发现和表征可能对地球构成威胁的流星具有实际意义。流星体的起源尚不清楚，但它肯定涉及几个过程：碰撞，挥发升华造成的质量损失，以及旋转自旋造成的质量损失。这些过程产生了流星流，流星体沿着类似的路径运行，当它们撞击地球时会产生流星雨。100多次流星雨已经被证实，还有数百次未经证实，大多数流星雨没有已知的母星或彗星。这项工作将寻求将流星雨与它们的母体联系起来。洛厄尔天文台目前运营着四个流星监测站。根据这项拨款，政府将增设八个新加气站。此外，还将开发一个更强大的数据库，使研究人员能够搜索相关研究并调查光线曲线。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Minor planets (also called asteroids) are pristine relics of the ancient Solar System. All meteorites that have fallen to Earth to date are believed to have come from minor planets. These meteorites are our only direct link to the earliest epoch of Solar System formation approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Understanding the connections between meteors and minor planets will help astronomers develop better theories for conditions on the young Earth. The proposed work will deploy a network of video cameras to increase the rate of meteor detection over Arizona, create a database of these meteors to enable new research into their orbits before hitting Earth, automate the search for parent asteroids for these bodies, and develop a tool to retroactively search existing data sets for pre-impact detections of large meteors. The PI will work with staff and students at Northern Arizona University’s Visual Communications department to develop an interactive exhibit that will enable users from the general public to visualize meteor paths and minor planet orbits. The exhibit will be displayed at Lowell Observatory’s Visitor Center and at the Meteor Crater Visitor Center. Undergraduates at NAU and NSF REU students will take part in the work. The research will also have practical implications for discovering and characterizing meteors that might be a threat to Earth.The origin of meteoroids is not well understood, but it must involve several processes: collisions, mass loss due to volatile sublimation, and mass shedding due to rotational spin-up. These processes produce meteor streams, meteoroids traveling on similar paths that produce meteor showers when they impact the Earth. Over 100 meteor showers have been well established, with hundreds more unconfirmed, and the majority have no known parent asteroid or comet. The work will seek to connect meteor showers to their parent bodies. Lowell Observatory presently operates four stations to monitor meteors. Eight new stations will be added under this grant. Additionally, a more powerful database will be developed that will enable investigators to search for relational studies and to investigate lightcurves.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.