Building Habitable Worlds

太阳系是46亿年前由气体和尘埃组成的分子云坍缩而形成的。但这些气体和尘埃是如何凝聚成我们今天看到的太阳和八颗行星的呢？什么样的过程和事件导致了像地球这样的宜居行星的形成？我们太阳系诞生时的条件与我们在其他太阳系中看到的条件相比如何？我将通过研究陨石和返回的地外样本来回答这些问题，这些岩石时间胶囊可以用来探测太阳系形成和行星演化的最早阶段。有些陨石来自小行星，这些小行星在它们的历史中一直处于休眠状态，保存着曾经围绕新形成的太阳旋转的尘埃。我将用最先进的分析技术研究在最原始的陨石中发现的矿物质。我将观察矿物质和有机物之间的关系，检查吸积的第一阶段，并探索这些矿物质与星际空间中的尘埃和年轻恒星周围的原行星盘之间的关系。在过去的十年里，新的计算机模型和系外行星的发现表明，巨大的行星迁移极大地塑造了太阳系。木星和土星向内和向外的运动引起了太阳系内外区域的湍流和物质的广泛混合。通过在陨石记录中识别这种运输和混合的证据，我将了解太阳系的动态历史，并了解原行星盘中物质的多样性和地球的前身。水可能是由小行星运送到可居住的行星上的。两个太空任务，JAXA的隼鸟2号和NASA的OSIRIS-REx，旨在分别从富含水的小行星Ryugu和Bennu的表面收集样本。我将研究水合陨石和小行星返回样品的矿物学和组成，以了解原始富水体的水和热历史，约束早期太阳系挥发物和有机物的性质和分布。

The solar system formed from the collapse of a molecular cloud of gas and dust ~4.6 billion years ago. But how did that gas and dust coalesce into the Sun and eight planets that we see today? What processes and events led to the formation of habitable planets like the Earth? And how do the conditions at the birth of our solar system compare to what we see in other solar systems? I will answer these questions by studying meteorites and returned extra-terrestrial samples, rocky time capsules that can be used to probe the earliest stages of solar system formation and the evolution of planets.Some meteorites come from asteroids that have remained dormant throughout their history and preserve the very dust that was once swirling around the newly forming Sun. I will investigate the minerals found within the most pristine meteorites using cutting-edge analytical techniques. I will observe the relationship between minerals and organic matter, examine the first stages of accretion, and explore how these minerals relate to dust seen in interstellar space and protoplanetary disks around young stars.In the last decade new computer models and the discovery of exoplanets have shown that solar systems are dramatically shaped by giant planet migration. The inward and outward movement of Jupiter and Saturn caused turbulence and widespread mixing of materials from the inner and outer regions of the solar system. By identifying evidence of this transport and mixing in the meteorite record, I will understand the dynamic history of the solar system, and learn about the diversity of materials in the protoplanetary disk and the precursors to the Earth.Water may have been delivered to habitable planets by asteroids. Two space missions, JAXA's Hayabusa2 and NASA's OSIRIS-REx, aim to collect samples from the surfaces of the water-rich asteroids Ryugu and Bennu, respectively. I will study the mineralogy and composition of hydrated meteorites and samples returned from asteroids in order to understand the aqueous and thermal history of primitive water-rich bodies, and constrain the nature and distribution of volatiles and organics in the early solar system.