Understanding Origins at the Open University (UO@OU)

我们的研究项目叫做“了解开放大学的起源”；我们希望研究的起源是太阳系的起源，以及它是如何进化到允许生命出现的。关于太阳系是如何形成的，我们已经知道了很多。太阳和行星是在大约4.57亿年前由尘埃和气体云组成的湍流中形成的。云团坍塌，当它变平成为旋转的圆盘时，尘埃和气体向内旋转。圆盘的核心变得非常热，形成了太阳，剩下的尘埃和气体形成了我们太阳系的行星。离太阳最近的是小的岩石行星，离太阳更远的是由气体和冰组成的巨大行星，它们被小行星带隔开：数以百万计的物体由岩石、金属和有机物组成。小行星之间的碰撞导致碎片从小行星带中抛出；偶尔会以陨石的形式落到地球上，或者造成更大、更具破坏性的影响。在太阳系外围，温度足够低，水可以凝固成冰。彗星（由冰、尘埃和有机化合物混合而成的天体）是构成外行星的剩余物质。如果我们已经了解了太阳系的一切，那么还有什么需要了解的呢？我们计划详细研究太阳系历史的某些方面——产生彗星的原始尘埃是什么？有什么类型的有机化合物存在？它们是如何被来自太阳和其他恒星的碰撞和辐射改变的？冰是如何改变的？我们想了解小行星——有多少小的小行星？它们的形状、自旋速率和物理结构是什么？它们是如何进化的？这些问题的答案将帮助我们更好地了解地球被小行星撞击的可能性，也许还能帮助我们计划如何应对。小行星是由什么构成的？一些小行星非常热，以至于它们融化并分离成具有金属核和岩石外壳的天体——它们与从未熔化的小行星有什么关系？为什么一些未熔化的陨石富含金属，而另一些只是岩石？所有这些问题都将帮助我们了解行星形成的原始气体云和尘埃云，其中也包含了生命的基石。生命能像地球一样在其他行星上存在吗？火星呢？它的地壳曾经被河流和冰川切割过，但现在却干燥多尘。这些河流产生的矿物质可以通过环绕火星运行的卫星看到。地球上也有来自火星的岩石——小行星撞击地球表面时从火星上摔下来的大块岩石。我们可以分析组成矿物，了解产生其中一些矿物的水。我们还可以寻找过去生物活动改变岩石的迹象。但我们如何开始回答这些问题呢？在我们的实验室里，我们使用灵敏的设备来分析来自小行星带和火星的陨石。我们研究在太空任务中从地球大气层的高处和直接从彗星上收集的尘埃。我们做实验来模拟小行星和彗星所遭受的一些过程（例如，碰撞），我们用计算机来制作小行星和彗星如何受到热量和太阳辐射影响的模型。我们还使用安装在望远镜上的仪器和绕火星运行的航天器来收集数据。我们制造自己的仪器来执行太空任务，并不断努力使它们更小、更轻。我们还探讨了一些仪器可以在地球上用于医疗或安全目的的方法。我们的研究最重要的好处之一是，它有助于培养和激励学生成为下一代科学家和工程师。我们也喜欢告诉尽可能多的人我们所做的工作，以及我们从中学到的关于我们起源的知识。

Our research project is called Understanding Origins at the Open University; the origins that we wish to study are those of the Solar System, and how it evolved to allow life to arise. We already know a lot about how the Solar System came into being. The Sun and planets formed from a turbulent cloud of dust and gas about 4570 million years ago. The cloud collapsed, and as it flattened to a spinning disk, dust and gas spiralled inwards. The core of the disk became extremely hot, forming the Sun, and the leftover dust and gas formed the planets of our Solar System. Closest to the Sun are the small rocky planets, further away are the outer giant planets of gas and ice, separated by the Asteroid Belt: millions of objects made of rock,metal and organics. Collisions between asteroids cause fragments to be thrown out from the Asteroid Belt; occasionally falling to Earth as meteorites, or causing larger, more devastating impacts. In the outer Solar System, the temperature was sufficiently cold to allow water to solidify to ice. Comets (bodies of ice and dust mixed with organic compounds) are the left-over building blocks of the outer planets. If we know all this about our Solar System, what is there still to learn? We plan to study in detail certain aspects of Solar System history - what was the original dust made from that produced comets? What types of organic compounds were present? How have they been changed by collisions and radiation from the Sun and other stars? How has the ice been altered? We want to know about asteroids - how many small ones are there? what are their shapes, spin rates,and physical structures and how do they evolve?. Answers to these questions will help us understand better the chances of the Earth being hit by one - and maybe help us plan what to do about it. What are asteroids made from? Some asteroids got so hot that they melted and separated into bodies with metal cores and rocky crusts - how do they relate to asteroids that were never molten? Why are some unmelted meteorites rich in metal, whilst others are just rock? All these questions will help us understand the original cloud of gas and dust within which the planets formed, and which also contained the building blocks of life. Could life have got going on any other planets as well as Earth? What about Mars? Its crust was once cut by rivers and glaciers, but is now dry and dusty. The rivers produced minerals that can be seen by from satellites that orbit Mars. We also have rocks from Mars on Earth - chunks broken from the planet by asteroids hitting the surface. We can analyse the constituent minerals and learn about the water that produced some of them. We can also look for signatures of past biological activity has altered the rocks. But how do we start to answer these questions? In our laboratories, we use sensitive equipment to analyse meteorites that have come from the Asteroid Belt and from Mars. We study dust collected from high in the Earth's atmosphere and directly from a comet during a space mission. We do experiments to mimic some of the processes that asteroids and comets have suffered (e.g., being hit in collisions), and we use computers to make models of how asteroids and comets are affected by heat and by the Sun's radiation. We also collect data using instruments mounted on telescopes, and on spacecraft orbiting Mars. We build our own instruments to fly on space missions, and are constantly trying to make them smaller and lighter. We also explore ways in which some of the instruments can be used on Earth, for medical or security purposes. One of the most important benefits of our research is that it helps to train and inspire students to become the next generation of scientists and engineers. We also enjoy telling as many people as possible about the work that we do, and what we have learned from it about our origins.