Space and planetary physics 2019-2022

我们将开展广泛的研究项目，回答有关太阳系及其内部行星的重要问题。我们还将研究太阳和星际空间之间通过太阳风的联系，以及它们如何影响地球周围的空间。太空中充满了少量的热带电粒子，称为等离子体，以及磁场，所以我们所做的大部分工作都是应用于太空的基本等离子体物理学，我们研究的过程发生在整个宇宙。在我们的工作中，我们将研究重新连接的基本等离子体过程，它释放磁能，对于允许来自太阳的等离子体，太阳风，进入近地空间非常重要。我们还将使用靠近太阳的宇宙飞船的新数据来研究太阳上的细微尺度结构如何延伸到太空中。我们将研究从太阳释放的离散物质在进入星际空间时是如何演变的；当它们到达地球时，这些天体可能会对地面和地球轨道上的技术系统造成重大破坏。我们还将考虑太阳系中的其他天体，无论大小。我们将继续模拟67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Gerasimenko彗星周围的环境，以解释丰富的Rosetta数据集，并使用土星磁场的测量来探测其内部动力学。我们将考虑木星和土星的行星场如何连接到它们周围的空间，并对太阳风等离子体与外部气体巨星天王星和海王星之间的相互作用进行建模。这些都是重要的研究课题，不仅因为它们为我们提供了对我们还不完全了解的基本物理过程的新见解，而且还因为它们对我们的生活、对科学的其他领域以及它们告诉我们的宇宙的影响。我们在等离子体物理方面的工作既与地球上的实验室工作有关，也与许多天体物理物体(如恒星和星系之间的空间)有关。我们在巨行星和卫星上的工作帮助我们更好地描述了发生在系外行星上和周围的过程。虽然我们在一些工作中使用了理论模型和计算机模拟，但我们也广泛使用了航天器在绕地球、绕其他行星和绕太阳的轨道上返回的测量结果。在许多情况下，这些测量完全或部分是由我们在帝国理工学院的实验室设计、建造和操作的科学仪器进行的。伦敦。我们的专长是制造测量太空磁场的仪器--尽管它非常小，往往比地球的磁场小几十万倍，但这个磁场是至关重要的，因为它与等离子体中的带电粒子相互作用，正是这种相互作用产生了我们观察到的广泛行为。作为这项提议的一部分，我们还将改进我们的磁场仪器设计，使其在下一代科学任务中更加稳定和准确，用于前往外行星和太阳系其他地方的科学任务。

We will carry out a wide range of research projects which will answer important questions about our solar system and the planets within it. We will also study the links between the Sun and interplanetary space through the solar wind, as well as how they affect space around the Earth. Space is filled with small amounts of hot charged particles, called a plasma, along with a magnetic field, so much of the work we do is fundamental plasma physics applied to space and the processes that we study occur throughout the Universe.In our work we will study the fundamental plasma process of reconnection, which releases magnetic energy and is important in allowing plasma from the Sun, the solar wind, to enter near-Earth space. We will also use new data from spacecraft travelling close to the Sun to examine how fine scale structure on the Sun extends out into space. We will study how discrete releases of material from the Sun evolve as they travel into interplanetary space; when they reach the Earth, these objects can cause significant disruption to technological systems on the ground and in Earth orbit.We will also consider other bodies in the solar system, both small and large. We will continue to model the environment around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Gerasimenko in order to interpret the rich Rosetta dataset and use measurements of Saturn's magnetic field to probe its interior dynamics. We will consider how the planetary fields of Jupiter and Saturn link into the space around them, and model the interactions between the solar wind plasma and the outer gas giants Uranus and Neptune.These are important topics to study not just because they provide new insight into fundamental physical processes which we do not fully understand, but also because of their effects on our lives, on other areas of science and of what they tell us about our Universe. Our work on plasma physics is related to both laboratory work on the Earth as well as many astrophysical objects such as stars and the space between the galaxies. Our work on giant planets and moons helps us to better characterise the processes that occur on and around exoplanets. While we use theoretical models and computer simulations for some of our work, we also make extensive use of measurements returned from spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, around other planets and around the Sun. In many cases, these measurements are made wholly or in part by scientific instruments designed, built and operated by our laboratory here at Imperial College. London. Our expertise is in making instruments that measure the magnetic field in space - although it is very small, often hundreds of thousands of times smaller than the Earth's, this magnetic field is vital because it interacts with the charged particles in the plasma and it is this interaction that produces the broad range of behaviour that we observe. As part of this proposal, we will also improve on our magnetic field instrument designs, making them more stable and accurate for a future generation of scientific missions, to the outer planets and elsewhere in the Solar System.