Planetary Origins and Evolution at Imperial (2022-2025)

行星系统是如何发展的，生命是我们星球所独有的吗？这是科学中最基本的问题之一，对我们在宇宙中的地位有着深远的影响。我们的行星科学研究计划调查太阳系的起源和演化，以了解围绕太阳运行的行星和小世界的惊人多样性，并确定地球以外何时何地可能存在生命。特别关注的是太阳系碰撞的过程和后果，这些碰撞从尘埃和冰中构建行星，在天体之间转移岩石，挥发物和有机物，提供定期流动的宇宙尘埃，并塑造和修改行星表面直到今天。行星材料在尘埃组装成更大的天体后如何变化对于制造适合生命的行星至关重要。我们的研究将通过检查陨石中早期磁场的证据来研究原始星子（行星的早期先驱）是否在内部熔化和混合。我们的研究将评估在陨石矿物中发现的古代磁性痕迹是否是金属核心发电机的可靠指标，以及我们太阳系形成的气体和尘埃云内的磁场。这主要取决于理解撞击在重置或叠加陨石中的磁记录方面的有效性。挥发性成分对生命至关重要，但很容易因加热而丢失，它们在太阳系行星之间的丰度差异很大。我们的研究重点是类地行星的挥发性预算，以确定挥发物的来源并确定它们是何时添加的。为此，该研究检查了锌，锗和碲的同位素，并通过将在研究中开创的技术和方法进步成为可能。因此，这项工作将帮助我们了解地球如何以及何时获得了形成生命所必需的成分。继水之后，我们的研究还将开发新技术，利用不断落在行星表面的福尔斯作为“石蕊纸”，以确定过去在表面和大气中是否存在水。由于这些微粒在不同年代的火星土壤中会很丰富，而水是火星上生命存在的重要前提，我们的研究将揭示火星的古老历史，并确定可能的可居住时期。我们的研究还将研究太阳系早期一些最大和最戏剧性的撞击事件，例如在月球上形成2500公里宽的南极-艾特肯盆地的掠射碰撞。当人类在本世纪末重返月球时，他们将降落在这个巨大陨石坑的边缘。了解撞击如何重塑月球对于解释宇航员将行走的岩石至关重要，并利用他们的发现来确定月球是由什么组成的以及它是如何形成的。使用最先进的计算机模拟，我们将复制这种影响，以确定来自月球深处的无法进入的物质是如何重新分布的，以及它落在哪里。我们还将对地球上的类似影响进行建模，以了解物质如何从一个星球运输到另一个星球，以及这是否可能包括生物。最后，我们的研究将提高我们探测太空生命的能力。我们将开发新的技术来寻找生命的化学特征，并将它们与没有生物存在的无机化学区分开来。该项目将联合收割机AI机器学习与实验室实验和分子数值模拟相结合，从行星任务产生的大量数据中搜索生命的火花。这项研究所开发的方法将特别有助于即将进行的美国航天局木卫二快船使命木星的卫星。

How do planetary systems develop and is life unique to our planet? This is one of the most fundamental of questions in science and has deeply profound implications for our place in the cosmos. It is thus a key scientific challenge set by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.Our planetary science research program investigates the origins and evolution of our solar system to understand the amazing diversity of planets and small worlds orbiting the Sun and determine when and where life might exist beyond Earth. A particular focus is the process and consequences of solar system collisions, which build planets from dust and ice, transfer rocks, volatiles and organics between bodies, deliver a regular flux of cosmic dust and sculpt and modify planetary surfaces to this day.How planetary materials changed after the dust was assembled into larger bodies is crucial in making planets that are suitable for life. Our research will examine whether primitive planetesimals, the early forerunners of planets, melted and mixed internally by examining the evidence for early magnetic fields within meteorites. Our research will evaluate whether ancient magnetic traces already found in meteorite minerals are reliable indicators of the dynamos of metallic cores, as well as magnetic fields within the gas and dust cloud from which our solar system formed. This depends critically on understanding how effective impacts are at resetting or overprinting the magnetic record in meteorites.Volatile constituents are vital to life but easily lost by heating and they differ greatly in abundance between planets in our solar system. Our research focuses on the volatile budgets of the terrestrial planets, to identify the source of the volatiles and determine when they were added. For this, the research examines the isotopes of zinc, germanium and tellurium and is made possible by technology and method advances that will be pioneered in the study. As such, the work will help us understand how and when Earth acquired the ingredients essential to the formation life.Following the water, our research will also develop new techniques to use space dust that falls continuously on the surface of the planets as a "litmus paper" to identify the past presence of water on the surface and in the atmosphere. Since these particles will be abundant in martian soil of different ages, and water is an important prerequisite for life on the planet, our research will reveal the ancient history of Mars and identify possible periods of habitability.Our research will also examine some of the largest and most dramatic impact events in early solar system, such as the glancing collision that formed the enormous 2500-km wide South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon. When humans return to the Moon later this decade they will land on the rim of this huge crater. Understanding how the impact reshaped the Moon is critical to interpreting the rocks the astronauts will walk on and using what they find to determine what the Moon is made of and how it formed. Using state-of-the-art computer simulations, we will replicate this impact to determine how otherwise inaccessible material from deep inside the Moon was redistributed and where it landed. We will also model similar impacts on Earth to understand how material can be transported from one planet to another, and whether this might include living things. Finally, our research will enhance our ability to detect life in space. We will develop new techniques to search for the chemical signature of life and distinguish them from inorganic chemistry that forms without living things present. This project will combine AI machine learning with laboratory experiments and numerical simulation of molecules to search the large amounts of data generated by planetary missions for the spark of life. The methods developed by the study will be particularly useful for the forthcoming NASA Europa Clipper mission to the moons of Jupiter.