Detailed bulk composition analysis of extrasolar objects accreted at the surface of white dwarf stars

自从1995年诺贝尔奖获得者发现了第一颗绕另一颗恒星运行的行星以来，已经发现了数千颗系外行星。从那时起，世界各地数以千计的研究人员一直在不懈地工作，以了解和描述行星的结构、结构和形成机制。然而，人们对它们的组成知之甚少，因为基本上只有质量和半径可用，没有提供关于它们内部结构的信息。虽然通过凌日光谱学研究，表面成分可以让我们了解气体巨星的大气层，但岩石天体的整体成分是不受限制的，充其量只能对它们的内部结构设定限制。幸运的是，在过去的十年里，通过检查白矮星大气中积累的外源物质(小行星、小行星、行星)的残骸，出现了一种探测太阳系外固体物质组成的新方法。在我以前工作的基础上，这项提议的目标是通过对有史以来组装的最大受污染白矮星大气样本进行详细的均质分析，将对地外岩石物质的表征提高到一个新的水平。

Since the Nobel prize-winning discovery of the first planet orbiting another star has been announced in 1995, thousands of exoplanets have been found. Ever since, thousands of researchers across the world have been working relentlessly to understand and characterize planets' architecture, structure and formation mechanisms. Yet, very little is known about what they are made of as basically only masses and radii are available, providing no information about their internal structures. While surface composition, through transit spectroscopy studies, can inform us about the atmosphere of gas giants, the bulk compositions of rocky objects are ill-constrained and only limits on their internal structures can be set at best. Fortunately, a new method for probing the composition of solid extrasolar planetary system material has emerged in the last decade through the examination of the accreted remains of exo-material (planetesimals, asteroids, planets) in the atmosphere of white dwarf stars. Building on my previous work, the goal of this proposal is to bring the characterization of exo-rocky material to the next level by performing a detailed homogeneous analysis of the largest sample of contaminated white dwarf atmospheres ever assembled.