Astrobiology
Two Columns
Theme I
Overview 06.18.2005
What are the chemical components of comets such as Hale Bopp? Image courtesy Fred Espenak.
Theme I establishes the taxonomy of icy planetessimals and their potential for delivering pre-biotic organics and water to the young Earth and other planets.
How did comets develop in the early stellar nursery? How does the chemistry of Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) differ from Oort Cloud Comets? These are some of the questions the researchers in Theme I aim to answer.
Projects 06.18.2005
Co-Investigator Derek Richardson works on simulation methods capable of modeling the evolution of bodies from the size of planets down to dust particles and for tracking particle motions over large distances. A fundamental unsolved problem in planet formation related to this project is the growth mechanism for dust particles embedded in gas that may be turbulent. Improved understanding of the dynamics in this early phase of planet formation will assist in the interpretation of current and future high-resolution observations of extrasolar dust disks in the sub-millimeter and infrared.
Lunar footprint.
Co-Investigator Richard Walker characterizes the early bombardment of the inner solar system by selecting and separating pure melt rock from lunar highlands breccias. The purpose of this work is to fingerprint the late additions to the Moon using the relative abundances of the highly-siderophile elements that occur in generally high abundance in likely impactors, but extremely low abundance in the indigenous lunar crust.
More Research
NASA Fact
In 1959, the Goddard Space Flight Center was established as NASA's first space flight center.
