"Delivery of Water and Organic Matter to Young Terrestrial
Planets"
Purpose
We will investigate the origin and evolution of organic compounds and
water in planetary systems, and their delivery to young planets.
Our International Team seeks to better understand the organic compounds
generated and destroyed in the interstellar and proto-planetary
environments, through comparisons of observational, theoretical, and
laboratory results. We will examine the potential for and
limitations to delivery of exogenous water and pre-biotic organics to
planets, examining factors that enhance or restrict this
potential. Special consideration will be given to incorporating
new insights provided by emerging models for planetesimal accretion and
dynamical scattering coupled with compositional information for comets
and meteorites and models for chemical modifications of impacting
material. We will follow these factors over time, from the natal
cloud core through the end of the late heavy bombardment (~ 3.9 Ga), to
evaluate exogenic delivery of organic material and water to terrestrial
planets.
This Study will significantly improve our understanding of the nature
and origin of organics in planetary systems, the processes affecting
them, and the potential for delivering pre-biotic organic compounds to
planets.
Team Members
Michael Mumma, Solar System Explor. Div., NASA GSFC, Greenbelt,
MD USA (Leader)
Conel Alexander, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Wash., D.C.,
USA
Willi Benz, Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Bern, CH
Dominique Bockelee-Morvan, LESIA-CNRS/Observatoire
de Paris,
Meudon, FR
Oliver Botta, International Space Science Institute, Bern, CH
Mark Burchell, School of Physical Sciences, University of
Kent, Canterbury, UK
Steven Charnley, Space Science & Astrobiology Division, NASA
Ames, CA USA
Luigi Colangeli, Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Napoli,
IT
Dale Cruikshank, Space Science & Astrobiology Division, NASA
Ames, CA USA
Pascale Ehrenfreund, Institute of Chemistry, Astrobiology
Laboratory, Leiden, NL
Hans-Peter Gail, Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics,
Heidelberg, FRG
Daniel Glavin, Solar System Exploration Division, NASA GSFC,
Greenbelt, MD, USA
Thorsten Kleine, Inst. Isotopengeologie und Mineral. Rohstoffe,
ETH, Zurich CH
Alessandro Morbidelli, Observatory of Nice, Nice FR
Rita Schulz, Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC,
Noordwijk NL
