Project description
Looking for water in meteorites similar to those forming early planets
Life as we know is inextricably linked to water. Understanding the origins of water in solid planets is of great significance to basic understanding of the planetary formation, our search for life on other planets and our investigation of planets that could be hospitable to us. Planetesimals are the building blocks of solid planets, and achondrite parent bodies were among the first planetesimals formed in our solar system. Investigating the trace water content and hydrogen isotopes present in achondrite meteorites is of great interest to unravel the origin of water in terrestrial planets of our Solar System. The EU-funded POSEIDON project will use spectroscopy and spectrometry techniques to study water signatures in planetary materials that have not yet been studied.
Objective
The “Petrographic and vOlatile SignaturEs of prImitive and Differentiated achONdrites” proposal aims to determine the water content and its hydrogen isotopic composition in nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs), from a range of achondrite meteorites, using a combination of three techniques, namely transmission infrared spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy and nano secondary ion mass spectrometry. The leading goal is to estimate bulk-parent body volatile abundances of achondrites, which were among the first planetesimals formed in the Solar System, to develop a robust understanding of the distribution and source(s) of water in the inner Solar System. This project also aims at developing reflectance spectroscopy as a possible tool for direct/indirect estimation of water content by cross-calibration of multi-techniques. Four tasks have been elaborated to perform this proposal: 1) petrographic characterization of achondrites, 2) transmission and reflectance spectroscopy of achondrites, 3) secondary ion mass spectrometry of achondrites, 4) dissemination of results. The proposed study will be the first comprehensive study of its kind, combining a new approach using multi-techniques methodology for measuring volatile abundances and isotopic composition in NAMs, exploiting recent improvements in analytical techniques, developing new protocols for reflectance spectroscopy, and studying a range of planetary materials never studied before. The results from our work would make timely key contributions towards the ongoing debate of ‘wet’ vs. ‘dry’ scenario for accretion of volatiles in the inner Solar System as well as implications for the timing of water accretion into planetesimals, which is essential for developing dynamical models of Solar System formation. As such, this study is vital to comprehend the early stages of our Solar System evolution but also to understand other planetary systems in terms of habitability, as water is a key component for the emergence of life.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
00136 Roma
Italy