RII Track-4:NSF: Assessing the Impact of Jovian Planets on the Existence of Potentially Habitable Planets

RII Track-4：NSF：评估木星行星对潜在宜居行星存在的影响

• 批准号: 2327072
• 负责人: Diana Dragomir
• 金额: $ 28.09万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327072&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RII; Track; NSF; Assessing; Impact

In our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn are believed to have played a significant role in the formation and evolution of the terrestrial planets, and possibly even for the habitability of Earth. Yet the extent to which this is the case is highly uncertain, limiting astronomers’ understanding of whether giant planets affect the habitability of potentially Earth-like planets around other stars. This fellowship will establish a collaboration between the PI and the primary research collaborator at the University of California Riverside to address this question. The project will lead to an unprecedentedly detailed understanding of planetary system architectures, and will shed new light on the evolution and gravitational interactions of Jupiter-like planets with other planets in their systems, including their effects on Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone. This collaboration will benefit the PI’s research program by expanding her and the trainee’s skill sets, and providing them with access to one of the largest telescopes in the world. Beyond the award period, the research performed during the fellowship will position the PI to become a key contributor to the development of the next-generation space observatory, which was identified by the National Academy of Sciences as a high priority facility for astronomy in the next decade. This observatory’s primary objective will be to achieve one of humanity’s biggest dreams: finding life on another planet. This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows project would provide a fellowship to an Assistant Professor and training for a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico. This work will be conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of California Riverside. The over-arching theme of the proposed research program is a detailed assessment of how giant planets shape habitable environments through their formation and dynamical interactions with the inner parts of the planetary system where potentially habitable planets may reside. Specifically, the goals are to determine the properties of the nearest Sun-like main sequence stars and refine their habitable zone boundaries; determine whether potentially habitable planets are (or could be) present in those systems; and constrain the dynamical interactions and long-term stability of potentially habitable planets in those systems through numerical simulations. The host site is the University of California Riverside. The PI will work with Stephen Kane, who is the primary research collaborator, to reach these goals through extended visits to the host site. Through this collaboration, the PI and a postdoctoral researcher trainee will: gain expertise in the analysis of spectroscopic observations from the primary collaborator and his research group; obtain access to Keck telescope observations through the host site’s institutional access; and acquire skills in orbital dynamics and running dynamical simulations of exoplanetary systems from the primary collaborator. The results of this fellowship will inform the observing strategy and interpretation of observations for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, whose main goal will be to directly image Earth-like exoplanets and characterize their atmosphere.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在我们的太阳系中，木星和土星被认为在陆地行星的形成和演变中发挥了重要作用，甚至可能是地球的可居住性。然而，这种情况的程度高度不确定，这限制了天文学家对巨型行星是否影响其他恒星周围潜在类似地球的行星的宜居性。该奖学金将建立PI与加州大学河滨大学的主要研究合作者之间的合作，以解决这个问题。该项目将导致对行星系统体系结构的前所未有的详细了解，并将对其系统中类似木星的行星与其他行星的演化和重力相互作用进行新的启示，包括它们对居住区中地球大小的行星的影响。这项合作将通过扩大她和受训者的技能，并为他们提供世界上最大的望远镜之一，从而使PI的研究计划受益。除了奖励期之外，在奖学金期间进行的研究将使PI定位，成为下一代太空观察发展的关键因素，该观察是由美国国家科学院确定为未来十年天文学的高优先设施。该观察性的主要目标是实现人类最大的梦想之一：在另一个星球上找到生活。这项研究基础设施改进Track-4 Epscor Research Fellows项目将为新墨西哥大学的博士后研究员提供助理教授和培训。这项工作将与加利福尼亚大学河滨大学的研究人员合作进行。拟议的研究计划的整理主题是对巨型行星如何通过形成和动态相互作用与行星系统内部的动态相互作用来塑造可居住环境的详细评估，这些环境可能存在。具体而言，目标是确定最近的太阳状主序列的特性，并完善其宜居区域的边界。确定这些系统中是否存在（或可能是）可能存在的行星；并通过数值模拟来限制这些系统中潜在可居住行星的动态相互作用和长期稳定性。东道国是加利福尼亚大学河滨大学。 PI将与主要研究合作者Stephen Kane合作，通过扩大访问主机网站来实现这些目标。通过这种合作，PI和博士后研究员的培训生将：在分析主要合作者及其研究小组的光谱观察方面获得专业知识；通过主机网站的机构访问获得对凯克望远镜观察的访问；并从主要合作者中获取轨道动力学和运行系外行驶系统的动态模拟的技能。该奖学金的结果将为可居住世界观测站的观察策略和观察的解释提供信息，其主要目标是直接对地球样的外部行星进行映像，并表征其大气。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来评估CRITEIA CRITEIA CRITERIA。