The researchers will specifically investigate how the super volatiles carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) are stored in the icy bodies, which remains a fundamental knowledge gap in the understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system, Schambeau says.
The project team also includes collaborator Marco Micheli, a researcher with the European Space Agency. Receiving the new NASA award will enable the continuation of their program at least until 2026, Schambeau says. Schambeau and project co-investigator UCF Physics Professor Yan Fernandez have been leading a data collection effort of these objects since 2016, which is resulting in the largest and most comprehensive set of high-quality data on these types of objects to date.
The four-year, $500,000 NASA-funded project will use the Gemini Observatory’s twin 8.1-meter telescopes located in Chile and Hawaii to make observations of approximately 60 distantly active small icy bodies. “And so, if we can try to understand their interiors more, we will have a connection to that early, four-and-a-half billion-year-old set of conditions when they formed.” “Centaurs and Jupiter-family comets have material in their nuclei interiors that we think is pretty pristine in the sense that their upper layers are really insulating, so the solar heating that’s incident on their surfaces doesn’t penetrate very deep,” says Charles Schambeau ’18PhD, an assistant scientist with UCF’s Florida Space Institute and the project’s principal investigator. However, about 10% of known centaurs do display cometary-like activity. While both are composed of a mixture of rock, dust and volatile substances, Jupiter-family comets are known for their cometary activity, such as comae and tails, while centaurs are often considered dormant. The work will inform research into the origins of the solar system, as these bodies contain materials from the dawn of its formation.Ĭentaurs and Jupiter-family comets are small icy bodies that exist primarily in the outer regions of the solar system. A UCF researcher is working on a new, NASA-funded project that will gather the most comprehensive collection of data on active centaurs and distantly-active Jupiter-family comets to date.
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