INSPIRE Track 1: Following the Carbon Trail in Planetary Formation

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Special Projects program of the Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, both in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and by the the Petrology and Geochemistry Program in the Division of Earth Science in the Directorate for Geosciences.

This project combines cutting-edge research from two intellectually distinct areas (astronomy and geochemistry) in order to significantly advance understanding of how terrestrial planets form and develop a biosphere. The main goal focuses on how dominant carbon-bearing molecules in the solar nebula were incorporated into the primordial Earth and how they were geologically cycled between the planet?s interior and atmosphere. This work will constrain models of carbon delivery to the Earth by combining astronomical observations of planet-forming disks (with ALMA and Keck observatories), laboratory experiments involving molten lava, and astrochemical modeling of carbon-bearing compounds in the solar nebula.

The astronomers will use the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter ARRAY (ALMA) and Keck Observatory to obtain radio and infrared spectra, respectively, of carbon-bearing molecules in circumstellar disks to measure how the carbon budget is allocated between molecules in the gas and solid phase, and how much of it is destroyed (or chemically reduced) by starlight irradiation. In parallel, the geochemists will conduct experiments in order to better understand how carbon cycles between the interior and surface, which plays a large role in maintaining Earth?s biosphere. Their experiments focus on the chemical exchange between material from the surrounding planet-forming environment and the molten silicate surface of the young Earth. The experiments will subject samples made from carbonaceous chondrites (from Allende and Homestead meteorites) to varying temperatures and pressures and then measure solubility and partitioning of carbon.

The researchers will work with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in their research, and with teachers in the K-12 system through introductory courses and web-interface tools.