This proposal shall be used and disclosed for evaluation purposes only, and a copy of this Government notice shall be applied to any reproduction or abstract thereof. Any authorized restrictive notices that the submitter places on this proposal shall also be strictly complied with. Disclosure of this proposal for any reason outside the Government evaluation purposes shall be made only to the extent authorized by the Government. |
Proposal Type: New Proposal |
Proposal Category: Atmosphere Structures and Particles |
Major Equipment Proposal? No |
Do you intend to submit an Education/Public Outreach (E/PO) proposal? No |
Proposal Title: |
The Effect of Entrained Exogenous Material on the Shock Heating of Non-reducing Atmospheres |
Abbreviated Proposal Title: |
Exogenous Materials & Shock Heating of Atmospheres |
Principal Investigator: |
Dr. David Summers Mail Stop 239-4 SETI Institute NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 Phone: 650-604-6206 Fax: 650-604-1088 E-mail: dsummers@mail.arc.nasa.gov |
Signature | Date |
_____________________________________ | ____________ |
Co-Investigators and Collaborators: | |||
Type | Name | Affiliation | |
Sci Collab | Dr. Chris McKay | NASA Ames | cmckay@mail.arc.nasa.gov |
Sci Co-I | Dr. Peter Jenniskens | SETI Institute | peter@max.arc.nasa.gov |
Proposal Summary:
The shock heating of a non-reducing atmosphere has been shown to produce mostly NO and CO. However, early in a planetary history the entrainment of exogenous material has the potential to alter the products of shock heating to produce products associated with a more reducing atmosphere. Early on, the influx of extraterrestrial material was much higher. Some of this arrives as dust and settles through, or is suspended in, the atmosphere. The fragmentation, or vaporization & recondensation, of meteors would also have been a source of extraterrestrial dust in the atmosphere. This material was made up of relatively reducing species such as FeCO3, FeO, organics, and metallic iron and would have become entrained in the shock heating of the atmosphere. By changing the net redox level it would then change the products of that shock synthesis. We propose to use a thermodynamic equilibrium model to determine whether dust and the debris from meteoroids might have affected the shock heating of the early atmosphere by meteoritic passage, lightning, impacts, etc. We will use data from the Leonid Multi-instrument Airborne Campaign to estimate the amounts and kinds of such material that might have been present, looking at the effect of a variety of types of meteoritic debris and dust on the shock heating of a CO2/N2 atmosphere with varying amounts of CO and H2. We will consider both the background flux of such material as well as localized concentrations. Code for the calculations will be supplied by Chris McKay and Peter Jenniskens will provide Leonid data. This novel approach, that looks at the combination of exogenous delivery and planetary atmospheric processes, can provide a more comprehensive look at the problem and reveal how meteoric material can provide a path to more interesting shock synthesis products under the traditional non-reducing atmosphere.
Certification of Compliance with Applicable Executive Orders and U.S. Code
By submitting the proposal identified in this Cover Sheet/Proposal Summary in response to this NRA or AO, the Authorizing Official of the proposing institution (or the individual proposer if there is no proposing institution) as identified below:
Willful provision of false information in this proposal and/or its supporting documents, or in reports required under an ensuing award, is a criminal offense (U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1001).