Title: DYNamic impAct eventS on Carbon: the unraveled shock-hisTory of carbon phases of our Solar SYstem (DYNASTY)

Principal Investigator: Anna Barbaro | Programme: Mur Young Researcher SOE 

Total Contribution € 250.000,00 | Project Duration: 36 months

The presence of carbon material in meteorites is still a debated issue among the scientific community, with significant implications for the understanding of the carbon cycle and the evolution of early Solar System bodies. Carbon phases occur in different kinds of meteorites, spanning from differentiated to undifferentiated ones. In particular, among the differentiated meteorites, carbon (C) is present in iron meteorites and ureilites. This research project (DYNamic impAct eventS on Carbon: the unravelled shock-hisTory of carbon phases of our Solar SYstem, acronym: DYNASTY) will focus on the ureilites group with the final aim to comprehend for the first time what is the precursor C of carbon phases in these differentiated meteorites.

To solve this enigma, DYNASTY aims to perform unprecedented shock experiments on different precursor C-bearing materials to determine the shock evolution history of C in ureilites. With this purpose, I will deeply investigate synthetic crystalline graphite samples exposed to different steps of dynamic shock (with or without Fe-Ni phases and organic C with different percentages) to reproduce the conditions C underwent during the impact event(s). The experimental results will be compared with those obtained on C extracted from natural meteoritic samples. 

The project will take place at the Department of Geosciences, Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD), at the Lindhurst Laboratory (LL) of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), at the Schwiete Cosmochemistry Laboratory (SCL), Goethe University, Frankfurt and at the INAF osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri.

Objectives

DYNASTY project is designed to achieve four specific objectives:

• Obj. 1 reproduce the effects induced on graphite by different dynamic pressures during shock events;
• Obj. 2 investigate on the shock experimental products the role of organic C and Fe-Ni phases;
• Obj. 3 estimate the shock conditions on the experimental products, comparing those with those obtained on ureilitic C;
• Obj. 4 understand whether crystalline graphite is the main C precursor of crystalline C polymorphs in ureilites. 

The results of this project will help the scientific community grow its knowledge of C extraterrestrial material and will be critical for comparing with the samples that were (and will be) recovered during the sample return missions that the main Space Agencies worldwide are focussing on.

Research Network

• University of Padova - Department of Geosciences
• California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
• Goethe University - Frankfurt
• INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri