The Search for water ice on Comets and Asteroids
The presence of water is considered one of the key ingredients for the formation of life on Earth. Indeed, current theories as to the origin of the Earth’s oceans suggest that the water located there originated from both comets and asteroids, with the exact fractional contribution still under discus...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/11609 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/11609 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 52-33(043.2) Water ice Comets Asteroids Hielo de agua Cometas Asteroides Astrofísica |
| Sumario: | The presence of water is considered one of the key ingredients for the formation of life on Earth. Indeed, current theories as to the origin of the Earth’s oceans suggest that the water located there originated from both comets and asteroids, with the exact fractional contribution still under discussion. However, water is not unique to the Earth; it has been found hidden deep inside polar craters on the moon, as well as in its fragment OH form contained in moon regolith. It is believed to make up over two thirds of the mass of the giant icy planets Uranus and Neptune. It is prevalent in the form of ice throughout the outer solar system on the moons of planets, on Kuiper Belt Objects, and on comets. In the case of asteroids, although few detections of surface ice have been made, evidence of hydrated minerals (any mineral containing H2O or OH) abound. A search for water ice on the surface and subsurface of comets and asteroids provides not only key information as to its presence and distribution on these primitive bodies, it also contributes to giving a deeper understanding on how the solar system formed, how water was delivered to the Earth by these bodies, and indeed how life emerged as a result. This thesis has as its main goal to search for the presence of water ice on and just below the surfaces of comets and asteroids, estimating its coverage and where feasible characterising its properties. This goal is broken down into two objectives, whereby we search for and characterise ice found on cometary (1st objective) and asteroid (2nd objective) surfaces and subsurfaces. In this thesis, we present a number of publications aiming to address these objectives... |
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