Dr. Cristian Carli

Planetary geologist, mainly interested in geology of differentiated bodies with a special eye to the surface composition. I’m used to explore in particular reflectance/emittance properties of planetary surface and planetary (or analogues) materials. I’m always trying to 1) investigate how to correlate spectral properties with lithological information of geological units, looking for to integrate compositional information within the planetary geological mapping; 2) understand mineralogical information that we can retrieve for different mineralogical assemblages in various environmental condition (e.g. P/T) in a laboratory using spectroscopy to understand which planetary “lithologies” can be inferred from remote sensing.

Research

My activity is mainly focused on studying the reflectance/emittance spectral properties of different materials and surfaces (mainly those differentiated) and integrating them with mineral chemistry, bulk rock, geochemistry and petrographic information of minerals and or rocks.

Mercury

The formation and evolution of the innermost planet of the Solar System is still poorly understood. The recent results give some new answers highlightly several new questions, in particular if we can associate the surface mainly with volcanic activity, the presence of explosive features indicates an anomalous high volatile content. Moreover, no clear evidence of a primary crust arise doubting if the Magma Ocean was the model for the crust formation.

Measurements done in x-ray also indicate the presence of volatile elements like S, C and even relatively high abundance of alkaline elements, suggesting that higher volatile, as well as a primary floating graphitic crust should be present.

Nevertheless, no clear association of mineralogical phases has been measured and a feature mission will try to raise this with better reflectance/emittance measurements of the surfaces.

Credit image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

The Moon

Since the Apollo sample return indication of the main mineralogy characterizing the Highlands or Maria became evident. Recently the orbital VNIR spectra data clearly highlighted that those phases can be recognized by remote sensing in different regions. Those data also permit to understand how the mineralogical associations with different craters can be more variegated than expected showing how the history of the crust formation could be more complex than just a separation for floating of plagioclases and an homogenous inner crust and mantle separation. Investigating with more detail and new analytical approaches the VNIR datasets could improve, together with higher spatial resolved images as well as in situ exploration, the comprehension of the lunar crust formation and evolution.

Mars

Geological history indications from the Martian surface are clearly the largest within the inner planets, clearly shown by camera images. Since early 2000s the new hyperspectral imagers, in particular in the VNIR, show the mineralogy of the crust indicating how the southern and northern hemisphere are clearly different as well as hydrated eras and oxidized mineralogies developed in different ages. Investigating the properties of analogues, synthetic or extraterrestrial material improved, and still can improve, coupled with the VNIR data analysis and their integration to the most common planetary geological mapping the evolution of the Martian crust, and so the Martian geology.

crédit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Laboratory reflectance spectroscopy of Analogues

In the last decades, reflectance and emittance spectroscopy applied to different mineral phases, rocks, and synthetic materials shows how this technique can be strongly helpful for mineral detection, identification and quantitative analysis.

This was strongly important since this technique can be applied by remote and so for investigating planetary surfaces.

Up to now a lot of work is still ongoing to enter in more details towards specific mineral associations as well as different environmental conditions or space weathering alterations, those results strongly help to interpret remote sensing data and improve the technical analysis and modeling of VNIR spectroscopy.

Meteorites

These objects are often the only true extraterrestrial material we can study and measure in our laboratory. They strongly support the understanding of the different planets or small bodies of our Solar System and some time even outside it. Correlate systematically the mineralogical, geochemical and petrographical properties of meteorites with reflectance/emittance spectral information that permit to better correlate them with potential parental bodies and understand the evolution of different objects from planetesimal to planets since the first years after the Solar System formation.

Employment history

Professional activities

(lista di progetti)

2022-today PI IRON (Mini Grant INAF)
2022-today Co-I ISSI project 552 Wide-Ranging Characterization of Explosive Volcanism on Mercury: Origin, Properties, and Modifications of Pyroclastic Deposits.
2021-today WP leading (laboratory activity on meteorites) in the PRIN-INAF MELODY project
2020-today Supervisor of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie: POSEIDON project, assigned to Alice Stephant at IAPS-INAF
2020-today Co-I ISSI project 485 Deciphering Compositional Processes in Inner Airless Bodies of our Solar System.
2020-today Europlanet RI 20-24: responsible for INAF among the GMAP WP8 and WP9; Co-I among the ML WP10.
2019-today PI of OLBODIES project in the Solar System ASI-INAF agreement.
2018-2021 WP leading (Compositional unit definition) in the EU Horizon2020 project PLANMAP, n.° 776276.
2017-today Associated Scientist of MAGIS experiment, JUICE mission (ESA).
2016-today Member of scientific committee of PRISMA project.
2015-today Co-I of Simbio-sys experiment, Bepicolombo mission (ESA).
2015-today Chair of working group (WG6) “Surface Composition and Laboratory activities on surface analogues” of Simbio-sys experiment, Bepicolombo mission (ESA).
2015-today Data Manager for REFL_SLAB (IAPS) SSHADE spectral library.
Participating as INAF researcher to the activity related to the SSERVI where ASI is NASA partner.
Scientific collaborator for the project “Moon Mapping project” between Italy and China coordinated by ASI.

Publications

selected list (interested reader can also see Carli C.)

E. Bruschini, C. Carli, A.-C. Buellet, M. Vincendon, F. Capaccioni, M. Ferrari, F. Vetere, A. Secchiari, D. Perugini, A. Montanini, 2022, VNIR reflectance spectra of silicate-graphite mixtures: The effect of graphite content and particle size, Icarus, 378, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2022.114950
Zambon F., C. Carli,J. Wright,D. A. Rothery,F. Altieri,M. Massironi,F. Capaccioni,G. Cremonese. 2022. Spectral units analysis of quadrangle H05-Hokusai on Mercury. JGR Planets, xxx. doi: 10.1029/2021JE006918.
C. Carli, M Ciarniello, A Migliorini, G Pratesi. 2022. Iron rich basaltic eucrites, implication on spectral properties and parental bodies. Icarus, 371. 114653. doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114653.
G. Serventi, C. Carli, F. Altieri, A. Geminale, M. Sgavetti. 2021. Spectral classification and MGM-based mineralogical characterization of hydrated phases: The Nili Fossae case, Mars. Planetary and Space Science, 209. 105361.
S Ferrari, A Maturilli, C Carli, M D'Amore, J Helbert, F Nestola, Hiesinger H. 2020. Thermal infrared emissivity of felsic-rich to mafic-rich analogues of hot planetary regoliths. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 534, 116089
Carli C., Pratesi G., Moggi‐Cecchi V., Zambon F., Capaccioni F., Santoro S. 2018. Northwest Africa 6232: Visible–near infrared reflectance spectra variability of an olivine diogenite. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 53, 10, 2228-2242.
Serventi, G., Carli, C. 2017. The role of very fine particle sizes in the reflectance spectroscopy of plagioclase-bearing mixtures: New understanding for the interpretation of the finest sizes of the lunar regolith. Icarus, 293, 157-171.
De Angelis, S., Carli, C., Tosi, F., Beck, P., Schmitt, B., Piccioni, G., De Sanctis, M.C., Capaccioni, F., Di Iorio, T., Sylvain, P.: 2017. Temperature-dependent VNIR spectroscopy of hydrated Mg-sulfates. Icarus, 281, 444-458.
Serventi, G., Carli, C., Sgavetti, M.: 2016. Deconvolution of mixtures with high plagioclase content for the remote interpretation of lunar plagioclase-rich regions. Icarus, 272, 1-15. Doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.01.020.
Zambon, F., Tosi, F, Carli, C., De Sanctis M.C., Blewett D.T., Palomba E., Longobardo A., Frigeri A., Ammannito E., Russell C.T., Raymond C.A.: 2016. Lithologic variation within bright material on Vesta revealed by linear spectral unmixing. Icarus, 272,16-31. Doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.01.009.
Carli, C., Roush, T., Pedrazzi G., Capaccioni F.: 2016. Visible and Near-Infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectroscopy of glassy igneous material: Spectral variation, retrieving optical constants and particle sizes by Hapke model. Icarus, 266, 267-278. Doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2015.10.032.
Carli, C., Serventi, G., Sgavetti, M.: 2014 VNIR spectral variability of the igneous stratified Stillwater Complex: A tool to map lunar highlands American Mineralogist, 99 (10), 1834-1848
Carli, C., Ciarniello, M., Capaccioni, F., Serventi, G., Sgavetti, M.: 2014 Spectral variability of plagioclase–mafic mixtures (2): Investigation of the optical constant and retrieved mineral abundance dependence on particle size distribution Icarus, 235, 207-219 DOI: 101016/jicarus201403022
Serventi, G., Carli, C., Sgavetti, M., Ciarniello, M., Capaccioni, F., Pedrazzi, G.: 2013 Spectral variability of plagioclase-mafic mixtures 1): effects of chemistry and modal abundance in reflectance spectra of rocks and mineral mixtures, Icarus 226, 282-298, 101016/jicarus201305041
Giacomini, L., Carli, C., Sgavetti, M., Massironi, M.,: 2012 Spectral analysis and mapping of Daedalia Planum lava field with OMEGA data Icarus, 220, pp 679–693, doi: 101016/jicarus201206010

Contact

I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let’s connect.

cristian.carli@inaf.it