POSEIDON project

Life as we know is inextricably linked to water. Understanding the origins of water in solid planets is of great significance to basic understanding of the planetary formation, our search for life on other planets and our investigation of planets that could be hospitable to us. Planetesimals are the building blocks of solid planets, and achondrite parent bodies were among the first planetesimals formed in our solar system. Investigating the trace water content and hydrogen isotopes present in achondrite meteorites is of great interest to unravel the origin of water in terrestrial planets of our Solar System. The EU-funded POSEIDON project will use spectroscopy and spectrometry techniques to study water signatures in planetary materials that have not yet been studied.

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The POSEIDON project “Petrographic and vOlatile SignaturEs of prImitive and Differentiated achONdrites” aims to determine the water concentration and the isotopic composition of hydrogen in nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs), in a series of primitive achondritic meteorites, using a combination of three techniques, i.e. infrared transmission spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The main objective of this study is to estimate the abundance of volatile elements in the parent bodies of achondrites, which were among the first planetesimals to form in the Solar System, in order to develop a robust understanding of the distribution and sources of water in the inner Solar System. This project also aims to develop reflectance spectroscopy as a possible tool for direct/indirect water estimation through cross-calibration of several techniques. Four tasks were developed to carry out this project: 1) petrographic characterization of achondrites, 2) transmission and reflectance spectroscopy of achondrites, 3) secondary ion mass spectrometry of achondrites, 4) dissemination of results. The proposed study will be the first comprehensive study of its kind, combining a new approach using a multi-technique methodology to measure the concentration of volatile elements and the isotopic composition of nominally anhydrous minerals, exploiting recent improvements in analytical techniques, developing new new protocols for spectroscopy, and  studying a series of planetary materials never before studied. 

The results of this work will be key contributions to the on-going debate between the 'dry' and 'wet' scenarios about the origin of water in the Solar System and the implications for the timing of water delivery to planetesimals, essential for developing astrophysical models of the formation of the Solar System. This study is thus vital to understand the early stages of the evolution of our Solar System, but also to understand the other planetary systems in terms of habitability, water being the key element for the emergence of life.

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