Y.R.F.: Science
My area of research is comets and asteroids, which I have been studying
since 1994. I am interested in the composition and physical properties
of these objects, and how they compare to each other and other objects
in the Solar System. Why? Well because Small Bodies can tell us about
the origin of the Solar System -- what was it like in the solar
nebula and in the protoplanetary disk? This is one "big picture"
question that most planetary scientists are working toward.
However to understand what the Small Bodies tell us about
our origins, we need to know what has happened to these objects
in the intervening 4.6 billion years sinice they formed.
In other words, I study cometary and asteroidal evolution.
This is not an easy task, but it is an interesting question
in its own right, and it is critical if we are to make sense
of what the Solar System is like today.
Here're some projects I'm working on either
as PI or as coI, in no particular order:
- Behavior and nucleus properties
of comet 2P/Encke (aphelion activity, nucleus size, shape, rotation state).
- Behavior of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 (outburst
frequency, coma morphology, active regions on the nucleus).
- Size and albedo distributions of cometary nuclei.
- Thermal properties of cometary nuclei.
- Long-term studies of comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp.
- Physical, thermal, and reflectance propreties of Jovian Trojans.
- Reflectance properties of outer Solar System objects.
- Surface properties of near-Earth asteroids in cometary orbits and
in meteor-streams.
updated 2008 nov 21