Projects

Competition: Competition for financial support of basic research projects – 2024.

Main research area of the project: Physical sciences.

Keywords: Solar System, comets, asteroids, photometry, polarimetry.

Type of the planned research: Fundamental research.

Applying organisation: Institute of Astronomy and National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Coordinator of the research team: Associate Professor Galin Biserov Borisov, PhD

Abstract of the research project: 

The small Solar System bodies (asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt objects, icy moons, rings, and dust) represent archives of the state of the proto-solar disk at various times and places during the history of our Solar System’s formation. By studying the physical properties and chemical composition of these objects using different state-of-the-art observational techniques, a more complete picture of these bodies' compositions, histories, and futures can be constructed. The great diversity of material in the main asteroid belt and the near-Earth object populations leads us to conclude that the Solar System underwent significant mixing as the asteroids, comets, and planets were forming. How these bodies were moved, and when, sets important constraints on the motions of the planets as they were forming, the early evolution of the Sun, and even if there might be objects lurking undiscovered at the edge of the Solar System. 

The results of the project will be a very important addition to the current knowledge about the physical properties and the chemical composition of the small Solar System bodies, which will be used for a better understanding of the Solar System's origin and evolution. As we are planning to investigate the physical parameters and chemical composition of almost all varieties of existing small Solar System bodies, our results might be a very important asset to the data needed for improving the Solar System formation models. This will give the Planetary science community and society as a whole a better understanding of the place we are living, our own Solar System - our home.

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