| Session Details | |
| Section | PS - Planetary Sciences |
| Session Title | Exploring the Solar System Primitive Bodies |
| Main Convener | Dr. Jian-Yang Li (Planetary Science Institute, United States) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Makoto Yoshikawa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan) Dr. Eleonora Ammannito (University of California, Los Angeles, United States) Dr. Bin Yang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) |
| Session Description | This session welcomes abstracts about the studies of solar system primitive bodies, including asteroids, comets, primitive planetary satellites, Centaurs and KBOs, using past and ongoing exploration missions, ground-based observations, laboratory experiments, and computer simulations, as well as the combination of those and of multiple missions. It also welcomes abstracts about new concepts for future missions, observing and laboratory facilities, and ideas for future studies. Abstracts reporting the recent results from Dawn, New Horizons, and Rosetta missions are especially welcome. Solar system small bodies are considered the best-preserved fossils from the early era of planetary systems formation. As either the original building blocks that have undergone little, if any internal heating and thermal evolution, or the collisional debris of proto-planets that are frozen shortly after their formation, the physical status, composition, and evolution of small bodies are the key to seeing through to the beginning of the solar system. Small bodies could also have played an important role in delivering water and organics to the inner solar system, relevant to the origin of habitable worlds and life. The studies of primitive bodies have tremendously revolutionized our understanding of the formation of the planetary system with their paradigm changing results. With the context of a big wave of past and current missions so far, and well as the recent development in ground-based observations and theoretical studies, this session is designed to promote the research of solar system primitive bodies from multiple approaches and multiple disciplines, and to help develop concepts for future studies and exploration missions. |