Suggested by: Katharina Otto (Katharina.Otto@dlr.de), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Short description: Recent space missions to small planetary bodies, such as asteroids and comets, have discovered a wealth of morphology. Due to their small size, the shape and morphology of their surface features, including amongst others craters, boulders, dust, and linear features, are divers and complexly connected to the physical environment they form in (e.g. low gravitational pull, environment of space surrounding it, extreme local temperature variations). Thus, the surface features offer the opportunity to learn more about the environment present on small planetary bodies. To understand the effect that the environment has on the formation and evolution of the various surface features on different planetary bodies, it is necessary to precisely measure their size, distribution, orientation, and other physical parameters. However, this is challenging given the complexly shaped, irregular bodies and a variety of different tools to map small planetary bodies.
This master thesis will apply commonly used tools (e.g. QGIS, Small Body Mapping Tool, Meshalb) to measure morphologic parameters of surface features on small bodies. The aim is to access the applicability of these tools, conduct sample measurements and compare measurements of the same body using different tools. Ultimately, a judgement on the different tools’ reliability and applicability is desired.
References/Suggested reading:
- Murdoch N, Sanchez P, Schwartz SR, Miyamoto H. Asteroid Surface Geophysics. In: Michel P, DeMeo F, Bottke WF, editors. Asteroids IV. Tucson, Arizona, USA: University of Arizona Press; 2015
- https://sbmt.jhuapl.edu/
Start: Autumn 2023
Prerequisites/qualification:
- Experience with mapping tools would be useful
- Interest in asteroids, comets and space missions
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