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Helmholtz-Alliance: Impacts and Planetary Evolution

A Helmholtz research alliance on the subject of “Planetary Evolution and life” was established in 2008. The research alliance brings together some non-university research institutes and a number of German and international universities. The alliance topic “Impacts and Planetary Evolution” is under the responsibility of the Asteroids and Comets Department.

Meteor Crater (Credit: NASA)

Impacts of minor bodies onto planets have obviously affected their habitability and the development of ecosystems during all stages of their history. On the one hand impacts may have supported the formation of life: comets and carbonaceous chondrites may have been important sources of water and pre-biotic molecules to seed the surface of the planets. On the other hand impacts pose a significant threat for developed biospheres.

Our goal is an evaluation of the consequences of impacts, such as the Late Heavy Bombardment (3.8 Gigayears ago), for the early phase of development of life on Earth and other planets, and of the effects caused by a single large collision on the origin and evolution of planetary biospheres.

To study the role of impacts in such a broad context, specific models of the origin of impactors and the medium in which they formed are required. Furthermore, models of composition and physical parameters of different impactor types, and of hypervelocity impact processes on various planetary surfaces are required.

Our goal is to improve our knowledge of:

• the origin and distribution of volatile organic matter and water in the solar nebula,
• their transport to the planets and
• possible consequences of impacts for the development and destruction of life.

For this purpose three work packages have been defined that are described in the following.