Matthew Belyakov
Grad Student at Caltech
Hello! I’m Matthew Belyakov, a fourth-year Graduate Student in Planetary Science at Caltech.
My research is broadly focused on minor bodies in the outer solar system in all their shapes, sizes, orbits, and, especially, their colors. These small icy asteroids are an excellent tracer of the early history of the outer solar system, and in investigating their spectroscopic (and other) properties, I hope to put together part of the story of how our solar system formed.
Recent Papers:
Saturnian Irregular Satellites as a Probe of Kuiper Belt Surface Evolution
The Trojan-like Colors of Low-perihelion Kuiper Belt Objects
PI JWST Programs:
Reconstructing the Histories of the Ice Giant Systems through Small Satellite Observations
Testing Outer Solar System Surface Evolution with Retrograde Centaurs
Upcoming Talks:
UMD May 5th: Nereid was a Regular Satellite of Neptune, and Other Irregular Satellite Tales from JWST
Past Talks:
UW Lunch Seminar, March 3rd, Irregular Satellites of the Giant Planets.
UCLA Planetary Science Seminar, March 13th, Irregular Satellites of the Giant Planets.
JHUAPL Ice Giant Seminar, April 8th, Inner Satellites of the Giant Planets
Berkeley CIPS Talk, April 9th, Irregular Satellites of the Giant Planets.
CONTACT INFO:
email: mattbel (at) caltech.edu
Caltech, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
South Mudd, Room 160
Current Research:
Small Satellites of the Giant Planets
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has transformed our view of the composition of icy bodies in the outer solar system. Carbon dioxide and monoxide, methanol, water ice, complex organic compounds, are now known to be commonplace on bodies stretching from the Jupiter Trojans to the farthest reaches of the Kuiper belt. One understudied, but vital population of small bodies that had not been observed by JWST were the small satellites of Uranus and Neptune, which had not been visited by a spacecraft since the days of Voyager 2. I realized that some data on the small inner satellites, linked to the beautiful rings of the ice giants, was available in public outreach JWST data, and quickly took a look to see what compositions could be compatible with these dark moons. We found that they commonly have a 3.0 micron absorption, associated with hydration, whether in the form of pure water ice, hydrated minerals, or OH-bearing organics. These results are published in PSJ: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad3d55. We quickly realized that we need to get full 1-5 micron spectroscopy of these satellites, as they are severely understudied, with few hypotheses on their origin and composition, and even less data to back those hypotheses up. And so, we applied for, and received JWST time to study the various small moons of the ice giants.
Irregular Satellites
The irregular satellites of the giant planets are a population of satellites on distant, eccentric, and highly-inclined or retrograde orbits that preclude in-situ formation as a possible origin. Modern-day scenarios for their capture from the planetesimal disk suggest that the irregular satellites share their source population with the Kuiper belt and the Jupiter Trojans.
I am currently analyzing JWST NIRSpec 1-5 micron spectra from program 3716 on three Saturnian irregular satellites: Phoebe, Siarnaq and Albiorix, finding an interesting discrepancy between the appearance of abundant water ice on Phoebe and a lack of water ice on the smaller Siarnaq and Albiorix. This work is under review in the Planetary Science Journal.
Upcoming work will present the spectra of the irregular satellites from all four giant planets.
I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander’d and irregular,
Find pardon on my true submission.
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 3, Scene 2.
Small (or Inner) Satellites and Rings
Voyager, flying by Uranus in 1986, discovered 10 new moons and the rich dynamics of the Uranian ring system. While the dynamics of the moons and rings have been intensely studied, their compositions have remained unknown, other than that they are low-albedo and have neutral colors in the visible. Moreover, their origin remained unclear; are they formed in-situ, or ground-up material from close fly-bys of Kuiper belt objects, or something else entirely?
Our data from program 4645 has revealed the composition of the small inner satellites: Puck, Portia, Juliet. Work is ongoing on interpreting these data, so stay tuned.
The Trojan-KBO-Irregular satellite connection
An important testable prediction of dynamical instability models for the early evolution of the solar system, such as the Nice Model, is that Jupiter Trojans share a source population with the Kuiper belt. Concrete evidence of this prediction remains elusive, as Kuiper belt objects and Jupiter Trojans appear to have different surface compositions. In a recent paper, I address the long-standing question of Trojan origin by finding a dynamical subpopulation in the Kuiper belt with Trojan-like colors. Combining existing photometric data with our own surveys on Keck I and Palomar P200, we find that the low-perihelion (q<30 AU, a>30 AU) component of the Kuiper belt has colors that bifurcate similarly to the Jupiter Trojans, unlike Centaurs (a<30 AU) which have redder, Kuiper belt-like colors.
Testing Outer Solar System Surface Evolution with Retrograde Centaurs
I am looking forward to extending the connections between Centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, and Oort Cloud Comets with my Cycle 4 PI Program that will look at the Retrograde Centaurs, a unique sub-population of Centaurs. Their origin is still unresolved, but inner Oort cloud injection (whether from an undiscovered distant planet, stellar fly-bys, or self-gravity inclination instabilities) is frequently suggested as a possible origin for the retrograde objects, as excitation of KBOs onto high-inclination orbits is unlikely. These objects also have the unique property of having significantly more stable orbits than prograde Centaurs, and therefore represent an interesting look at surface evolution of KBOs, and whether that evolution leads them to acquiring Jupiter Trojan-like spectra.
