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Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the - Solar System ...

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EPOXI: The name of <strong>the</strong> extended mission of NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft. The name is a<br />

comb<strong>in</strong>ation of Extrasolar Planet Observation <strong>and</strong> Characterization <strong>and</strong> Deep Impact Extended<br />

Investigation, <strong>the</strong> two phases of <strong>the</strong> extended mission.<br />

ESMD: NASA’s Exploration <strong>System</strong>s Mission Directorate.<br />

Exogenic: Relat<strong>in</strong>g to a process of external orig<strong>in</strong>.<br />

Exoplanets: Planets <strong>for</strong>med around stars o<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> Sun.<br />

Felsic rock: A class of rock which crystallizes from silicate m<strong>in</strong>erals at relatively low temperatures <strong>and</strong><br />

has a high percentage of silica.<br />

Fischer-Tropsch reaction: A method <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> syn<strong>the</strong>sis of hydrocarbons <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r carbon compounds.<br />

Typically, a mixture of hydrogen <strong>and</strong> carbon monoxide is reacted <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> presence of an iron or cobalt<br />

catalyst to produce methane <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r organic compounds, with water <strong>and</strong> carbon dioxide as by-products.<br />

Fluvial: Relat<strong>in</strong>g to flow<strong>in</strong>g water.<br />

Flux: A measure of <strong>the</strong> energy or number of particles pass<strong>in</strong>g through a given area of surface <strong>in</strong> unit<br />

time.<br />

FUSE: NASA’s Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer<br />

Ga: One billion years<br />

GCM: General Circulation Model.<br />

GN&C: Guidance, Navigation <strong>and</strong> Control.<br />

Gossamer r<strong>in</strong>g: The outermost r<strong>in</strong>gs of Jupiter.<br />

GPS: Global Position<strong>in</strong>g <strong>System</strong>.<br />

GRAIL: NASA’s Gravity Recovery <strong>and</strong> Interior Laboratory mission.<br />

GSFC: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.<br />

Gusev crater: A 144-km-wide crater located some 15 degrees south of <strong>the</strong> equator of Mars that was <strong>the</strong><br />

l<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g site <strong>for</strong> Spirit, one of <strong>the</strong> Mars Exploration Rovers.<br />

Hadley-like convection: A type of circulation pattern seen <strong>in</strong> planetary atmospheres. Warm, lowdensity<br />

material rises near <strong>the</strong> equator, flows towards <strong>the</strong> poles <strong>and</strong> cools. Cooler, high-density material<br />

s<strong>in</strong>ks <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> subtropics <strong>and</strong> floes equatorward along <strong>the</strong> surface.<br />

H/He ratio: Hydrogen to Helium ratio.<br />

HDO: A <strong>for</strong>m of heavy water where one hydrogen atom is replaced by a deuterium atom.<br />

Hesperian epoch: The middle of three broad time periods <strong>in</strong>to which <strong>the</strong> geologic history of Mars has<br />

been divided, extend<strong>in</strong>g very roughly from about 3.5 to about 1.8 billion years ago.<br />

PREPUBLICATION COPY—SUBJECT TO FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION<br />

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