EAPS News

12-11-2025

Inside NASA's Prep for the Moon, Mars, and the Search for Life

NASA on YouTube — NASA experts take you behind the scenes in Iceland, where they study icy volcanoes, lava fields, hydrothermal vents, and other extreme environments that mimic other worlds. EAPS Assistant Professor Ali Bramson and her research team are working to figure out how astronauts can find and characterize water/ice and what is needed to prepare them for these activities.

12-11-2025

The evolutionary history of kissing, moss in space, and the origins of the moon

NPR Short Wave Podcast— Now, a new paper in the journal Science is attempting to figure out what this object Theia was made out of and where in the solar system it came from. EAPS's Kelsey Prissel made an appearance on the podcast.

12-10-2025

Findings suggest red planet was warmer, wetter billions of years ago

Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth.

12-10-2025

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Found Evidence of Tropical Storms on Mars

Vice — In a new study published in Communications Earth and Environment, led by Adrian Broz of Purdue University EAPS, researchers report that these aluminum-rich rocks scattered around Jezero Crater have the same chemical signature as kaolinite formed in Earth’s tropical climates after millions of years of water slowly stripping minerals from rock.

12-10-2025

Scientists say Bennu samples hold a trove of life-building ingredients

MSN — Work led by planetary scientists at Purdue University describes Bennu as a carbonaceous asteroid whose composition fits with scenarios in which such bodies helped in seeding the early Earth with both water and carbon. In that picture, brine-filled pores and fractures on the parent body would have acted as miniature chemical reactors, cycling organics through different temperatures and concentrations.

12-10-2025

Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science faculty years of service celebrated at recent luncheon

Purdue University recognized more than 300 faculty members for their years of service during a celebratory luncheon Dec. 2. Faculty members were celebrated for service anniversaries ranging from 10 years to a remarkable 55. The Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science celebrated nine faculty members with service ranging from 10 to 20 years.