Planetary Science
Planetary Science News
Margaret Deahn awarded Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship
07-01-2024
Margaret Deahn says she could have never imagined as a child that she would grow up to study rocks on other planets. But now she has three internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and an education in planetary sciences with Purdue University on her growing list of accomplishments. Now she can add Amelia Earhart Fellow to that list. She is one of only 30 scientists worldwide receiving a 2024 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. Deahn is a PhD student with Purdue University’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).
Stephanie Menten awarded Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship
07-01-2024
During a recent trip to Iceland, Stephanie Menten received an email announcing that she is one of only 30 scientists worldwide receiving a 2024 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. Menten, a PhD Student with Purdue University’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), studies the geophysics of icy moons in our outer solar system. Particularly, she studies processes such as cryovolcanism, volatile transport, and internal convection.
Mystery Hole Found on Mars Could Be Future Astronaut Home
06-14-2024
NEWSWEEK — A mysterious pit on Mars, captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), has reignited interest in the potential of these features to support future human missions to the Red Planet. Prof. Brandon Johnson, of Purdue EAPS, discusses this mysterious Martian hole.
What lies beneath: Mars’ subsurface ice could be a key to sustaining future habitats on other planets
06-04-2024
PURDUE NEWS — To survive on other planets, water is, of course, critical. We need it to drink, sustain crops and even create rocket fuel. But on spaceflights, checked luggage is exorbitantly expensive. Anything heavy, especially liquids like water, is bulky and costly to haul by rocket, even to our closest interplanetary neighbors. The best plan, then, is to find water at the spacecraft’s destination. Purdue University planetary scientist Ali Bramson’s research is laying the foundation for future extraterrestrial exploration. She is focused on finding ice deposits beneath the barren surfaces of the moon and Mars, providing a buried resource important for future human habitats and even space travel itself. Subsurface ice also is a compelling target for astrobiology, climatology and geology research.
Are volcanic depressions on the Moon a fountain of youth?
05-17-2024
Some volcanic areas on the Moon have a youthful appearance. These areas are known as Irregular Mare Patches, (pronounced MAHR-ay), or IMPs, and are considered youthful-looking in that, by appearance alone, look as though they were formed over a billion years after the Moon is thought to have stopped having volcanic eruptions. It’s a puzzle that lunar scientists have tried to resolve since their discovery and has major implications for the Moon’s evolution. Researchers at Purdue University recently published their findings on the composition of these IMPs and how they have managed to hide the proverbial fine lines and wrinkles. Hunter Vannier, PhD Candidate at Purdue University, is the lead author of the study published in AGU’s JGR Planets.
Discover Purdue’s latest and greatest in space sciences
05-06-2024
PURDUE NEWS — Space scientists are the boots on the ground of space exploration, and Purdue’s researchers are among the most elite. Celebrate the wonder of space with this collection of the most recent and impactful news from Purdue University’s space research labs. Prof. Brandon Johnson, Prof. Briony Horgan, Prof. Alexandria Johnson, alumna Adriana Brown, and students Hunter Vannier and Riley McGlasson have all recently had giant leaps in space research.
2024 EAPS Awards announced
04-29-2024
On Thursday, April 11, 2024, Purdue EAPS announced this year's awards for students, faculty, and staff at the Dauch Alumni Center of Purdue University. Thank you to donors who have made these awards possible!
NASA: 'New plan needed to return rocks from Mars'
04-16-2024
BBC — The US space agency says the current mission design can't return the samples before 2040 on the existing funds and the more realistic $11B needed to make it happen is not sustainable. NASA is going to canvas for cheaper, faster "out of the box" ideas. Perseverance has been drilling and caching rocks that appear to have been laid down at the margin of the lake. One of the rover's senior scientists, Prof. Briony Horgan, of Purdue EAPS, said these samples were particularly exciting.
China to hear pitches from NASA scientist, other researchers, to study Chang’e 5 lunar samples
04-11-2024
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST — China’s space agency has invited 10 scientists from the US, Europe and Asia to pitch their plans in person to study lunar samples brought back to Earth by China’s Chang’e 5 moon mission. US applicants appearing at the review will include planetary scientist Michelle Thompson from Purdue University.
Rock Sampled by NASA's Perseverance Embodies Why Rover Came to Mars
04-10-2024
NASA — Analysis by instruments aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicate that the latest rock core taken by the rover was awash in water for an extended period of time in the distant past, perhaps as part of an ancient Martian beach. Collected on March 11, the sample is the rover’s 24th – a tally that includes 21 sample tubes filled with rock cores, two filled with regolith (broken rock and dust), and one with Martian atmosphere. Briony Horgan, of Purdue EAPS, says, "we’re still exploring the margin and gathering data, but results so far may support our hypothesis that the rocks here formed along the shores of an ancient lake."
Thousands of strange white rocks found on Mars. Will they ever be brought to Earth?
04-04-2024
SPACE.COM — Mars' rusty red surface may have given it its famous "Red Planet" status, but it would also appear that thousands of white rocks are strangely littered on the Martian ground. NASA's Perseverance rover, a robotic geologist that has been exploring the Jezero Crater since early 2021, puzzled scientists when it delivered images of over 4,000 light-toned, pebble-sized rocks scattered all over the crater floor. "These are very unusual rocks and we're trying to figure out what's been going on," Candice Bedford, a planetary scientist at Purdue University in Indiana and a member of the Mars 2020 science team, said at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
A 'snowball fight' may help scientists find life on Jupiter's moon Europa
03-25-2024
SPACE — Scientists hoping to find life in liquid water oceans beneath the frigid, icy shell of Jupiter's moon Europa may get a helping hand from a "cosmic snowball fight" this world once engaged in. A team of planetary scientists, including Brandon Johnson and Shigeru Wakita of Purdue EAPS, may have some clues about the final value. After looking at large craters on Europa that resulted from asteroids and comets bombarding the moon, the researchers used these observations to determine that Enceladus' shell is around 12 miles (20 kilometers) thick. And this shell, they say, likely floats on an ocean ranging in depth from 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 kilometers) situated around the moon's rocky core.
Jupiter’s icy moon may be the next place humans find life, but first, they need to understand the structure of the moon
03-25-2024
PURDUE NEWS — Sometimes planetary physics is like being in a snowball fight. Most people, if handed an already-formed snowball, can use their experience and the feel of the ball to guess what kind of snow it is comprised of: packable and fluffy, or wet and icy. Using nearly the same principles, planetary scientists have been able to study the structure of Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon. A team of planetary science experts including Brandon Johnson, an associate professor, and Shigeru Wakita, a research scientist, in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue University’s College of Science, announced in a new paper published in Science Advances that Europa’s ice shell is at least 20 kilometers thick.
6 questions with NASA astronaut Drew Feustel, who will be at IMS for the total eclipse
03-15-2024
WRTV — As a child, Andrew Feustel never really dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But somehow, he knew, deep in his heart, that he would one day travel to outer space. "When I was growing up," Feustel said, "I just somehow believed that I would have an opportunity to eventually to work in the Human Spaceflight program. "He put in the work, investing years into making himself a NASA candidate. He exercised, honed his mechanical skills and got an education, earning two degrees from Purdue University along the way.
NASA’s Mars rover probes ancient shorelines for signs of life
03-14-2024
SCIENCE — NASA’s rover, which is collecting rock samples to eventually send to Earth, has explored a ring of rocks just inside the rim of Jezero crater, which is thought to have been filled with water billions of years ago. An initial analysis suggests the rocks are composed of rounded grains of carbonate, a mineral that precipitates out of water. It’s a promising sign that the rocks were once beachfront property, says Briony Horgan, a planetary scientist at Purdue University who leads the rover’s science campaign. “You can imagine the waves crashing up against the shores of an ancient paleolake,” she says.
Burial Depths of Lava Flows on the Moon
03-11-2024
Professor Ali Bramson, of Purdue EAPS, created this storymaps website to explore the burial depths of lava flows on the Moon. Check out the study of lunar radar datasets and their ability to decipher locations of "cryptomaria".
1 Month out from total solar eclipse
03-11-2024
FOX59 — We are officially 1 month out from the total solar eclipse, in which the path of totality will expand through parts of Indiana. But what is the path of totality? And why is the solar eclipse so special? Fox59 talks to Ali Bramson, assistant professor and planetary scientist with Purdue University, to learn more about what makes this event rare and exciting!
Ingenuity Spots the Shadow of Its Damaged Rotor Blade
02-29-2024
JPL — The Remote Microscopic Imager (RMI) camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took these zoomed-in images of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and one of its rotor blades on Feb. 24, 2024, the 1,072nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. During operations Friday, Feb. 23, Roger Wiens', of Purdue EAPS, team uplinked the sequence and worked with photo mosaic seen here. The team includes Stephanie Connell, EAPS grad student, and Noah Martin, future EAPS grad student and AAE BS working with Wiens at LANL.
Boilermakers given rare opportunity to send two crews on back-to-back Mars Desert Research Station missions
02-29-2024
THE PERSISTENT PURSUIT —Most Purdue students spend their winter break at home with family and friends, soaking up the good tidings and cheer of the holiday season. Riley McGlasson, Hunter Vannier, and Adriana Brown (of Purdue EAPS) and 11 other Boilermakers spent two weeks at the closest thing to Mars on Earth, the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS).
What If There Were No Leap Years?
02-29-2024
WIBC — Today is a Leap Day, but have you ever wondered what it would be like if there were no leap years? That’s going to happen eventually. “If you wait around two or three million years, your calendar is going to be a lot simpler. You won’t have leap days anymore. That’s when the number of days in a year will be exactly 365,” said David Minton, associate professor of planetary sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue University’s College of Science.
Satellites are burning up in the upper atmosphere – and we still don’t know what impact this will have on the Earth’s climate
02-26-2024
THE CONVERSATION — Atmospheric scientists are increasingly concerned that the space sector will cause further climate change down on Earth. One team recently, and unexpectedly, found potential ozone-depleting metals from spacecraft in the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer where the ozone layer is formed. Dan Cziczo, professor and head of Purdue EAPS, is cited in this article in The Conversation.
The science behind leap years
02-26-2024
WLFI — Why do we have leap years? David Minton, associate professor of planetary sciences at Purdue, explains why leap years are necessary in an interview with WLFI.
Odysseus completes first US moon landing in 50 years: How did it unfold?
02-26-2024
ALJAZEERA — Technical issues forced Odysseus to take an extra lap around the moon, but the craft carrying NASA cargo has landed safely. Ali Bramson, of Purdue EAPS, is quoted in this article by Aljazeera.
Odysseus Lunar Lander's Mission to the Moon
02-22-2024
WLFI — It's been more than 50 years since the US first landed on the moon, and now there is a plan to pay it another visit. Ali Bramson, of Purdue EAPS, speaks with WLFI News about the planned lunar mission's life cycle.