Focus on Graduate Students

The UA's Class of 2017 has it all, from a planetary scientist who has studied Pluto to a would-be chaplain. In the first part of a two-part series, we introduce four graduates who are poised to make an impact in the world.

New research led by Michael Sori of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory shows that Ceres, a dwarf planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, may have vanishing ice volcanoes.

Research by two UA planetary scientists reveals fascinating clues about Pluto, suggesting the small world at the fringes of our solar system is much more active than anyone ever imagined.

Pluto’s "heart" may be cold as ice, but it’s in the right place, according to two UA scientists who believe the dwarf planet’s iconic, heart-shaped region of frozen ice may have shifted its location — and dragged the entire planet with it.

Billions of years ago, intense volcanic activity on the moon's Earth-facing side caused its axis to tilt, a team of researchers has discovered. Two UA planetary scientists helped unlock this secret by tracing ancient water ice deposits at the bottom of shadowed craters where sunlight never reaches.

Graduate students in the Lunar and Planetary Lab and undergraduates in the art education department joined forces to make this year's "Art of Planetary Science" exhibition a success.

Just beneath the planet's dirt surface, UA researchers found an enormous slab of water ice, measuring 130 feet thick and covering an area equivalent to that of California and Texas combined.

Taking before and after pictures of Martian terrain, researchers of the UA-led HiRISE imaging experiment have identified almost 250 fresh impact craters on the Red Planet. The results suggest Mars gets pummeled by space rocks less frequently than previously thought, as scientists relied on cratering rates of the moon for their estimates.