News Researcher Spotlight: Devin Schrader Jan. 1, 2021 Dr. Devin Schrader studies primitive meteorites that have remained relatively unaltered since they formed in the early Solar System ~4.5 billion years ago. He also works on samples returned from asteroids, including those returned from asteroid Itokawa by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), and is a collaborator on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. Read more Image Asteroid Explorer Collects First Samples Thought To Be Rich in Organic Compounds; A Purdue Scientist Will Be Among the First to Study Dec. 16, 2020 Michelle Thompson holds a sample of a carbonaceous meteorite, which may have similarities to material returned by the Hayabusa2 mission. Read more Image Purdue University photo/John Underwood Jupiter's Moons Could be Warming Each Other Sept. 10, 2020 LPL alumnus Hamish Hay is lead author of a study that found that moon-moon interactions may be more responsible for the heating than Jupiter alone. Read more Image Postdoc Success Stories: Drs. Ali Bramson and Michael Sori will be Assistant Professors at Purdue University! Aug. 17, 2020 Dr. Michael Sori (Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Dr. Ali Bramson (Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona) are Postdoctoral Scholars in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona. Both have recently accepted positions as Assistant Professors in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) at Purdue University. Read more Image What Saturn's Most Mysterious Moon Could Teach Us About the Origins of Life Aug. 1, 2020 NASA's Dragonfly -- a robotic rotorcraft-lander that's designed to hop across the surface of an extraterrestrial body -- is set to voyage deep into the solar system to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2026. Planetary scientist Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle shares how studying this mysterious moon that's thought to resemble the early Earth could bring us closer to understanding the habitability of other planets -- and the origin of life itself. Watch video Image A View From Earth - Dr. Margaret Landis July 30, 2020 LPL alumna Dr. Margaret Landis is a post-doc at CU Boulder specializing in geology and icy bodies all over the Solar System. She has worked with spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Dawn spacecraft that visited the dwarf planet Ceres, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the moon. Her current work looking at the chemistry of ices on the moon could be essential in determining what sort of water reservoirs our future human explorers could access for drinking, farming, and fuel. Read more Image Octocopter Set to Explore Titan, Saturn's Very Cool Moon June 30, 2020 NASA is on a mission to explore Titan — the largest moon of Saturn. To do that, scientists are building a nuclear-powered, self-driving drone (technically an octocopter) called Dragonfly, led by Principal Investigator and LPL alumna Dr. Elizabeth Turtle. Scheduled to launch in 2026 and arrive on Titan in 2034, Dragonfly could provide clues about how the building blocks of life started here on Earth. Listen to podcast Image NASA's OSIRIS-REx Discovers Sunlight Can Crack Rocks on Asteroid Bennu June 9, 2020 Dr. Jamie Molaro is lead author on a paper documenting the first evidence for thermal fracturing on an object without an atmosphere. " The phenomenon, observed by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on asteroid Bennu, and evidence of thermal fracturing on the asteroid can help scientists learn about the geologic history not only on Bennu, but on other planetary surfaces as well. Read more Image NASA Planetary Scientist, Barbara Cohen, Uses Samples Gathered from Rover Missions for Geochronology May 15, 2020 LPL Alum Barbara Cohen (2000), in interviewed by Purdue College of Science's Superheroes of Science. Read more Image Martian Ice Revealed: Dr. Ali Bramson April 26, 2020 Dr. Ali Bramson, a planetary scientist with expertise in spacecraft remote sensing of ice on other worlds, discusses how to find ice on Mars. Watch video Image Pagination « First First page ‹ Previous Previous page … 1 2 3 4 5 … Next › Next page Last » Last page
Researcher Spotlight: Devin Schrader Jan. 1, 2021 Dr. Devin Schrader studies primitive meteorites that have remained relatively unaltered since they formed in the early Solar System ~4.5 billion years ago. He also works on samples returned from asteroids, including those returned from asteroid Itokawa by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), and is a collaborator on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. Read more Image
Asteroid Explorer Collects First Samples Thought To Be Rich in Organic Compounds; A Purdue Scientist Will Be Among the First to Study Dec. 16, 2020 Michelle Thompson holds a sample of a carbonaceous meteorite, which may have similarities to material returned by the Hayabusa2 mission. Read more Image Purdue University photo/John Underwood
Jupiter's Moons Could be Warming Each Other Sept. 10, 2020 LPL alumnus Hamish Hay is lead author of a study that found that moon-moon interactions may be more responsible for the heating than Jupiter alone. Read more Image
Postdoc Success Stories: Drs. Ali Bramson and Michael Sori will be Assistant Professors at Purdue University! Aug. 17, 2020 Dr. Michael Sori (Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Dr. Ali Bramson (Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona) are Postdoctoral Scholars in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona. Both have recently accepted positions as Assistant Professors in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) at Purdue University. Read more Image
What Saturn's Most Mysterious Moon Could Teach Us About the Origins of Life Aug. 1, 2020 NASA's Dragonfly -- a robotic rotorcraft-lander that's designed to hop across the surface of an extraterrestrial body -- is set to voyage deep into the solar system to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2026. Planetary scientist Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle shares how studying this mysterious moon that's thought to resemble the early Earth could bring us closer to understanding the habitability of other planets -- and the origin of life itself. Watch video Image
A View From Earth - Dr. Margaret Landis July 30, 2020 LPL alumna Dr. Margaret Landis is a post-doc at CU Boulder specializing in geology and icy bodies all over the Solar System. She has worked with spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Dawn spacecraft that visited the dwarf planet Ceres, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the moon. Her current work looking at the chemistry of ices on the moon could be essential in determining what sort of water reservoirs our future human explorers could access for drinking, farming, and fuel. Read more Image
Octocopter Set to Explore Titan, Saturn's Very Cool Moon June 30, 2020 NASA is on a mission to explore Titan — the largest moon of Saturn. To do that, scientists are building a nuclear-powered, self-driving drone (technically an octocopter) called Dragonfly, led by Principal Investigator and LPL alumna Dr. Elizabeth Turtle. Scheduled to launch in 2026 and arrive on Titan in 2034, Dragonfly could provide clues about how the building blocks of life started here on Earth. Listen to podcast Image
NASA's OSIRIS-REx Discovers Sunlight Can Crack Rocks on Asteroid Bennu June 9, 2020 Dr. Jamie Molaro is lead author on a paper documenting the first evidence for thermal fracturing on an object without an atmosphere. " The phenomenon, observed by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on asteroid Bennu, and evidence of thermal fracturing on the asteroid can help scientists learn about the geologic history not only on Bennu, but on other planetary surfaces as well. Read more Image
NASA Planetary Scientist, Barbara Cohen, Uses Samples Gathered from Rover Missions for Geochronology May 15, 2020 LPL Alum Barbara Cohen (2000), in interviewed by Purdue College of Science's Superheroes of Science. Read more Image
Martian Ice Revealed: Dr. Ali Bramson April 26, 2020 Dr. Ali Bramson, a planetary scientist with expertise in spacecraft remote sensing of ice on other worlds, discusses how to find ice on Mars. Watch video Image