New insights from old lunar samples
When
Where
Dr. Jessica Barnes
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor Jessica Barnes seeks to understand the origin and evolution of volatiles in the Solar System by using a combination of nano and microanalytical techniques in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis to study mineralogy, geochemistry, isotopes and petrological histories of a wide range of extraterrestrial materials.
Dr. Barnes is principal investigator of a project under the umbrella of Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis program to study preserved lunar sample 71036 in comparison with basalts of similar bulk chemistries that have been stored at room temperature, in an effort to unravel the history of volatile loss on the Moon. Other ongoing projects include investigating the petrology of igneous lunar samples, coordinated microanalysis of meteorites to investigate the evolution of water in the Martian crust, and studies aimed at assessing the inventories and origins of volatiles on primitive chondritic and achondritic asteroids, including the study of samples recently returned from asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx space mission. In 2019, Nature magazine named Dr. Barnes as one of five researchers shaking up lunar exploration. In 2020, Dr. Barnes received a NASA Planetary Science Early Career Award and in 2023, she won the Nier Prize from the Meteoritical Society.
Learn more about Dr. Jessica Barnes.
For more information, visit the LPL Evening Lecture Series page.