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LPL Spotlight Stories

Striped or Spotted? Winds and Jet Streams Found on the Closest Brown Dwarf

Planetary scientists wondered if bands of winds or swirling storms dominated the atmospheres of brown dwarfs. UArizona-led research has solved the mystery.

New Data Confirm 2020 SO to be the Upper Centaur Rocket Booster from the 1960’s

Using data collected at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and orbit analysis from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists have confirmed that Near-Earth Object (NEO) 2020 SO is, in fact, a 1960’s-Era Centaur rocket booster.

Plumes on Icy Worlds Hold Clues About What Lies Beneath

A new model shows how brine on Jupiter’s moon Europa can migrate within the icy shell to form pockets of salty water that erupt to the surface when freezing. The findings are important for the upcoming Europa Clipper mission and may explain cryovolcanic eruptions across icy bodies in the solar system.

Escape from Mars: How Water Fled the Red Planet

New LPL-led research updates our understanding of how water escaped Mars – not like a leaky faucet but with a sudden splash.

Life on Ancient Earth and Alien Planets: UArizona to Lead NASA Astrobiology Projects

Two of the eight interdisciplinary research teams selected by the NASA Astrobiology Program to inaugurate its Interdisciplinary Consortia for Interdisciplinary Research program are located at the University of Arizona. Led by Betül Kaçar and Dániel Apai, the teams were selected from a pool of more than 40 proposals.

Asteroid's Scars Tell Stories of its Past

Impact craters left by space debris in the boulders on asteroid Bennu's rugged surface allowed researchers to reconstruct the history of the near-Earth object in unprecedented detail.

OSIRIS-REx Successfully Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu

The mission team spent two days working around the clock to carry out the stowage procedure.

OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Collects Significant Amount of Asteroid

The spacecraft seems to have bit off more than it can chew, so the mission team will expedite stowing the sample for the return trip home.

Watch: OSIRIS-REx Touchdown Causes a Stir on Asteroid Bennu

The sampling arm of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made contact with asteroid Bennu to stir up surface material and capture some of it for return to Earth in 2023.

UArizona Mission Members Celebrate OSIRIS-REx Success

Members of the LPL-led OSIRIS-REx mission, along with UArizona leadership, gathered to watch NASA's live broadcast of the mission's much-anticipated Touch-and-Go, or TAG, sampling event.