LPL Spotlight Stories

This artist's concept shows the planned flight path of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its final flyby of asteroid Bennu, which is scheduled for April 7. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

OSIRIS-REx to Fly a Farewell Tour of Bennu

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will swoop around Bennu one more time to collect information about how the Tough-and-Go sample collection affected the asteroid before returning home.

 This artist’s concept shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departing asteroid Bennu to begin its two-year journey back to Earth. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

UArizona-Led OSIRIS-REx Mission Plans for May Asteroid Departure

Since its launch in September 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has traveled billions of miles, mapped the surface of an asteroid in unprecedented detail, and made new scientific discoveries about near-Earth asteroids. Now, it's preparing to bring a piece of asteroid Bennu home.
Created by an eruption five years ago, the Holuhraun lava flow field in Iceland is some of the newest "real estate" in the world where Christopher Hamilton and his team are testing new ways for drones and rovers to work together to explore Mars.

With $3M NASA Grant, UArizona Scientists Will Test Mars Exploration Drones in Iceland

NASA has awarded $3.1 million to Christopher Hamilton in UArizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory to develop a drone that could act as a "field assistant" to a rover and explore previously inaccessible regions on Mars.

 Using high-precision brightness measurements from NASA's TESS space telescope, astronomers found that the nearby brown dwarf Luhman 16B's atmosphere is dominated by high-speed, global winds akin to Earth's jet stream system. This global circulation determines how clouds are distributed in the brown dwarf's atmosphere, giving it a striped appearance.

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.
In addition to supporting a variety of NASA planetary missions, NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility on Maunakea on the Big Island of Hawaii is also used to determine the composition of near-Earth objects. Credits: University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy / Michael Connelley

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.

 This artist’s conception of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa shows a hypothesized cryovolcanic eruption, in which briny water from within the icy shell blasts into space. A new model of this process on Europa may also explain plumes on other icy bodies. Justice Blaine Wainwright

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.
This artist's concept depicts the early Martian environment (right) – believed to contain liquid water and a thicker atmosphere – versus the cold, dry environment seen at Mars today (left). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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.
This image shows four views of asteroid Bennu along with a corresponding global mosaic. The images were taken on Dec. 2, 2018, by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s PolyCam camera, which is part of the OCAMS instrument suite designed by UArizona scientists and engineers. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

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.

 Taken on Oct. 28 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, this image shows the collector head after it was separated from the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism arm. The collector head is secured onto the capture ring in the Sample Return Capsule. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

OSIRIS-REx Successfully Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu

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