LPL Spotlight Stories

RAVEN combines rovers and drones to explore landscapes that may otherwise be inaccessible

Project RAVEN, Summer 2022

Associate Professor Christopher Hamilton is again in Iceland this summer, leading a team in support of his RAVEN project. RAVEN combines rovers and drones to explore landscapes that may otherwise be inaccessible, such as young volcanic terrains on Mars that are too rough for a rover to traverse.

 This landscape of what looks like mountains and valleys speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA's Webb Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Webb Telescope's Stunning First Images Made Possible by UArizona Instruments and Expertise

The highly anticipated observations mark just the beginning of many years of new science and discovery, and University of Arizona experts are at the helm.
Artist's impression of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft kicking up rocks during sample collection on asteroid Bennu's surface. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab/Jonathan North

OSIRIS-REx Scientists: Taking Asteroid Sample Was Like Punching a Ball Pit

Before-and-after images and measurements revealed a treasure trove of data from the few seconds that it took for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect an asteroid sample, which is currently en route to Earth.

 In this picture of the Spirograph Nebula, a dying star about 2,000 light-years from Earth, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope revealed some remarkable textures weaving through the star's envelope of dust and gas. UArizona researchers have now found evidence that complex carbon nanotubes could be forged in such environments.NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Dying stars could seed interstellar medium with carbon nanotubes

Evidence suggests that carbon nanotubes, tiny tubes consisting of pure carbon, could be forged in the envelopes of dust and gas surrounding dying stars. The findings propose a simple, yet elegant mechanism for the formation and survival of complex carbon molecules in space.

How to Spot Asteroids

“Stay up all night,” says Gregory Leonard, a research scientist at the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, who uses a network of powerful telescopes to find and track what NASA calls near-Earth objects, including asteroids that come within 120 million miles of the sun. Go looking in a place without light pollution on a cloudless night with a steady atmosphere. Avoid a full moon.

Dr. Sarah Moran Named UArizona Sursum Fellow

Dr. Moran was selected for her proposal on Haze Evolution in sub-Neptune Exoplanets through UV Laboratory Experiments.

Dr. Sukrit Ranjan Joins LPL Faculty Starting Fall 2022

Sukrit's work is focused on the origin of life on Earth, the search for life on other worlds, and the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. He applies photochemistry to questions related to the origin of life on Earth and the search for life on other worlds.

Dr. Kathryn Volk, Vera Rubin Early Career Prize Winner

LPL Research Scientist Dr. Kathryn Volk has been named the recipient of the Vera Rubin Early Career Prize, which recognizes an early career dynamicist who demonstrates excellence in scientific research in dynamical astronomy. Dr. Volk received her Ph.D. from LPL in 2013.
This is an artists illustration of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft firing thrusters near the surface of the asteroid Apophis.

NASA Gives Green Light for OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft to Visit Another Asteroid

The extended mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX, will study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, which will have a close encounter with Earth in 2029.

 An astrobiologist, an engineer and an ecologist have teamed up to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

Small but Mighty: How UArizona Professors are Harnessing the Power of Algae to Capture Carbon

An astrobiologist, an engineer and an ecologist have teamed up to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.