LPL Spotlight Stories

A yet to be discovered, unseen "planetary mass object" makes its existence known by ruffling the orbital plane of distant Kuiper Belt objects, according to research by Kat Volk and Renu Malhotra of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. The object is pictured on a wide orbit far beyond Pluto in this artist's illustration. (Image: Heather Roper/LPL)

UA Scientists and the Curious Case of the Warped Kuiper Belt

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - June 20, 2017 An unknown, unseen "planetary mass object" may lurk in the outer

UA to Host Special Events Tied to Asteroid Day

University Communications - June 13, 2017 A presentation at the University of Arizona on June 27 will feature six experts
The Amazon River and its watershed — the largest river system on Earth — cover 2.4 million square miles.

Amazonia's Future Will Be Jeopardized by Dams

By Mari N. Jensen, UA College of Science, and Rachel Griess, University of Texas, Austin - June 14, 2017 Building
Undergraduate students Ryan Bronson, Sameep Arora, Damon Marco Colpo, Lindsie Jeffries, and Evelyn Hunten peer out from a telescope they built to track satellites.

Students Build Telescopes to Track Satellites

By Emily Litvack, UA Research, Dicovery and Innovation - May 22, 2017 Why should you buy what you can make
Close-up of a focused ion beam.

So You Want to Analyze Asteroid Dirt

By Emily Litvack - May 18, 2017 In the year 2023, priceless property of the American people will land somewhere

 This impact occurred between December 2003 and November 2005. The main crater itself is only 23 meters across, but the impact event created markings spreading more than a kilometer outward. The interior stands out as blue because the impact excavated a cavity into rocks below the surface that has a different composition than the overlying dust. Some distant dark-toned spots and streaks were created when ejecta from the main crater flew out and re-impacted the surface, producing chains of secondary craters.

HiRISE Brings the Red Planet's Beauty to Your Coffee Table

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - May 15, 2017 A gorgeous, sumptuous tome chock-full of stunning images taken by the
UA alumnus Dante Lauretta led the design, build and launch of a spacecraft to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, to collect a sample and return that sample to Earth. (Photo: Symeon Platts/UA)

Alumni Achievement Award for Dante Lauretta

By UA Alumni Association - May 9, 2017 Dante Lauretta, leader of the University of Arizona's biggest space mission, will

 An artist’s rendering of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s survey pattern during its Earth-Trojan asteroid search (not to scale). The search occurs Feb. 9-20 as the spacecraft transits the Earth’s L4 Lagrangian region. (Illustration: Heather Roper/UA)

Surveying the Scenery 90 Million Miles From Earth

By Daniel Stolte/UA News and Erin Morton/LPL - February 9, 2017 A NASA spacecraft has begun its search for an
Ceres' lonely mountain, Ahuna Mons, is seen in this simulated perspective view. The elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two. The view was made using enhanced-color images from NASA's Dawn mission. (Image: NASA)

The Mystery of Ahuna Mons, the Lonely Ice Volcano

By American Geophysical Union/University Communications - February 2, 2017 A recently discovered solitary ice volcano on the dwarf planet Ceres

 Small near-Earth asteroids are important targets of study because not much is known about them. By characterizing the smallest of the bunch, scientists can better understand the population of objects from which they originate: large asteroids, which have a much smaller likelihood of impacting Earth. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's the Tiniest Asteroid!

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - November 30, 2016 Astronomers have obtained observations of the smallest asteroid ever characterized in