LPL Spotlight Stories

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

In this image of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, different colors represent different compositions of surface ices, revealing a surprisingly active body. (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Cracked, Frozen and Tipped Over: New Clues From Pluto's Past

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - November 16, 2016 Sputnik Planitia, a 1,000-kilometer-wide basin within the iconic heart-shaped region observed

An artist’s concept of the Psyche spacecraft, a proposed mission for NASA’s Discovery program that would explore the huge metal Psyche asteroid from orbit (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Psyche: Unexpected Discoveries on a Metal World

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - October 21, 2016 Astronomers have discovered possible evidence for water on the surface of

An artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a hypothesized Neptune-size planet orbiting in the distant reaches of our solar system (Illustration: Robert Hurt/Caltech)

More Evidence for 9th Planet on Solar System's Fringes

By Daniel Stolte - University Communications, October 21, 2016 As the search for a hypothetical, unseen planet far beyond Neptune's

Boynton's Mission to Mars, 30 Years in the Making

By Emily Litvack, October 17, 2016 Before his life's work got to Mars, Bill Boynton toiled, witnessed an explosion, and

Malhotra Named Regents' Professor

April 12, 2016 LPL Professor Renu Malhotra is one of three University of Arizona faculty members named as Regents' Professors

Pluto's "heart" may not always have been in its current position, two UA planetary researchers suggest. (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Pluto Follows its Cold, Cold Heart

By Daniel Stolte, University Relations - Communications, March 28, 2016 Pluto is a weird environment, according to James Keane, a