LPL Newsletter for December 2022
Thursday, December 1, 2022
This month’s newsletter reports on LPL graduate student Tyler Meng’s studies of rock glaciers in Alaska and how they might help us to better understand similar landforms on Mars. There is also a report on the discovery by the Catalina Sky Survey of a very small asteroid that subsequently entered the atmosphere and burned up near Toronto, Canada (you might have seen footage of the fireball on the news). This brings to 4 the number of pre-impact asteroids discovered so far by CSS and attests to the ability of the survey to rapidly find and enable the orbit characterization of potentially hazardous objects. And last week, a suite of papers from the first exoplanet observed by JWST was released. The press release below highlights modeling work on the dataset by LPL Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow Sarah Moran.
Finally, Tucson locals may be interested in the opportunity to hear readings from a play about LPL Professor Tom Gehrels, written by a relative. As a former LPL graduate student, I well remember Tom and as Director, it has been interesting to hear the recollections of others at LPL who knew him. I’m sure the event at the UArizona Library will be an interesting evening and I’ll be there with the flight spare Pioneer 11 photopolarimeter you can see in the promotional photo below.
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Mapping rock glaciers to understand their future on Earth and Mars
LPL graduate student Tyler Meng and his adviser, Professor Jack Holt, developed a new method for analyzing rock glaciers, which could help scientists better understand these "hidden giants" on Earth and Mars
Catalina Sky Survey discovered small asteroid that broke up over Ontario, Canada, on November 19
The impact of asteroid 2022 WJ1 was accurately predicted thanks to observations and rapid follow-up by CSS, which has discovered 4 of the 6 natural observed space objects linked to an impact.
JWST scientists have identified the "mystery molecule" in exoplanet atmospheres
Dr. Sarah Moran developed the theoretical models of photochemical processes that explained the data and will lead to improvements in the search for habitable exoplanets.
A reading from the play, Satellites
On December 5 at 6:00p.m., UArizona Special Collections Reading Room hosts theatre maker Natalie Songer as she reads from Satellites, the play she wrote about her great-great uncle Dr. Tom Gehrels, scientist and professor of planetary sciences from 1961-2011. The event is free and open to the public. Register to reserve a seat. Note: The play script contains some profanity and descriptions of experiences within concentration camps.