The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, under the direction of Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, continues to make steady progress. On December 9, the public countdown clocks for the mission were turned on. On that day, the time until the start of the September 2016 launch window dropped to 999 days, and the countdown began.
This year, the Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory was proud to recognize and award three graduate students for their efforts toward service and outreach, which includes attention to broader impacts and involvement in activities outside of academic responsibilities that benefit the department, university and the larger community:
LPL’s Ali Bramson won the award for Outstanding Teaching at the 7th Annual College of Science Graduate Student Awards. Ali was recognized for her work in developing a year-long seminar course called “Entering Research (LASC 397A).” The course, which Ali taught this year, introduces undergraduates to all facets of the research endeavor.
Congratulations to PTYS undergraduate minor Cassandra Lejoly. For Spring 2014, Cassandra was named Outstanding Senior for the Department of Astronomy. Cassandra presented her research at the Astronomy Department's Graduating Astronomy Major Research Symposium on April 24. Her abstract is provided below. In the fall, Cassandra will be attending Northern Arizona University as a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The UA Campus played host again this spring to the annual Tucson Festival of Books. This year's event, the sixth annual festival, was held March 15-16, 2014. The Tucson Festival of Books is free and open to the public. It has become one of the most anticipated and well attended book fairs in the U.S., attracting approximately 100,000 attendees, 450 authors, and 300 exhibitors.
What could make Opening Day at an Arizona Diamondbacks game even better? That would be catching a foul ball and making it look easy! Nice job, Professor Swindle!
But wait...lightning strikes twice! There is no video confirmation, but reports indicate that Tim Swindle caught a second line-drive foul ball at the Arizona Diamondbacks game on Sunday, April 13. Good to know that our Head and Director might have an alternate career path in case of a bad funding year.
The Catalina Sky Survey Team (CSS) reached an important milestone, and also discovered two highly unusual asteroids in the last few months. The milestone was that CSS discovered its 5000th Near-Earth Object (NEO). On March 31, CSS Astronomer Jess Johnson discovered NEO 2014 FS52 using the 60" reflector on Mt. Lemmon. According to CSS PI Eric Christensen, "This is a fairly ordinary NEO, but an extraordinary statistic!
