Spring

Kudos to Ingrid Daubar-Spitale (Service), Juan Lora (Teaching), and Tom Schad (Scholarship) for receipt of the 2011 College of Science Graduate Student Awards.

Ingrid, Juan, and Tom were awarded for their accomplishments in the following areas:

Service (Ingrid Daubar-Spitale): attention to broader impacts and involvement in activities outside of academic responsibilities that benefit the department, university and the larger community. For example, representing graduate student interests on councils or committees, organizing graduate student events, helping with departmental recruitment, K-12 outreach, etc.

Teaching (Juan Lora): teaching or mentoring that goes above and beyond what is required; positive evaluations or other feedback from students, willingness to help junior graduate students, etc.

Scholarship (Tom Schad): outstanding research publications, presentations at meetings, scholarships awarded.

The students each received a cash award and recognition at the College of Science Awards Ceremony held on April 15, 2011.

Sarah M. Hörst, doctoral student in the Department of Planetary Sciences, is the recipient of the 2011 Kuiper Memorial Award. The award is presented annually to University of Arizona students in the field of planetary sciences who have excelled in academic work and research. The award is presented in memory of Gerard P. Kuiper, the founder of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Department of Planetary Sciences.

Hörst enrolled in the Department of Planetary Sciences in 2005 after earning Bachelor of Science degrees in planetary science and literature from the California Institute of Technology. Her research at the University of Arizona has focused on the role of oxygen chemistry in Titan's atmosphere and its relationship to the formation of aerosols, commonly called tholins. In a widely cited paper (Hörst et al., JGR), Ms. Hörst showed that the CO and CO2 in Titan's atmosphere is likely the consequence of precipitation of energetic oxygen ions from Saturn's magnetosphere into Titan's upper atmosphere. This paper clarified several decades of confusion about the origin and distribution of O-bearing species on Titan. It received broad support in the community and was recently awarded the Peter B. Wagner award from the Desert Research Institute. This award is given to paper by a female author in atmospheric science.

More recently, Ms. Hörst has concentrated her work on analysis of Titan aerosol analogues created in laboratory simulations using high-resolution mass spectroscopy. She has identified many hundreds of oxygen species in the tholins, including nucleotide bases and amino acids. This work has attracted a great deal of interest in the wider community (Discover magazine cited it among its top stories of 2010). Ms. Hörst has also identified and explained some surprising regularities in the tholin mass spectra, leading to deeper understanding of chemical growth in Titan's atmosphere. In particular, she has been able to explain the 13.5 amu periodicity seen in all tholin spectra as a consequence of molecular growth by addition of CH3 and N radicals to large molecules at equal but random rates, moderated by some basic chemical rules.

Ms. Hörst's dissertation work, titled "Post-Cassini Investigations of Titan Atmospheric Chemistry," required that she develop an original approach rather than apply well established techniques to new environments or extending previously used methods. This new approach allowed her to identify molecules uniquely, searching through the many thousands of molecules detected and assigned to find regular patterns in order to interpret these patterns in terms of chemical structure. Ms. Hörst successfully defended her dissertation on April 28, 2011.

Hörst received a cash award and a plaque, presented at the LPL Awards and Recognition Ceremony on April 22, 2011. Congratulations, Sarah!

Professor Tom Gehrels was recognized for his 50 years of service at the annual University of Arizona Service Awards luncheon, held on April 13, 2011.

Professor Tom Gehrels joined the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in 1961 as an Associate Professor. He earned his B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from Leiden (Netherlands) University in 1951, and his Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 1956. While in Chicago, he worked with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Gerard P. Kuiper (who founded LPL in 1960). Dr. Gehrels' distinguished science career features many highlights. During the 1950s, Professor Gehrels pioneered the first photometric system of asteroids and discovered the opposition effect in the brightness of asteroids. In the 1960s, he pioneered wavelength dependence of polarization of stars and planets. His research interests then migrated to imaging photopolarimetry of Jupiter and Saturn, and Dr. Gehrels was named principal investigator for the Pioneer 10 and 11 Imaging Photopolarimeters, which discovered Saturn's F ring.

In 1980, Tom Gehrels founded the SPACEWATCH® Project, which uses telescopes on Kitt Peak to survey the sky for dangerous asteroids; he led the project until 1997. Professor Gehrels also founded the well known and well respected Space Science Series, still published by the University of Arizona Press. He served as general editor for the first 30 volumes of the series. At its start in the 1980s, the Space Science Series represented a new way of producing research textbooks.

In 2007, Tom Gehrels was the recipient of the Harold Masursky Award, presented by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in recognition of meritorious service to planetary science. Professor Gehrels' current research interest is universal evolution. Each fall, he teaches an undergraduate course for non-science majors and each spring, he presents a brief version of that course at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India, where he is a lifetime Fellow.

Dr. Ilaria Pascucci recently joined PTYS/LPL as an astrophysicist and Assistant Professor. Before joining LPL in March of this year, she was working at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore as instrument scientist for the STIS spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Ilaria completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Bologna in Italy and obtained her Ph.D. in astrophysics in 2004 at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

Professor Pascucci's research focuses on observations and modeling of the formation and evolution of planetary systems. She is particularly interested in merging the cosmochemical constraints on the solar nebula evolution with the astronomical perspective of protoplanetary disk evolution and planet formation.

Her research activities include studies of the mineralogy of protoplanetary disks, the evolution and dispersal of the pre-planetary material around young stars, and the evolution of volatiles in protoplanetary disks in relation to their delivery to terrestrial planets. For her research, Dr. Pascucci is using state-of-the-art ground- and space-based facilities including the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, the Herschel Space Observatory, and 8m-class ground-based telescopes such as Keck and the VLT.

Welcome, Ilaria!

LPL Fieldtrip (PTYS 594A), Spring 2011
by Assistant Professor Shane Byrne

This semester we set off to investigate the geology associated with shoreline processes. It seems the more we learn about our planetary neighbors the more relevant these comparisons become to planetary science. From the relict shoreline features of ancient martian lakes and oceans, to the current dynamic shores of the Earth and Titan, the action of large amounts of liquid on solid surfaces can be seen across the solar system.

Our trip has two major destinations. We first visited the Salton Sea, the latest in a series of large lakes to flood the Salton trough with water from the Colorado River. In contrast to its previous incarnations, this version of the Salton Sea was accidently created by an industrial accident early in the 20th century. Engineers built a canal too close to the Colorado River, which overflowed and cut a new course into the Salton trough forming a new sea. It was two years before the entire debacle was brought under control and the river restored to its former course. Although recently in decline, the Salton Sea was at first a booming resort location.

While at the Salton Sea, we saw examples of the paleolake shoreline of Lake Cahuilla where rocks previously below the waterline were covered with a deposit of tufa, while their higher neighbors remained dry and bare. Evidence of the ancient lake abounds in this region including the layers of freshwater shells that crunch underfoot in what is now a dry desert. The Salton trough is also an active geothermal area and we visited some mud volcanoes that are continuously disgorging viscous flows of (smelly) material. It's been suggested these kinds of features could exist on Mars and perhaps form an astrobiological enclave.

The second major destination was the pacific shoreline, where wave action has produced a set of geologic features very distinct from the relatively quiescent shores of an inland lake. Active uplift of the coast along with erosion from beating waves have conspired to produce terraces and cliffs at the water line. On occasion, older terraces can be seen higher up on the cliff where they have been lifted safely clear of the waves by the tectonic forces at work beneath southern California. If only wave cut terraces were as clearly visible on Mars! While on the beach we learned a great deal about the alongshore transport of sand and the action of waves in controlling the overall beach shape.

As always, the local peculiarities of our destinations were memorable. The roar of ATVs at a stop at the Algodones dunes reminds us that they have recreational (as well as geologic) value. The Salton Sea itself remains in a sorry state, surrounded by the decaying remnants of its long lost heyday. Campsites at an abandoned mining railroad and Clark dry lake (that served as a World War II target range and radio telescope site in its past) add an interesting historical perspective to chat about when huddled around the campfire at the end of the day.

(Image credit: Dyer Lytle)

Pam Streett, PTYS/LPL Academic Advisor, was awarded honorable mention for the Outstanding Staff Award. During her nearly 22 years at LPL, Pam has held a a number of positions, including Secretary and Administrative Assistant. Pam was also recognitzed at the Awards and Reception ceremony. Kudos to Pam!

The HiRISE HiTranslate project uses volunteers from across the globe to translate captions describing the high-resolution images taken by the HiRISE Mars camera.

By translating the image captions into their native languages, volunteers make HiRISE discoveries accessible to non-English speaking space enthusiasts.

Due to the response, HiRISE now has three separate language sections: Spanish, Italian, and Greek.

You can read more about the project on the HiRISE site.

LPL is pleased to announce that Ewen A. Whitaker will be honored with an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Arizona at the May 2011 commencement.

Mr. Ewen Adair Whitaker was born on June 22, 1922, in London. In 1940, he began work as a laboratory assistant with Siemens Brothers. He was later exempted from military service because his work at Siemens was itself vitally important to the war effort—Ewen worked on the top-secret PLUTO project, conducting spectrochemical analysis of underwater gasoline supply pipes to be used for the D-Day Normandy landings.

In 1949, Mr. Whitaker became Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and then, in 1956, at Herstmonceux Castle. Astrometry and astrophysics were his vocation, but selenography, the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon, became the avocation that would lead him to Tucson and to the Apollo program. In 1955, at the Ninth Congress of the International Astronomical Union, the eminent planetary astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper issued a memorandum emphasizing the need for a high-quality, accurate lunar atlas and soliciting interest in a lunar atlas project. Ewen Whitaker was the only person to respond. This resulted in Kuiper offering the young scientist a job on the "Lunar Project" headquartered with Kuiper at the University of Chicago/Yerkes Observatory. Whitaker spent two years at Yerkes (1958-1960) before moving to Tucson, where Kuiper founded the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona in 1960. Within a year, President Kennedy committed the United States to landing a man on the Moon; the "Lunar Project" (and the scope of Whitaker's work) quickly became a matter of national interest and concern.

Ewen Whitaker's research was fundamental to the success of the manned lunar program. He pioneered the technique of groundbased differential UV/Infrared lunar photography, resulting in the first compositional maps of lava flows on the Moon. These maps, scientifically important in their own right, were also instrumental to the selection of landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. In 1961, he was tasked with selecting impact sites for Rangers 6 and 7. He later located the landed positions of four Surveyors; the Surveyor 3 site was eventually chosen as the Apollo 12 landing site. He also selected sites for Lunar Orbiter 5. Whitaker briefed astronauts for Apollo missions 13, 15, and 16. He analyzed Apollo images and located the impact craters formed by the Ranger 7 and 9 spacecraft and the Apollo 13 and 14 SIVB modules. Knowing the masses, impact velocities, and impact angles of these craters meant that equations for impact mechanics could be tested and refined. In between missions, Mr. Whitaker continued Kuiper's lunar atlas project, which included supplements produced and printed in Tucson: the Orthographic Atlas of the Moon (1960), the Rectified Lunar Atlas (1961), and the Consolidated Lunar Atlas (1967), consisting of extremely high-quality photos obtained with the 61-inch reflector telescope on Mt. Bigelow.

Mr. Whitaker's other achievements include the discovery and approximate determination of the orbital eccentricity/inclination of the Uranian satellite Miranda (made possible by a method he devised), nomenclature of 60 previously unnamed lunar craters, nomenclature of 14 far-side craters to commemorate the Challenger and Columbia astronauts, determination of dates on which Galileo made his drawings of the Moon and composed the various relevant sections of Sidereus Nuncius, and the invention of a system for naming craters on the Moon's far side. Not least among Ewen Whitaker's accomplishments is his role in the development of LPL as a world-class leader in planetary studies. Ewen Whitaker retired from LPL and the University of Arizona in 1987 after a long career spent in service to science and to mankind.

Congratulations, Ewen, from your friends at LPL!

NASA Tech Briefs listed the HiRISE HiWish program as the #2 tech story of 2010. The most powerful camera aboard a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has returned the first pictures of locations on the Red Planet suggested by the public. Through a program called HiWish, scientists received about 1,000 suggestions. Images of areas the public selected are available for viewing.

HiRISE and HiWish are online on the HiRISE site. Congratulations to Alfred McEwen and the HiRISE team!

(Jonathan Lunine has accepted the position of David C. Duncan Professor of Astronomy at Cornell.)

Dear LPL friends and colleagues,

As my departure from LPL for Cornell draws near, I would like to briefly reflect on the past and future of the institution. LPL and the Department of Planetary Sciences together are an extraordinary place; their historical importance to the field of planetary science cannot be overstated. The 50th anniversary celebration of LPL provided a chance to consider those accomplishments, which not by coincidence span the entire history of the planetary exploration program. Our students have made their own names in the field, profoundly shaping what is surely one of the most amazing endeavors of modern times. Besides our own former graduate students, I often encounter other people around the world who worked at or had some association with LPL, people not familiar but who nonetheless have an influence on space programs today. (An engineer in Rome at Thales Alenia is my most recent example---he was a SERC graduate.)

I see LPL's future to be as bright as its past, despite the clear challenges the State's budgetary and political situations present. Key to LPL's bright future is the ever-renewing nature of a vibrant academic organization, exemplified by the arrival of new faculty with fresh enthusiasm and original ideas; a LARGE crop of new graduate students who come to seek the imprimatur of LPL's faculty through their doctoral degrees; and the opportunities afforded to participate in or create new programs of research, which bring fresh talent in the form of postdocs, research scientists, and engineers. LPL's adaptability and camaraderie will serve it well as the environment around it continues to change.

My move comes not out of a desire to leave LPL, but because this particular new opportunity was just too enticing. I struggled with my decision, and I am sad to be leaving. Every opportunity in life comes with a price, and the price of this one is departure from what will always be my scientific and academic home. After announcing my decision, I was deeply moved by the kind wishes and goodwill of so many here, especially my senior colleagues some of whom helped woo me here 27 years ago. I will miss them, along with everything that is good about the American Southwest...from the wind in the mountain pines to the vast "empty" spaces of the stark desert floor. More than that need not be said, except the hope that goodbye really doesn't mean farewell...it only means we will see each other again wherever we are doing planetary science.

--Jonathan