What else have the members of the Department of Astronomy & Planetary Science been doing?
Our faculty, staff, and students are making a difference on campus and around the world. Read about some of our achievements, activities, and successes.
Thanks to David Trilling for keeping track of all these accomplishments!
April 2023
Three DAPS undergrads won HURA research awards for the 2023/24 academic year Accordion Closed
- Kayla Blair (mentor: Lisa Chien)
- Claire Gibson (mentor: Mark Salvatore)
- Jack Kohm (mentor: Lisa Chien)
Congratulations to these students and their mentors!
NAU had a great showing at LPSC Accordion Closed
NAU had a great showing at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last month (with major early career representation). Grad students Laura Lee, Jessica Walsh, Nicole Ozdowski, Oriel Humes, Lori Pigue, Anna Engle, Ari Koeppel; postdocs Will Oldroyd, Christian Tai Udovicic; assistant research professor Ali Rutledge and visiting professor Jennifer Hanley all presented work (not mentioned here are many more DAPS coauthors).
You might even see a couple of familiar faces — Jessica Walsh and Laura Lee — in the highlight reel!
Christopher Edwards’ Martian Moons eXplorer Participating Scientist proposal was selected for ~6 years ~$650K support Accordion Closed
This includes support for a graduate student for 3 years. They will be deriving thermal inertia, conducting Phobos rover operations, and attempting to derive 3µm band depths among other things.
Congratulations Christopher!
Here are some links to articles in the press!
PhD student Amber Young is the poster child (literally) for the AAS! Accordion Closed
The AAS (American Astronomical Society) sent out remindrs to register for their upcoming meeting, and a familiar face is on the flyer!
AST184L (Life in the Universe Lab) field trip Accordion Closed
GTA/Instructor Ian Marrs led a field trip this past weekend, along with lecturer Jasmine Garani.
They took 18 students went to Meteor Crater and Sunset Crater; and 17 students to the Grand Canyon. Students were asked to make observations about these sites and relate them to the development of, and search for, life in the Universe.
There is no other university in the world where students can visit such a diverse and wonderful set of analog locations and be home in time for dinner.
The Flagstaff Astronomy Symposium was held on April 12 Accordion Closed
Congratulations to the many NAU undergraduates, grad students, postdocs, and faculty who presented there!
Faculty Christopher Edwards, Devon Burr (solicited talk!), and Josh Emery presented at the European Geophysical Union conference in Vienna (Austria) Accordion Closed
Christopher Edwards’ presentation about Mars’ moon Deimos got a lot of press attention:
- NASA selects NAU researcher for international mission to Martian moons
- In Photos: Historic Flyby Of Bean-Shaped Martian Moon Casts Doubt On Its Origin
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/science/mars-deimos-moon-photos.html
- News at a glance: U.S. rules on carbon emissions, better vehicle batteries, and a Mars moon’s close-up
Cristina Thomas presented at the Planetary Defense Conference (also held in Vienna) Accordion Closed
Several students were involved in the AZ AstroBio Symposium held at ASU Accordion Closed
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Grad-student Schuyler Borges was on the organizing committee, and several of our students attended/presented.
Daniel Kramer (MS student in informatics), Mike Gowanlock (DAPS affiliate faculty), David Trilling, and others have a new paper out Accordion Closed
This is Daniel’s first first-author paper!
March 2023
The primary results from the DART mission have now appeared in press Accordion Closed
Featuring Cristina Thomas’s paper that was published in Nature:
Orbital Period Change of Dimorphos Due to the DART Kinetic Impact
as well as these Nature papers:
Successful Kinetic Impact into an Asteroid for Planetary Defense
Ejecta from the DART-produced active asteroid Dimorphos
Other papers include:
Orbital Period Change of Dimorphos Due to the DART Kinetic Impact
Ejecta from the DART-produced active asteroid Dimorphos
Successful Kinetic Impact into an Asteroid for Planetary Defense
Cristina Thomas was invited to the Science Magazine Breakthrough Session at the AAAS Annual Meeting Accordion Closed
Cristina and Andy Rivkin were invited to present on behalf of DART in the Science Magazine Breakthrough Session. They were one of the runners up for Science breakthrough of the year — JWST was the winner.
Patrick Tribbett has accepted a postdoctoral research position with Dr. Chris Materese in the Cosmic Ice Lab at NASA Goddard Accordion Closed
He will be examining the radiation-driven alteration of astrophysical ice analogs containing organic interstellar molecules.
Postdoc and former PhD student, Will Oldroyd, and a lots of familiars recently published a paper Accordion Closed
Comet-like Activity Discovered on Quasi-Hilda Asteroid 2009 DQ118
Co-authors include former PhD student Colin Chandler; faculty Chad Trujillo; former REU student Will Burris; former undergrad Jay Kueny; current PhD student Kennedy Farrell; and current undergrad Jarod DeSpain.
Postdoc Aurélien Stcherbinine and a host of familiars published a paper Accordion Closed
Diurnal and Seasonal Mapping of Martian Ices with EMIRS
Co-authors include faculty Christopher Edwards, postdoc Chris Haberle, and data scientists Nathan Smith and Kezman Saboi.
Allie Rutledge awarded a NASA grant ($47K) to augment their esker project in Iceland. Accordion Closed
These funds will allow her, Christopher Edwards, Ari Koeppel, Natalie Jones, and collaborators to extend their Summer 2023 field season and gather even more data at the glacier.
Recent PhD graduates Colin Chandler and Will Oldroyd and a host of local talent have a new paper out Accordion Closed
Co-authors include current faculty Chad Trujillo, incoming PhD student Will Burris, former undergrad Jay Kueny, current undergrad Jarod DeSpain, and current grad student Kennedy Farrell.
Lisa Chien and AST210 TAS presented to the NAU Showcase of Strategies of Student Success Accordion Closed
Lisa and her AST210 undergraduate TAs– Aidan Madden-Watson, Joey Green, Jarod Despain, presented their AST210 course to the NAU Showcase of Strategies of Student Success event at the High Country Conference Center. Their poster was titled NAU’s first EDIJ in STEM course: AST210 Celebrating Diversity in Astronomy and they talked about this course to some of the NAU leadership, including the CEFNS Dean and Vice President of Student Affairs.
February 2023
Postdoc Chris Haberle’s proposal to NASA’s New Frontiers Data Analysis Program was selected Accordion Closed
Chris is the PI and Christopher Edwards is the sole Co-I. The title is “Refining the surface composition of asteroid (101955) Bennu through improved derivation of OTES emissivity” and it is a 3-yr project with a start date in June.”
Ryder Strauss, Jessica Walsh, and Maria Chernyavskaya participated in a 200-person occultation campaign Accordion Closed
where they watched the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Polymele pass in front of a distant star. Here is Ryder’s summary (with pictures!).
Well done, team!
January 2023
Steve Tegler reports about NAU alumna Kim Ward-Duong (BS 2010) Accordion Closed
“I came across an article in Radiations, the magazine of the Society of Physics Students (attached), describing my former undergraduate research student’s career track and her work with JWST and exoplanets. Kim made her first study of exoplanets here on campus with me in the early days of the Barry Lutz Telescope. Kim called out her NAU work on exoplanets in the article. She is now an assistant professor at Smith College. I love reading about the success of our students.”
“I remember Kim well — such a smart, capable, hard-working, and positive person. Great to see her continuing to succeed!”
PhD student Rebecca (Becks) Carmack has published her first first-author paper Accordion Closed
Pore Accessibility in Amorphous Solid Water
The other authors are PhD student Patrick Tribbett and their faculty advisor Mark Loeffler.
David Trilling, Mike Gowanlock (SICCS), Daniel Kramer (SICCS), Andrew McNeill (former postdoc) have a new paper out Accordion Closed
Mike Gowanlock is a faculty member of NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) and an affiliate of DAPS; Daniel Kramer is a DAPS Alumnus (BS 2021, Astroinformatics, Astronomy Minor) and is currently a Master’s student at NAU/SICCS; Andrew McNeill is a former DAPS Postdoctoral Scholar and is currently at Lehigh University.
Information from AST184L (“Life in the Universe — Lab”) from fall, 2022 Accordion Closed
GTAs Jessica Walsh and Ian Marrs report that there were approximately 30-45 students who participated in field trips to Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater, and the Grand Canyon.
There is no other university in the world that can visit these sites on day trips as part of a regular one credit lab class.
Ian writes:
Meteor Crater: Meteor Crater is relevant for the discussion of life in the universe because it affords us the opportunity to discuss meteor impact events as potential extinction events. While Meteor Crater is not thought to have significantly affected the biosphere (unlike the K-T impact) it is one of the most well-preserved impact craters on Earth and is therefore a useful field location to discuss impact events generally.
Sunset Crater: Sunset Crater and the surrounding volcanic fields are relevant for the discussion of life in the universe because they afford us the opportunity to discuss volcanism as a geologic process that mobilizes biologically relevant elements. Volcanoes are thought to have been critical to the development of life on Earth and the relatively recent lava flows at Sunset give the students a chance to understand the scale and context of volcanic eruptions.
Grand Canyon: The Grand Canyon is one of the best places on Earth to view a largely continuous exposure of the terrestrial geologic record.
This location is relevant for the discussion of life in the universe because it demonstrates to students how investigating geologic material can inform our understanding of the history of a planet in terms of biology, geology, meteorology, etc. Such investigations are how professional planetary scientists search for life on other planets and our understanding of the terrestrial geologic record helps us search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Mark Loeffler is a Co-I on a recently selected proposal to NASA’s Solar System Workings program Accordion Closed
Titled: “An Experimental Investigation of Space Weathering Processes on the Surface of Mercury,” 5he proposal is
$1.3 M for 3 years and brings about $100K to NAU.
Helen Eifert participated in a NASA astronaut field geology training camp over winter break Accordion Closed
She writes:
“Over the last few years, I have been observing drying trends of saturated surfaces at various Mars-analogous sites in the deserts of the southwestern United States. Over the holiday break, I took this analog research of studying Mars on Earth a step further. I served as the crew geologist for Crew 271 at the Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah. After discovering the research facility during a field trip for the DAPS planetary analogs class [taught by Christopher Edwards], I applied to participate in a two week astronaut simulation mission. Here, I acquired supplemental visible near infrared data of drying trends over multiple days in a mission simulated environment. This data will inform one of my dissertation chapters by providing a better understanding of the residence of water in clay mineral structures. As a bonus, I experienced the unique challenges of conducting science on Mars. This work will help to better understand thermophysical properties of geologic surfaces, Mars’ water history, and how we might detect moisture on Mars. All of which should help inform human missions to Mars in the future.”
Lisa Chien presented about how she brings career resources in her courses to the faculty of the College of Arts and Letters Accordion Closed
and received a very enthusiastic thank you for bringing her energy, enthusiasm, and experience to our CAL colleagues.
Thank you, Lisa, and congratulations!