In one of the most exciting developments in astronomy in the 21st century, NASA is launching the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) today—and Northern Arizona University astronomers, planetary astronomers and their students will use the massive observatory to expand their research and advance our understanding of the solar system.
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NASA’s latest launch into outer space is going to make an impact. In fact, that’s its entire mission.
It’s all part of a long-term planetary defense strategy to avoid an “Armageddon” scenario, and NAU planetary scientist Cristina Thomas is part of the team studying this event.
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Planetary astronomer Josh Emery, professor in Northern Arizona University’s Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, leads the Surface Composition Working Group (SCWG) for the [LUCY] mission. It’s his job to help plan the observations of the targets that are required to answer the open science questions about Trojan asteroids. The group will determine what materials the asteroids are made of as they search for ice, complex organic molecules and rocky material that will indicate… Read more
In support of their Mars research, Koeppel (on the left) and Edwards (right) conducted an analog study in a cinder field near Flagstaff, Arizona. At the Flagstaff study site, they were able to collect data in the field and compare it with the data collected from the drones, simulating satellite imagery.
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Mark Loeffler is a co-author on a new manuscript in Nature Astronomy. This was a large collaborative work combining laboratory studies and analysis of grains from Itokawa. The results suggest that much of the water in Earth’s oceans could have originated from water created from solar wind implantation onto rocky airless bodies, such as asteroids. The work has been picked up by a few news organizations.
From Newsweek Magazine: Solar Winds Could… Read more
Here are a bunch of places where Cristina appeared in media reports over the past couple of weeks: