Table of Contents

Voyage to Europa: Exploring Icy Moon Habitability

From the Desk of Jim Green — NEW!!

News from Space

Spotlight on Education

In Memoriam

Milestones

New and Noteworthy

Calendar

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Voyage to Europa: Exploring Icy Moon Habitability

— David Senske and the Europa Science Team

Exploration of an Ocean World

Europa may be the best place in the solar system to look for currently existing life beyond Earth. Locked beneath a shell of ice, Europa harbors a liquid water ocean with an estimated volume twice that of all of Earth’s oceans. About the size of Earth’s Moon, Europa has a youthful surface, an outer layer of water and ice, a rocky mantle, and probably an iron core. A motivating driver of planetary exploration is to understand the processes that lead to potential habitability across the solar system. In the forefront of this goal is evaluating the potential for biological activity in Europa, and it is in this context that a mission to Europa is currently being developed.

Insights into icy world habitability are driven by understanding the three “ingredients” for life as we know it: liquid water, biologically essential elements, and chemical energy. Europa may have all three of these ingredients in the form of (1) an extensive saltwater ocean beneath an ice shell; (2) essential chemical elements (e.g., carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) derived from the primordial jovian protoplanetary disk, along with delivery by asteroids and comets over time; and (3) sources of chemical energy for life created by the combination of irradiation of its surface to create oxidants, water-rock interactions and possible hydrothermal activity at the seafloor to create reductants, and tidal heating to drive geological and geochemical processes. However, the processes that shaped Europa’s ice shell and exchange processes between the surface and ocean are not clearly understood.

At all scales at which Europa has been observed, the surface is found to be geologically young, with extensive geological activity. Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR.

Science of the Planned Europa Clipper Mission

The overarching science goal of the planned Europa Clipper mission is “Explore Europa to investigate its habitability.” From this goal follow three mission objectives (roman numerals below), each of which are addressed by several investigations (numbered items). Also listed as acronyms (defined in the next section) are the instruments (plus gravity and radiation science) that synergistically address these investigations and objectives, which are also defined and discussed in more detail in the next section. Folded into each of these objectives is the intent to search for and characterize any current internal activity, notably plumes and thermal anomalies.

Water, biologically essential elements, and the energy of chemical disequilibrium are required for habitability. The intense radiation environment at Europa can produce oxidants at the satellite’s surface, while water-rock interactions and possible hydrothermal activity at the ocean-rock boundary can produce reductants. Geological activity in the ice shell can bring surface-produced chemical compounds into the icy shell for subsequent delivery to the ocean. When oxidants and reductants are brought together into a watery realm, the necessary resources for biological activity become available. Credit: NASA.

I. Ice Shell and Ocean: Characterize the ice shell and any subsurface water, including heterogeneity, ocean properties, and the nature of surface-ice-ocean exchange

1. Characterize the distribution of any shallow subsurface water and the structure of the icy shell (EIS, REASON)

2. Determine ocean salinity and thickness (ICEMAG, MISE, PIMS, SUDA)

3. Constrain the regional and global thickness, heat-flow, and dynamics of the ice shell (E-THEMIS, EIS, Gravity, ICEMAG, PIMS, REASON)

4. Investigate processes governing material exchange among the ocean, ice shell, surface, and atmosphere (EIS, ICEMAG, MASPEX, MISE, REASON, SUDA)

II. Composition: Understand the habitability of Europa’s ocean through composition and chemistry

1. Characterize the composition and chemistry of endogenic materials on the surface and in the atmosphere, including potential plumes (EIS, Europa-UVS, ICEMAG, MASPEX, MISE, PIMS, REASON, SUDA)

2. Determine the role of the radiation and plasma environment in creating and processing the atmosphere and surface materials (EIS, Europa-UVS, MASPEX, MISE, PIMS, Radiation, REASON, SUDA)

3. Characterize the chemical and compositional pathways in the ocean (EIS, ICEMAG, MASPEX, MISE, SUDA)

III. Geology: Understand the formation of surface features, including sites of recent or current activity, and characterize high-science-interest localities

1. Determine sites of most recent geological activity, including potential plumes, and characterize localities of high science interest and potential future landing sites (E-THEMIS, EIS, Europa-UVS, MASPEX, MISE, PIMS, Radiation, REASON, SUDA)

2. Determine the formation and three-dimensional characteristics of magmatic, tectonic, and impact landforms (EIS, REASON)

3. Investigate processes of erosion and deposition and their effects on the physical properties of the surface (E-THEMIS, EIS, Europa-UVS, PIMS, Radiation, REASON, SUDA)

The array of remote sensing and in situ science instruments to explore Europa’s potential habitability would allow investigation of this ocean world from its tenuous exosphere down to its deep interior. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

A scientific payload of nine highly capable instruments was selected by NASA to address the mission’s science goals. This payload includes five remote-sensing instruments that observe in the wavelength range from ultraviolet through radar, and four in situ instruments that measure fields and particles. In addition, gravity science can be achieved via the spacecraft’s telecommunication system. Valuable scientific data could also come from the spacecraft’s planned radiation monitoring system. Working together, the science instruments described below provide a synergistic framework for addressing the potential habitability of Europa.

Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) (Principal Investigator Kurt Retherford). Operating in the 0.055–0.210-micrometer range, Europa-UVS is designed to interrogate the composition and chemistry, source and sinks, and structure and variability of the tenuous Europa exosphere from equator to pole. In addition, Europa-UVS measurements would enable a better understanding of the plasma environment, notably the energy and mass flow into Europa’s exosphere, neutral cloud, and plasma torus. Within the realm of active processes, the Europa-UVS could be used to search for and characterize the distribution, structure, composition, and variability of potential active plumes. Finally, Europa-UVS could provide insight into surface composition and microphysics and their relation to endogenic and exogenic processes.

Europa Imaging System (EIS) (Principal Investigator Elizabeth Turtle). Composed of a narrow-angle and a wide-angle camera with stereo and color capability, EIS would map Europa near-globally at better than 100 meters resolution and has the capability to image almost any point on the surface at better than 20 meters per pixel, providing constraints on surface feature formation. Very-high-resolution imaging (meter-scale and better) addresses small-scale regolith processes and will aid in characterizing sites for a possible future lander. Distant imaging would search for active plumes and characterize the ice shell through limb shape.

Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) (Principal Investigator Diana Blaney). Operating in the 0.8–5.0-micrometer wavelength range, MISE aims to assess the habitability of Europa’s ocean. Its data would provide the inventory and distribution of surface compounds, including biologically relevant deposits. MISE measurements could identify and map the distribution of organics, salts, acid hydrates, water ice phases, altered silicates, radiation-altered chemical compounds, and thermal anomalies at global, regional, and local scales.

Europa Thermal Imaging System (E-THEMIS) (Principal Investigator Phil Christensen). The E-THEMIS investigation permits detection and characterization of thermal anomalies that may indicate recent activity on Europa. Derived thermal inertia information from temperature measurements could be used to characterize regolith particle size, block abundance, and subsurface layering.

Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) (Principal Investigator Don Blankenship). REASON aims to map the vertical crustal structure and search for subsurface water. REASON measurements could be used to search for the deeper ice-ocean interface, while characterizing the ice shell’s global thermophysical structure. Radar data could provide insight into material exchanges among the ocean, ice shell, surface, and atmosphere. Solid-body geophysical measurements would constrain the amplitude and phase of the tides. Derived dielectric and diffuse backscatter properties would support characterization of the scientific values and hazards of sites for a potential future lander.

Interior Characterization of Europa using Magnetometry (ICEMAG) (Principal Investigator Carol Raymond). ICEMAG combines two fluxgate sensors and two scalar-vector helium sensors to measure magnetic fields, in order to infer magnetic induction at multiple frequencies. This would enable estimates of the location, thickness, and salinity of Europa’s ocean. In addition, ICEMAG measurements could also be used to identify source and loss processes of Europa’s atmosphere, coupling of Europa to Jupiter’s ionosphere, and coupling of any plumes to flowing plasma.

Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) (Principal investigator Joseph Westlake). PIMS would use two sensors each with two Faraday cups to identify plasma contributions to Europa’s magnetic field and to understand the processes of weathering and release of material from Europa’s surface into the atmosphere. PIMS measurements aim to reveal how Europa influences its local space environment and Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

MAss Spectrometer for Planetary Exploration (MASPEX) (Principal Investigator Hunter Waite). MASPEX would sample neutral gases around Europa to determine the distribution of major volatiles and key organic compounds in Europa’s exosphere, and in any plumes, and their association with geological features. MASPEX data could be used to derive the relative abundances of key compounds, in order to constrain the chemical conditions and biological suitability of Europa’s ocean.

SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) (Principal Investigator Sascha Kempf). The SUDA investigation aims to map Europa’s surface composition by intercepting and analyzing particles ejected by micrometeoroid impacts. SUDA could characterize the alteration of Europa’s surface via exogenous dust and measure the composition of the particles in active plumes to constrain ocean properties.

Gravity science. Using the spacecraft telecommunication system, gravity measurements could be used to characterize Europa’s time-varying gravitational tides. Three fan-beam antennas and two low-gain antennas can be used to communicate with Earth near-continuously, during about two-thirds of the planned Europa flybys. These measurements could be used to constrain the second-degree Love number k_2 sufficiently to confirm the existence of Europa’s subsurface ocean.

Radiation. The spacecraft’s planned radiation monitoring system could measure the mission-integrated radiation dose from high-energy particles, providing information on the particle environment near Europa.

Located on the nadir-facing deck of the spacecraft, the science payload of the baseline Europa spacecraft will collect synergistic and collaborative datasets that together will unlock the mysteries of Europa’s potential habitability. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Mission Scenario: The Path to Exploring Europa

Achieving the science of the planned Europa Clipper mission requires a highly capable and robust spacecraft, whose development is proceeding in parallel with the instruments. The Europa spacecraft is three-axis stabilized and solar powered with a solar array area of approximately 90 square meters (969 square feet). In the illustration above, four very-high-frequency (VHF) and two high-frequency (HF) REASON antennas are mounted directly to the solar array. The remainder of the instruments are mounted to the spacecraft body deck, except for the magnetometer sensors, which are mounted on a separate boom, and PIMS, which will have an upper sensor adjacent to the telecommunication high gain antenna (HGA) and a lower sensor located near the base of the spacecraft. All the instruments will have the capability of operating simultaneously to aid collection of complementary and synergistic data.

The mission’s launch date is not yet set, but the earliest opportunity is in May 2022. There are two options to traverse the great distance between Earth and Jupiter. The preferred and baseline method would be a direct journey of about 2.9 years utilizing the Space Launch System (SLS) currently being developed by NASA. The alternative is to launch on an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which would need to take a more circuitous route through the inner solar system before traveling out to Jupiter, a trek that can take 7.5 years. Upon arrival in the jovian system, the greatest challenge for exploration of this unique icy world is operating a spacecraft in the harsh radiation environment of Jupiter, where its strong magnetic field acts as an enormous particle accelerator, potentially damaging sensitive electronics.

To perform a comprehensive investigation of Europa while minimizing the effects of radiation, the Europa project has formulated a tour whereby the spacecraft would make multiple flybys of Europa (up to 45) to build up a global network of coverage over a period of about 3.5 years. Over the course of the mission, the science investigations would have global access to broad regions of the moon, providing “global-regional” coverage of Europa.

The Europa Clipper mission has just completed its feasibility analysis phase (Phase A) and is now entering the definition and design phase (Phase B), in which preliminary designs will be generated for both the instruments and the spacecraft.

By performing multiple flybys of Europa, a global network of flyby trajectories and thus observations can be assembled, providing for comprehensive investigation of the moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

On Our Way to Europa

The planned Europa Clipper mission is poised to take humanity on a journey to advance our understanding of Europa and unlock the mysteries of what makes an ocean world habitable. The Europa mission’s science payload has the potential to test hypotheses relevant to the composition, interior, and geology of Europa, in order to address the potential habitability of this intriguing moon.

The mission results can also pave the way for future in situ study of this icy world. Recently a Europa Lander Science Definition Team (SDT) assessed the science that could be achieved from a several-week stay on the surface (see related article in the News from Space section of this issue). The Europa Clipper mission would provide important information for identification of those surface locations with the highest potential for direct measurement of the key components for habitability, advancing the continuing exploration for life beyond Earth.

This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ©2017 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged.

About the Authors:

Dr. David Senske is a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. His research focuses on understanding the geologic and tectonic history of Europa through geologic mapping. In addition to studying the icy satellites, he also investigates the geologic processes that have formed and modified the surface of Venus. Throughout his career, Senske has been involved with a number of NASA planetary missions, including Magellan to Venus, Galileo to Jupiter, Mars Polar Lander, Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. He is currently the Deputy Project Scientist for the Europa Multiple Flyby mission and the Deputy Project Scientist for the NASA Mars Odyssey mission.

The Europa science team is made up of a diverse group of 132 investigators (https://www.nasa.gov/europa/team/index.html) who will provide scientific instruments and expertise that will shed light on the question of Europa’s potential habitability. The science team includes nine instrument principal investigators: Dr. Kurt Retherford of the Southwest Research Institute (Europa-UVS), Dr. Elizabeth Turtle of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (EIS), Dr. Diana Blaney of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology (MISE), Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University (E-THEMIS), Dr. Don Blankenship of the University of Texas, Austin (REASON), Dr. Carol Raymond of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology (ICEMAG), Dr. Joe Westlake of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (PIMS), Dr. J. Hunter Waite of the Southwest Research Institute (MASPEX), and Dr. Sascha Kempf of the University of Colorado, Boulder (SUDA). In addition, the science team includes the Europa Multiple Flyby mission Project Scientist, Dr. Robert Pappalardo of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology (JPL-Caltech), Deputy Project Scientist Dr. Haje Korth of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL), and mission Project Staff Scientists Kate Kraft (JHU-APL), Rachel Klima (JHU-APL), Cynthia Phillips (JPL-Caltech), and Steve Vance (JPL-Caltech). All those named above, and more, contributed in some form to this article.

About the Cover:

Artist’s concept of the planned Europa spacecraft. The antennas mounted to the solar panels are part of the REASON radar instrument and the vertical boom hosts magnetometers to investigate the induced magnetic field and probe the ocean. The remainder of the instruments are mounted to the spacecraft body, with most pointing either in the nadir direction (remote sensing instruments) or the ram direction (mass spectrometers). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

From the Desk of Jim Green

Note from the Editors: In this issue, we’re introducing a new section of the LPIB, “From the Desk of Jim Green.” In this section, Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will share with the community current topics of interest related to NASA’s planetary science division from the perspective of NASA Headquarters. — Paul Schenk and Renée Dotson

Europa: NASA’s Voyage to a Water World

The quest to understand our origins is universal. How did we get here? Are we alone? What does the future hold? Modern science, and especially space science, provides extraordinary opportunities to pursue these questions.

The scientific foundation of this enterprise is described in the National Academy of Science’s (NAS) two previous decadal surveys, Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science (NAS, 2011) and New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy (NAS, 2003). Indeed, it is in answering the findings of these decadal surveys that the Planetary Science Division’s missions have revolutionized our understanding of the origin and evolution of the solar system.

Since the beginning of the exploration of our solar system, NASA has followed a general paradigm of flyby, orbit, land, rove, and return samples. A complete campaign may not be performed for each object in the solar system, since not all our scientific questions can be studied at all objects, and there are high technological and financial hurdles to overcome for some missions and certain destinations. Moreover, a healthy program of solar system exploration requires a balance between detailed investigations of a particular target and broader reconnaissance of a variety of similar targets.

Following this paradigm in our exploration of planetary bodies has forged a path of significant progress in our knowledge and understanding of our solar system. Indeed, for the past 50 years, our primary goal has always focused on advancing our scientific knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resource present as humans explore space.

A mission to Europa was the second priority for large missions in the 2011 Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science. As a result, in June 2016, the Europa Clipper mission was approved by NASA and entered the formulation stage (see related feature story in this issue). Europa is a large strategic mission — one of the largest and most expensive of three classes in NASA’s solar system programs — with the other two being the medium-cost New Frontiers Program and the lowest-cost Discovery Program. Historically, large strategic missions are NASA’s most expensive (over $1 billion) space science missions, but they offer exceptional scientific payoff. They are, indeed, ambitious and complex. These missions are also crucial in allowing us to reach and explore high-priority targets. These critically important targets could help establish the limits of planetary habitability, not just for the solar system, but for planetary systems in general.

NASA has developed roughly one large strategic planetary mission per decade, beginning with the Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the mid-1970s, quickly followed by the two Viking Orbiters and landers. The Galileo mission to study Jupiter and its moons was launched in 1989 (arriving in 1995), and NASA launched Cassini toward the Saturn system in 1997. Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn for nearly 13 years, and its operation will soon come to an end. The Curiosity rover has been on the surface of Mars since 2012, and we are developing another large strategic Mars rover to be launched in 2020. The Europa Multiple Flyby mission is our most recent strategic mission to add to this set.

Strategic missions are an exquisite example of long and hard work paying off in troves. They offer in-depth studies, cover many science objectives, have a variety of instruments, and are expected to last a long time. But they also go through a complex and arduous review and approval process, with a characteristically long development period. Initial studies are performed by several organizations, with an eventual down-select to two mission concepts. A final down-select is completed after technical, management, and cost review. At times, budget pressures may change the design even after the final selection is made.

The Europa Clipper mission will be placed in orbit around Jupiter in order to perform a detailed investigation of the giant planet’s moon, Europa. The mission will send a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon. The nominal Europa mission will perform 45 flybys of Europa at altitudes varying from 2700 kilometers (1677 miles) to 25 kilometers (15 miles) above the surface. This mission architecture allows us to obtain a global picture of the moon, as if we were orbiting it, but also enables time between each pass to telemeter back to Earth the large amounts of data and determine any orbital changes necessary to fly through the icy plumes on Europa that have just been spotted with the Hubble Space Telescope.

The selected payload has nine science instruments, including cameras and spectrometers to produce high-resolution images of Europa’s surface and determine its composition. An ice-penetrating radar will determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and search for subsurface lakes similar to those beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet. The mission also will carry a magnetometer to measure the strength and direction of the moon’s magnetic field, allowing scientists to determine the depth and salinity of its ocean. A thermal instrument will survey Europa’s frozen surface in search of recent eruptions of warmer water at or near the surface, while additional instruments will search for evidence of water and tiny particles in the moon’s thin atmosphere. If the plumes’ existence is confirmed — linking the subsurface ocean to the surface — it will provide an extraordinary opportunity to study their composition and bring us closer to determining the habitability of such watery worlds.

As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, we find water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways. Perhaps the most surprising water worlds are the five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn that show strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces: Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto at Jupiter, and Enceladus and Titan at Saturn. The Europa Clipper mission is all about looking at the ice shell and the ocean: its thickness, its composition, what the geological processes are, and how the ocean communicates to the surface. The Europa mission will help us determine whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.

It is clear that this large strategic mission will carry us one step closer to discovering life beyond Earth.

— James L. Green, NASA Director Planetary Science Division, February 2017

News from Space

Similar-Looking Ridges on Mars Have Diverse Origins

This view from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows part of an area on Mars where narrow rock ridges, some as tall as a 16-story building, intersect at angles forming corners of polygons. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

Thin, blade-like walls, some as tall as a 16-story building, dominate a previously undocumented network of intersecting ridges on Mars, found in images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The simplest explanation for these impressive ridges is that lava flowed into pre-existing fractures in the ground and later resisted erosion better than material around them. A new survey of polygon-forming ridges on Mars examines this network in the Medusae Fossae region straddling the planet’s equator and similar-looking networks in other regions of the Red Planet.

“Finding these ridges in the Medusae Fossae region set me on a quest to find all the types of polygonal ridges on Mars,” said Laura Kerber of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, lead author of the survey report published in January in the journal Icarus. The pattern is sometimes called boxwork ridges. Raised lines intersect as the outlines of multiple adjoining rectangles, pentagons, triangles or other polygons. Despite the similarity in shape, these networks differ in origin and vary in scale from inches to miles.

Mars rover missions have found small versions they have been able to inspect up close. Some of these polygonal ridges, such as at “Garden City”seen by Curiosity, are veins deposited by mineral-laden groundwater moving through underground fissures, long before erosion exposed the veins. Curiosity recently also imaged small boxwork ridges that likely originated as mud cracks.

At the other end of the size scale, ridges outline several rectangles each more than 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide at a location called “Inca City” near Mars’ south pole. These may have resulted from impact-related faults underground with fractures filled by rising lava that hardened and was later exposed by erosion.

“Polygonal ridges can be formed in several different ways, and some of them are really key to understanding the history of early Mars,” Kerber said. “Many of these ridges are mineral veins, and mineral veins tell us that water was circulating underground.” Polygonal ridges in the Nilosyrtis Mensae region of northern Mars may hold clues about ancient wet, possibly warm environments. Examples of them found so far tend to be in the same areas as water-related clues, such as minerals that form in hot springs, clay-mineral layers and channels carved by ancient streams. A larger sample is needed to test this hypothesis.

Kerber is seeking help from the public through a citizen-science project using images of Mars from the Context Camera (CTX) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. “We’re asking for volunteers to search for more polygonal ridges,” she said. Finding as-yet-unidentified polygonal ridges in CTX images could improve understanding about their relationship to other features and will help guide future observations with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera to reveal details of the ridge networks.

This citizen-science program, called “Planet Four: Ridges,” began January 17 on a platform released by the Zooniverse, which hosts dozens of projects that enlist people worldwide to contribute to discoveries in fields ranging from astronomy to zoology. More information is at http://ridges.planetfour.org. Other Zooniverse Mars projects using data from CTX and HiRISE have drawn participation from more than 150,000 volunteers.

For more information, visit http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/.

Spirit’s Spirit Lives On

These fingerlike silica nodules imaged by the Spirit rover on Mars (left) bear a striking resemblance to hydrothermal silica deposits found at the El Tatio hot springs in Chile (right), where biological activity was a contributing factor in their formation. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left)/Steve Ruff (right).

Two geoscientists at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) have made a discovery among hot springs in El Tatio, Chile, that may spur scientists to revisit a location on Mars explored several years ago by NASA’s Spirit rover. The discovery involves fingerlike structures that form in the hot spring deposits by processes that combine biological and non-biological activity. Steve Ruff and Jack Farmer of SESE report that El Tatio contains silica deposits with structures influenced by living organisms that appear nearly identical to those found eight years ago by Spirit in Gusev Crater on Mars. Their report was recently published in the journal Nature Communications (http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13554).

“Mars exploration has reached a stage where we can start looking for ‘biosignatures,’” says lead author Ruff. Biosignatures are evidence for past or present life. On Earth, the most common biosignatures of past life are fossils. But biosignatures can also include organic molecules trapped in rocks or stromatolites, which are found in various environments on Earth. The question naturally arises whether what Spirit found on Mars might also have been influenced by life.

In 2007, NASA’s rover Spirit was exploring next to an eroded deposit of volcanic ash dubbed “Home Plate” in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater on Mars. The rover’s right front wheel motor had failed, and as it was being dragged along, it uncovered a rich deposit of pure silica. Ruff was one of the scientists who identified silica, which is commonly found in hot springs on Earth, and, along with Farmer, published observations supporting a hot spring origin. But the unusual nodular and fingerlike structures of the silica outcrops next to Home Plate were poorly understood.

Several years later, Ruff learned about the El Tatio hot springs in Chile, which are among the highest-elevation active thermal springs known on Earth [over 4267 meters (14,000 feet)]. At night, even in summer, temperatures at El Tatio often drop below freezing, and by day lots of ultraviolet light from the Sun comes through the thin, dry air, similar to conditions on ancient Mars. “We went to El Tatio looking for comparisons with the features found by Spirit at Home Plate,” says Ruff. “Our results show that the conditions at El Tatio produce silica deposits with characteristics that are among the most Mars-like of any silica deposits on Earth.” These characteristics compare favorably with the martian Home Plate silica outcrops, Ruff explains. “The fact that microbes play a role in producing the distinctive silica structures at El Tatio raises the possibility that the martian silica structures formed in a comparable manner — in other words, with the help of organisms that were alive at the time.”

NASA plans to send another rover to Mars in 2020, but a landing site has yet to be determined. Current candidates have been selected due to their geologic setting, potential for preserving biosignatures, and quality of returned samples. Although returning to Home Plate would rule out exploring a completely new region of Mars, scientists decided at a workshop held in February 2017 that Home Plate was of enough scientific interest that it made the final three landing site candidates for the Mars 2020 mission.

For more information, visit http://marsnext.jpl.nasa.gov/.

A New Test for Life on Other Planets

Mono Lake, California, with salt pillars known as “tufas” visible. JPL scientists tested new methods for detecting chemical signatures of life in the salty waters here, believing them to be analogs for water on Mars or ocean worlds like Europa. Credit: Mono County Tourism.

A simple chemistry method could vastly enhance how scientists search for signs of life on other planets. The test uses a liquid-based technique known as capillary electrophoresis to separate a mixture of organic molecules into its components. It was designed specifically to analyze for amino acids, the structural building blocks of all life on Earth. The method is 10,000 times more sensitive than current methods employed by spacecraft like NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, according to a new study published in Analytical Chemistry. The study was carried out by researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California.

One of the key advantages of the authors’ new way of using capillary electrophoresis is that the process is relatively simple and easy to automate for liquid samples expected on ocean world missions. It involves combining a liquid sample with a liquid reagent, followed by chemical analysis under conditions determined by the team. By shining a laser across the mixture — a process known as laser-induced fluorescence detection — specific molecules can be observed moving at different speeds. They get separated based on how quickly they respond to electric fields.

While capillary electrophoresis has been around since the early 1980s, this is the first time it has been tailored specifically to detect extraterrestrial life on an ocean world, said lead author Jessica Creamer, a postdoctoral scholar at JPL. “Our method improves on previous attempts by increasing the number of amino acids that can be detected in a single run,” Creamer said. “Additionally, it allows us to detect these amino acids at very low concentrations, even in highly salty samples, with a very simple ‘mix and analyze’ process.”

The researchers used the technique to analyze amino acids present in the salt-rich waters of Mono Lake in California. The lake’s exceptionally high alkaline content makes it a challenging habitat for life, and an excellent stand-in for salty waters believed to be on Mars, or the ocean worlds of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa.

The researchers were able to simultaneously analyze 17 different amino acids, which they are calling “the Signature 17 standard.” These amino acids were chosen for study because they are the most commonly found on Earth or elsewhere. “Using our method, we are able to tell the difference between amino acids that come from non-living sources like meteorites vs. amino acids that come from living organisms,” said the project’s principal investigator, Peter Willis of JPL.

Key to detecting amino acids related to life is an aspect known as “chirality.” Chiral molecules, such as amino acids, come in two forms that are mirror images of one another. Although amino acids from non-living sources contain approximately equal amounts of the “left-“ and “righthanded” forms, amino acids from living organisms on Earth are almost exclusively the “lefthanded” form. It is expected that amino acid life elsewhere would also need to “choose” one of the two forms in order to create the structures of life. For this reason, chirality of amino acids is considered one of the most powerful signatures of life. “One of NASA’s highest-level objectives is the search for life in the universe,” Willis said. “Our best chance of finding life is by using powerful liquid-based analyses like this one on ocean worlds.”

For more information, visit https://www.nasa.gov/specials/ocean-worlds/.

Curiosity Finds Evidence of Mars Crust Contributing to Atmosphere

Processes in Mars’ surface material can explain why particular xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr) isotopes are more abundant in the martian atmosphere than expected, as measured by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Cosmic rays striking barium (Ba) or bromine (Br) atoms can alter isotopic ratios of xenon and krypton. Credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence that chemistry in the surface material on Mars contributed dynamically to the makeup of its atmosphere over time. It’s another clue that the history of the Red Planet’s atmosphere is more complex and interesting than a simple legacy of loss. The findings come from the rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite, which studied the gases xenon and krypton in Mars’ atmosphere. The two gases can be used as tracers to help scientists investigate the evolution and erosion of the martian atmosphere. A lot of information about xenon and krypton in Mars’ atmosphere came from analyses of martian meteorites and measurements made by the Viking mission.

“What we found is that earlier studies of xenon and krypton only told part of the story,” said Pamela Conrad, lead author of the report and SAM’s deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “SAM is now giving us the first complete in situ benchmark against which to compare meteorite measurements.” Of particular interest to scientists are the ratios of certain isotopes — or chemical variants — of xenon and krypton. The SAM team ran a series of first-of-a-kind experiments to measure all the isotopes of xenon and krypton in the martian atmosphere. The experiments are described in a paper published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The team’s method is called static mass spectrometry, and it’s good for detecting gases or isotopes that are present only in trace amounts. Although static mass spectrometry isn’t a new technique, its use on the surface of another planet is something only SAM has done. Overall, the analysis agreed with earlier studies, but some isotope ratios were a bit different than expected. When working on an explanation for those subtle but important differences, the researchers realized that neutrons might have gotten transferred from one chemical element to another within the surface material on Mars. The process is called neutron capture, and it would explain why a few selected isotopes were more abundant than previously thought possible.

In particular, it looks as if some of the barium surrendered neutrons that got picked up by xenon to produce higher-than-expected levels of the isotopes xenon-124 and xenon-126. Likewise, bromine might have surrendered some of its neutrons to produce unusual levels of krypton-80 and krypton-82. These isotopes could have been released into the atmosphere by impacts on the surface and by gas escaping from the regolith, which is the soil and broken rocks of the surface. “SAM’s measurements provide evidence of a really interesting process in which the rock and unconsolidated material at the planet’s surface have contributed to the xenon and krypton isotopic composition of the atmosphere in a dynamic way,” said Conrad.

The atmospheres of Earth and Mars exhibit very different patterns of xenon and krypton isotopes, particularly for xenon-129. Mars has much more of it in the atmosphere than does Earth. “The unique capability to measure in situ the six and nine different isotopes of krypton and xenon allows scientists to delve into the complex interactions between the martian atmosphere and crust,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Discovering these interactions through time allows us to gain a greater understanding of planetary evolution.”

For more information about SAM, visit http://ssed.gsfc.nasa.gov/sam.

Dawn Discovers Evidence for Organic Material on Ceres

This enhanced color composite image, made with data from the framing camera onboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, shows the area around Ernutet Crater. The bright red portions appear redder with respect to the rest of Ceres and indicate the presence of organic material. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

NASA’s Dawn mission has found evidence for organic material on Ceres, a dwarf planet and the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists using the spacecraft’s visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) detected the material in and around a northern-hemisphere crater called Ernutet. Organic molecules are interesting to scientists because they are necessary, although not sufficient, components of life on Earth.

The discovery adds to the growing list of bodies in the solar system where organics have been found. Organic compounds have been found in certain meteorites as well as inferred from telescopic observations of several asteroids. Ceres shares many commonalities with meteorites rich in water and organics — in particular, a meteorite group called carbonaceous chondrites. This discovery further strengthens the connection between Ceres, these meteorites, and their parent bodies.

“This is the first clear detection of organic molecules from orbit on a main-belt body,” said Maria Cristina De Sanctis, lead author of the study, based at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Rome. The discovery is reported in the journal Science. Data presented in the paper support the idea that the organic materials are native to Ceres. The carbonates and clays previously identified on Ceres provide evidence for chemical activity in the presence of water and heat. This raises the possibility that the organics were similarly processed in a warm water-rich environment. “This discovery adds to our understanding of the possible origins of water and organics on Earth,” said Julie Castillo-Rogez, Dawn project scientist based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The VIR instrument was able to detect and map the locations of this material because of its special signature in near-infrared light. The organic materials on Ceres are mainly located in an area covering approximately 1000 square kilometers (about 400 square miles). The signature of organics is very clear on the floor of Ernutet Crater, on its southern rim and in an area just outside the crater to the southwest. Another large area with well-defined signatures is found across the northwest part of the crater rim and ejecta. There are other smaller organic-rich areas several kilometers (miles) west and east of the crater. Organics also were found in a very small area in Inamahari Crater, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) away from Ernutet. In enhanced visible color images from Dawn’s framing camera, the organic material is associated with areas that appear redder with respect to the rest of Ceres. The distinct nature of these regions stands out even in low-resolution image data from VIR.

Having completed nearly two years of observations in orbit at Ceres, Dawn is now in a highly elliptical orbit at Ceres, going from an altitude of 7520 kilometers (4670 miles) up to almost 9350 kilometers (5810 miles). On February 23, it made its way to a new altitude of around 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles), about the height of GPS satellites above Earth, and to a different orbital plane. This puts Dawn in a position to study Ceres in a new geometry. In late spring, Dawn will view Ceres with the Sun directly behind the spacecraft, such that Ceres will appear brighter than before, and perhaps reveal more clues about its nature.

For more information, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission.

Despite Longer Orbit, Juno Dives Over Jupiter’s Cloud Tops

NASA’s Juno spacecraft soared directly over Jupiter’s south pole when JunoCam acquired this image on February 2, 2017, from an altitude of about 101,000 kilometers (62,800 miles) above the cloud tops. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft made its fourth flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops on Thursday, February 2, at 4:57 a.m. PST (7:57 a.m. EST, 12:57 UTC). At the time of closest approach (called perijove), Juno was about 4300 kilometers (2670 miles) above the planet’s cloud tops and traveling at a speed of about 57.8 kilometers per second (129,000 miles per hour) relative to the gas giant, approaching the planet over its north pole and departing over its south pole. All of Juno’s eight science instruments, including the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, were on and collecting data during the flyby.

The original flight plan called for Juno to burn its main engine in October, adjusting its orbit from a 53-day orbit to a 14-day orbit. However, problems with two check valves in Juno’s propulsion system led managers to postpone the engine burn. For now, Juno remains in its 53-day orbit. The orbital period does not affect the quality of the science collected by Juno on each flyby, since the altitude over Jupiter will be the same at the time of closest approach. In fact, the longer orbit provides new opportunities that allow further exploration of the far reaches of space dominated by Jupiter’s magnetic field, increasing the value of Juno’s research.

Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said that Juno can still obtain its intended measurements from the 53-day orbit. The prime time for Juno’s observations of Jupiter come when the spacecraft is closest to the planet, and the probe will still pass through that region on each orbit, but these opportunities will come every 53 days rather than the originally planned 14 days. “Each pass has the same value that a 14-day orbit would have had. We were changing to 14 days primarily because we wanted the science faster, but there was no requirement to do that,” said Bolton.

Bolton added, “Another key advantage of the longer orbit is that Juno will spend less time within the strong radiation belts on each orbit.” Juno’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Rick Nybakken, said, “The bottom line is a burn represented a risk to completion of Juno’s science objectives.” Juno’s larger 53-day orbit allows for “bonus science” that wasn’t part of the original mission design. Juno will further explore the far reaches of the jovian magnetosphere — the region of space dominated by Jupiter’s magnetic field — including the far magnetotail, the southern magnetosphere, and the magnetospheric boundary region called the magnetopause.

The close flyby was the fourth time Juno has come so close to Jupiter since the probe arrived in orbit July 4. Two of the previous perijove encounters — on August 27 and December 11 — have yielded science data, giving researchers a taste of the harsh environment surrounding the planet. The data from the mission so far has shown that Jupiter’s magnetic field and auroras are bigger than expected, and the belts and zones seen at the top of the planet’s clouds extend deep into the atmosphere.

Juno’s next low-altitude flyby of Jupiter will come on March 27. For more information, visit

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu.

NASA Receives Science Report on Europa Lander

Artist’s concept of the Europa lander. Credit: NASA/M. Carroll.

A report on the potential science value of a lander on the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has been delivered to NASA, and the agency is now engaging the broader science community to open a discussion about its findings.

In early 2016, in response to a congressional directive, NASA’s Planetary Science Division began a pre-Phase A study to assess the science value and engineering design of a future Europa lander mission. NASA routinely conducts such studies — known as Science Definition Team (SDT) reports — long before the beginning of any mission to gain an understanding of the challenges, feasibility, and science value of the potential mission. In June 2016, NASA convened a 21-member team of scientists for the SDT. Since then, the team has deliberated to define a workable and worthy set of science objectives and measurements for the mission concept, submitting a report to NASA on February 7.

The report lists three science goals for the mission. The primary goal is to search for evidence of life on Europa. The other goals are to assess the habitability of Europa by directly analyzing material from the surface, and to characterize the surface and subsurface to support future robotic exploration of Europa and its ocean. The report also describes some of the notional instruments that could be expected to perform measurements in support of these goals.

Scientists agree that the evidence is quite strong that Europa, which is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, has a global saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust. This ocean has at least twice as much water as Earth’s oceans. While recent discoveries have shown that many bodies in the solar system either have subsurface oceans now, or may have in the past, Europa is one of only two places where the ocean is understood to be in contact with a rocky seafloor (the other being Saturn’s moon Enceladus). This rare circumstance makes Europa one of the highest priority targets in the search for present-day life beyond Earth.

The SDT was tasked with developing a life-detection strategy, a first for a NASA mission since the Mars Viking mission era more than four decades ago. The report makes recommendations on the number and type of science instruments that would be required to confirm if signs of life are present in samples collected from the icy moon’s surface.

The team also worked closely with engineers to design a system capable of landing on a surface about which very little is known. Given that Europa has no atmosphere, the team developed a concept that could deliver its science payload to the icy surface without the benefit of technologies like a heat shield or parachutes. The concept lander is separate from the solar-powered Europa Clipper mission, now in development for launch in the early 2020s (see the feature story in this issue). The spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after a multi-year journey, orbiting the gas giant every two weeks for a series of 45 close flybys of Europa. The Europa Clipper mission will investigate Europa’s habitability by mapping its composition, determining the characteristics of the ocean and ice shell, and increasing our understanding of its geology. The mission also will lay the foundation for a future landing by performing detailed reconnaissance using its powerful cameras.

NASA has announced two upcoming meetings to discuss the SDT report and receive feedback from the science community. The first will be on March 19, in conjunction with the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at The Woodlands, Texas. The second event will be on April 23 at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Mesa, Arizona.

For more information, visit http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/europa/technical.cfm.

Close Views Show Saturn’s Rings in Unprecedented Detail

The wavemaker moon, Daphnis, is featured in this view, taken as NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made one of its ring-grazing passes over the outer edges of Saturn’s rings on January 16, 2017. This is the closest view of the small moon obtained yet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, now in its “ring-grazing” orbits phase, is observing Saturn’s dazzling rings of icy debris. The views are some of the closest-ever images of the outer parts of the main rings, giving scientists an eagerly awaited opportunity to observe features with names like “straw” and “propellers.” Although Cassini saw these features earlier in the mission, the spacecraft’s current, special orbits are now providing opportunities to see them in greater detail. The new images resolve details as small as 550 meters (0.3 miles), which is on the scale of Earth’s tallest buildings.

Cassini is now about halfway through its penultimate mission phase — 20 orbits that dive past the outer edge of the main ring system. The ring-grazing orbits began last November, and will continue until late April, when Cassini begins its grand finale. During the 22 finale orbits, Cassini will repeatedly plunge through the gap between the rings and Saturn. The first finale plunge is scheduled for April 26. For now, the veteran spacecraft is shooting past the outer edges of the rings every week, gathering some of its best images of the rings and moons. Already, Cassini has sent back the closest-ever views of small moons Daphnis and Pandora.

Some of the structures seen in recent Cassini images have not been visible at this level of detail since the spacecraft arrived at Saturn in mid-2004. At that time, fine details like straw and propellers — which are caused by clumping ring particles and small, embedded moonlets, respectively — had never been seen before. (Although propellers were present in Cassini’s arrival images, they were actually discovered in later analysis, the following year.)

Cassini came a bit closer to the rings during its arrival at Saturn, but the quality of those arrival images was not as high as in the new views. Those precious few observations only looked out on the backlit side of the rings, and the team chose short exposure times to minimize smearing due to Cassini’s fast motion as it vaulted over the ring plane. This resulted in images that were scientifically stunning, but somewhat dark and noisy.

In contrast, the close views Cassini has begun capturing in its ring-grazing orbits (and soon will capture in its Grand Finale phase) are taking in both the backlit and sunlit side of the rings. Instead of just one brief pass lasting a few hours, Cassini is making several dozen passes during these final months. “As the person who planned those initial orbit-insertion ring images — which remained our most detailed views of the rings for the past 13 years — I am taken aback by how vastly improved are the details in this new collection,” said Cassini Imaging Team Lead Carolyn Porco, of Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “How fitting it is that we should go out with the best views of Saturn’s rings we’ve ever collected.”

After nearly 13 years studying Saturn’s rings from orbit, the Cassini team has a deeper, richer understanding of what they’re seeing, but they still anticipate new surprises. “These close views represent the opening of an entirely new window onto Saturn’s rings, and over the next few months we look forward to even more exciting data as we train our cameras on other parts of the rings closer to the planet,” said Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini scientist who studies Saturn’s rings at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, California. Tiscareno planned the new images for the camera team.

For more information about Cassini, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

New Horizons Refines Course for Next Flyby

What’s next for New Horizons? The red line marks the path of New Horizons toward its next flyby, a Kuiper belt object known as 2014 MU69. The green dot approximates the spacecraft’s current location. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft completed a short propulsive maneuver on February 1 to refine its track toward a New Year’s Day 2019 flyby past 2014 MU69, a Kuiper belt object (KBO) some 6.4 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) from Earth. Telemetry confirming that the engine burn went as planned reached the New Horizons mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) via NASA’s Deep Space Network stations in Goldstone, California, and Canberra, Australia, shortly after 1:15 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The radio signals carrying the data traveled over 5.6 billion kilometers (3.5 billion miles) and took more than five hours to reach Earth at the speed of light.

Operating by timed commands stored on its computer, New Horizons fired its thrusters for just 44 seconds, adjusting its velocity by about 44 centimeters per second, or a little less than one mile per hour. It was the first trajectory maneuver since the team conducted a set of four maneuvers in the fall of 2015 that put the spacecraft on a course for its rendezvous with MU69 on January 1, 2019.

“One mile per hour may not sound like much,” said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, “but over the next 23 months, as we approach MU69, that maneuver will add up to an aim point refinement of almost six thousand miles [10,000 kilometers].” New Horizons Mission Design Lead Yanping Guo, of APL, said the recent burn adjusts for what the team has learned since 2015 from new Hubble Space Telescope measurements of MU69’s orbit, as well as the spacecraft’s own location.

After the burn the spacecraft transitioned out of a so-called “three-axis stabilized mode,” the operating mode that allowed New Horizons to make new telescopic observations of six KBOs in late January. These science observations will reveal new information on the shapes, surface properties, and satellite systems of these objects, in ways that cannot be done from Earth. Images from these studies will be transmitted home in the coming weeks.

For more information, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/.

NASA Selects Two Missions to Explore the Early Solar System

Artist’s concept of the Psyche spacecraft, which will conduct a direct exploration of an asteroid thought to be a stripped planetary core. Credit: SSL/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA has selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system — a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our Sun. The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively. “Lucy will visit a target-rich environment of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids, while Psyche will study a unique metal asteroid that’s never been visited before,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is what Discovery Program missions are all about — boldly going to places we’ve never been to enable groundbreaking science.”

Lucy, a robotic spacecraft, is scheduled to launch in October 2021. It’s slated to arrive at its first destination, a main-belt asteroid, in 2025. From 2027 to 2033, Lucy will explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are trapped by Jupiter’s gravity in two swarms that share the planet’s orbit, one leading and one trailing Jupiter in its 12-year circuit around the Sun. The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system, and may have formed far beyond Jupiter’s current orbit.

“This is a unique opportunity,” said Harold F. Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins.”

Lucy will build on the success of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt, using newer versions of the RALPH and LORRI science instruments that helped enable the mission’s achievements. Several members of the Lucy mission team are veterans of the New Horizons mission. Lucy will build on the success of the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu, with the OTES instrument and several members of the OSIRIS-REx team.

The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt — a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about three times farther away from the Sun than is the Earth. This asteroid measures about 210 kilometers (130 miles) in diameter and, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, is thought to be composed mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core. Scientists wonder whether 16 Psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that could have been as large as Mars, but which lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago. The mission will help scientists understand how planets and other bodies separated into their layers — including cores, mantles, and crusts — early in their histories. “This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world — not one of rock or ice, but of metal,” said Psyche Principal Investigator, Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. “16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space.” Psyche, also a robotic mission, is targeted to launch in October 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth-gravity-assist spacecraft maneuver in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.

In addition to selecting the Lucy and Psyche missions for formulation, the agency will extend funding for the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) project for an additional year. The NEOCam space telescope is designed to survey regions of space closest to Earth’s orbit, where potentially hazardous asteroids may be found. “JPL is delighted with the news that Psyche will be moving forward and for the additional support for the development of NEOCam. These two exciting and important missions will provide far greater understanding of the role asteroids play in our solar system,” said JPL Director Mike Watkins.

“These are true missions of discovery that integrate into NASA’s larger strategy of investigating how the solar system formed and evolved,” said NASA’s Planetary Science Director, Jim Green. “We’ve explored terrestrial planets, gas giants, and a range of other bodies orbiting the Sun. Lucy will observe primitive remnants from farther out in the solar system, while Psyche will directly observe the interior of a planetary body. These additional pieces of the puzzle will help us understand how the Sun and its family of planets formed, changed over time, and became places where life could develop and be sustained — and what the future may hold.”

The Discovery Program portfolio includes 12 prior selections, such as the MESSENGER mission to study Mercury, the Dawn mission to explore asteroids Vesta and Ceres, and the InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch in May 2018.

For more information, visit https://discovery.nasa.gov/missions.cfml.

Seven Earth-Sized Planets Found Around Nearby Star, Some in Habitable Zone

Imagine standing on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f . . . This artist’s concept is one interpretation of what it could look like. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-sized planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water — key to life as we know it — under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone. “This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘Are we alone?’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.”

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. Assisted by several groundbased telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven. The new results were published February 22 in the journal Nature, and announced at a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated. Based on their densities, all the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky. Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surfaces. The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated — scientists believe it could be an icy, “snowball-like” world, but further observations are needed.

“The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-sized planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star,” said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium. “It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-sized worlds.”

In contrast to our Sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star — classified as an ultra-cool dwarf — is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our Sun. The planets also are very close to each other. If a person were standing on one of the planets’ surfaces, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the Moon in Earth’s sky.

Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the Sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. In the fall of 2016, Spitzer observed TRAPPIST-1 nearly continuously for 500 hours. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossings — transits — of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. “This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations,” said Sean Carey, manager of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. “Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets.” Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler will help astronomers plan for follow-up studies using NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018. With much greater sensitivity, Webb will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, and other components of a planet’s atmosphere. Webb also will analyze the planets’ temperatures and surface pressures — key factors in assessing their habitability.

Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screening of four of the planets, including the three inside the habitable zone. These observations aim at assessing the presence of puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres, typical for gaseous worlds like Neptune, around these planets. In May 2016, the Hubble team observed the two innermost planets, and found no evidence for such puffy atmospheres. This strengthened the case that the planets closest to the star are rocky in nature.

“The TRAPPIST-1 system provides one of the best opportunities in the next decade to study the atmospheres around Earth-sized planets,” said Nikole Lewis, co-leader of the Hubble study and astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope also is studying the TRAPPIST-1 system, making measurements of the star’s minuscule changes in brightness due to transiting planets. Operating as the K2 mission, the spacecraft’s observations will allow astronomers to refine the properties of the known planets, as well as search for additional planets in the system. The K2 observations should conclude in early March and will be made available on the public archive.

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer. For more information on the TRAPPIST-1 system, visit https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/trappist1. For more information on exoplanets, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exoplanets.

Spotlight on Education

“Spotlight on Education” highlights events and programs that provide opportunities for planetary scientists to become involved in education and public engagement. If you know of space science educational programs or events that should be included, please contact the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s Education Department at education@lpi.usra.edu.

The 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) will be held at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, The Woodlands, Texas, March 20–24, 2017.  There will be a variety of events and opportunities that will be of interest to the science education community and scientists who are involved in — or are interested in — education and public engagement. For more information, visit http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/events/education/.

Participate in Education and Public Engagement Poster Sessions

Tuesday, March 21, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., Town Center Exhibit Hall

There will be several education and public engagement poster sessions on the evening of Tuesday, March 21, on the topics of K–12 education, higher education, public engagement, and workforce training. All conference attendees are invited to join us to discuss the community’s efforts!

Early Career Presenters Review

Sunday, March 19, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Shenandoah Room

All early career scientists preparing to present research at the 48th LPSC are invited to present their oral or poster presentation and receive feedback from senior scientists before presenting during the regular meeting. The Early Career Presenters Review will take place Sunday afternoon, March 19, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. CDT at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott. Presenters and scientists wishing to participate as reviewers are encouraged to contact Andy Shaner at shaner@lpi.usra.edu.

Planetary Science Palooza

Sunday, March 19, 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., Waterway Ballrooms 7/8

Students, educators, program leaders, amateur astronomers, and their families are invited to the first LPSC Planetary Science Palooza, which will be held on Sunday, March 19, from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Explore hands-on activities, hear the latest findings from experts, and ask questions about their research, how they explore our solar system, and what motivates and challenges them in their work. Free registration is available now at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PlanetaryPalooza. For more information, contact education@lpi.usra.edu.

LPSC Insights: Get Connected, Stay Connected

Monday Morning, March 20, 7:30 a.m., Indian Springs Room

Are you a student attending LPSC for the first time? Are you unsure about how to navigate the conference? Are you nervous about networking? The LPSC Insights: Get Connected, Stay Connected program is here for you! First-time student attendees who register for this program will be introduced to an experienced LPSC attendee, and the pair will spend Monday morning, March 20, 2017, attending sessions and networking together. Experienced LPSC attendees wishing to be paired with a student may register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2017_lpsc_insights_mentor. Questions? Contact Andy Shaner at shaner@lpi.usra.edu.

Upcoming Public Event Opportunities

Upcoming opportunities exist for educator and public engagement around the broader topics of NASA planetary exploration. Resources for evening observing session events include the Night Sky Network’s Discover the Universe Guides at https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news-display.cfm?News_ID=611. Consider getting in touch with local astronomical societies, planetariums and museums, local scientists, and NASA’s Solar System Ambassadors (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ssa/directory.cfm) — ask them to join your events and share their experiences or resources with your audience.

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak will pass 0.148 AU (58 lunar distances) from Earth on April 5, 2017. The comet should be visible with binoculars and small telescopes between March and May 2017. Use the Night Sky Network to contact a local astronomy club about providing telescopes and/or binoculars and look for hands-on comet activities ideas at NASA Wavelength: http://nasawavelength.org/resource-search?qq=comets&educationalLevel=#.

Total Eclipse of the Sun

On August 21, 2017, there will be a total eclipse of the Sun visible from the U.S. The path of the total eclipse is only about 113 kilometers (70 miles) wide, beginning in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. A partial eclipse will be visible to 500 million people in the other parts of the U.S. and North America. For more information, visit http://eclipse2017.nasa.gov.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is making available a popular-level introduction to help explain the eclipse, and how to view it, to students and the public. Visit http://static.nsta.org/extras/solarscience/SolarScienceInsert.pdf.

Universe in the Classroom: Getting Ready for the All American Eclipse

In this edition of The Universe in the Classroom, learn about a storyline approach to teaching about eclipses, including investigations into lunar phases, the size and scale of the Earth-Moon system, why eclipses happen, and the pattern and frequency of their occurrence. Visit http://www.astrosociety.org/publications/universe-in-the-classroom/.

NASA’s “Science WOW!” Newsletter

NASA has a new science education newsletter. Science starts with a question and so will “Science WOW!” Each week’s message will kick off with a science question and a link to where you can find the answer. “Science WOW!” will also highlight an awesome science education tool each week. Visit https://blogs.nasa.gov/educationsciencewow/.

Summer Internships at Johns-Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

APL offers science and engineering internships each summer. The Laboratory’s internship program provides practical work experience and an introduction to APL. Students spend the summer working with APL scientists and engineers, conducting research, developing leadership skills, and growing professionally.

The application deadline for the 2017 College Summer Internship Program is March 31, 2017. For more information, or to apply, visit http://www.jhuapl.edu/employment/summer/.

2017 NASA Planetary Science Summer Seminar

NASA is accepting applications from science and engineering post-docs, recent Ph.D.s, and doctoral students, as well as engineering students within 6–9 months of completion of their master’s degree (but not planning to pursue a Ph.D. degree), for its 29th Annual Planetary Science Summer Seminar, which will be held July 24–28, 2017 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Applications are due April 3, 2017. Partial financial support is available for a limited number of individuals. Further information is available at https://psss.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Barringer Grant Applications for 2017

Graduate students and postdocs are invited to apply for grants from the Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research; the application deadline is April 7, 2017. This program provides three to five competitive grants each year in the range of $2500.00 to $5000.00 USD for support of field research at known or suspected impact sites worldwide. Grant funds may be used to assist with travel and subsistence costs, as well as laboratory and computer analysis of research samples and findings. Master’s, doctoral, and post-doctoral students enrolled in formal university programs are eligible. Over the past 15 years, 56 research projects have been supported. For additional details and an application, visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Awards/Barringer_Fund/.

Division of Planetary Science 2017 Prize Nominations

It is time to consider nominating a respected colleague for one of the annual DPS prizes, including the Carl Sagan Medal, which recognizes and honors outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public. The nomination deadline is April 1, 2017. Detailed descriptions of each of the prizes and the criteria for nominees for each can be found at https://dps.aas.org/prizes.

In Memoriam

Neil Gehrels, 1952–2017

Cornelis A. “Neil” Gehrels, an American astrophysicist specializing in the field of gamma-ray astronomy, died on February 6, 2017, at the age of 64. Gehrels was a pioneer in the study of gamma-ray bursts, which are blasts of high-energy radiation that come from deep space. Based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Gehrels was the principal investigator for NASA’s Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, which has solved many mysteries about gamma-ray bursts. He was also the project scientist for NASA’s upcoming Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), a large infrared-based space telescope that will search for planets beyond our Sun, as well as study the mysterious repulsive force in our universe dubbed dark energy. Additionally, Gehrels was a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the group that directly observed, for the first time, ripples in space and time called gravitational waves.

Goddard’s center director, Chris Scolese, said, “Our center has lost a dear friend and astronomy pioneer, and his spirit will always live on in our work. Those of us who were fortunate to work with Neil know of his unwavering enthusiasm for science and unselfish generosity in mentoring others.”

Gehrels’ early passion was music. He played clarinet, guitar, and piano. As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, he studied to be a classical-music composer. Later, he decided to add an undergraduate physics degree, and ultimately followed his newfound passion to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). As a graduate student, Gehrels worked under physicists Robbie Vogt, the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Service Professor and Professor of Physics, Emeritus; and Ed Stone, the David Morrisroe Professor of Physics and the project scientist for NASA’s Voyager mission. One of Gehrels’ first projects was to calibrate a cosmic-ray instrument on Voyager. Much later, in 2012, Voyager 1 entered the uncharted territory of interstellar space, where this instrument detected the full intensity of cosmic rays. In 1979, when the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft flew past Jupiter, Gehrels discovered speeding particles of oxygen and sulfur, the origins of which turned out to be volcanos on Jupiter’s moon Io. The discovery remains one of Gehrels’ most-cited papers and was the topic of his Caltech Ph.D.

While at Caltech, Gehrels met his wife Ellen Williams, who serves as the director of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and as a professor of physics at the University of Maryland. Gehrels and Williams — who were both named as Caltech Distinguished Alumni in 2016 — were married in 1980 and later moved to Maryland, where Gehrels began work at Goddard.

It was at Goddard that Gehrels started studying highly energetic gamma rays that come from space. In the late 1980s, he developed balloon experiments to study gamma rays from the center of our Milky Way galaxy and from supernovas in other galaxies. From 1991 to 2000, he was the project scientist for the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, which began unraveling the mysteries of gamma-ray bursts. He served as the principal investigator for Swift, the successor of Compton, from 1999 until his death. Swift revealed that gamma-ray bursts likely come from tremendous supernova explosions as well as collisions between neutron stars.

Gehrels was also the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and Goddard’s John C. Lindsay Memorial Award. He and the Swift team received the 2007 Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society and the 2009 Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

— Portions of text courtesy of Caltech

Vera Cooper Rubin, 1928–2016

Vera Rubin, an astronomer who proved the existence of dark matter, one of the fundamental principles in the study of the universe, but who battled sex discrimination throughout her career, died on December 25, 2016, in Princeton, New Jersey. She was 88 years old.

Rubin’s groundbreaking discoveries, made primarily with physicist W. Kent Ford, have revolutionized the way scientists observe, measure, and understand the universe. The concept of “dark matter,” an unknown substance among stars in distant galaxies, had existed since the 1930s, but it was not proved until Rubin’s studies with Ford in the 1970s. It is considered one of the most significant and fundamental advances in astronomy during the 20th century.

Rubin was drawn to Vassar College as an undergraduate because Maria Mitchell, the first American to discover a comet, had taught there. In a sign of the challenges to come, her high school science teacher told her that she would be fine in a career as long as she stayed away from science. She graduated in 1948, the sole astronomer in the class. That year, she married Robert Rubin, who was then a graduate student in physical chemistry at Cornell. She had hoped to get a Ph.D. from Princeton, but was never provided with a graduate catalogue, as women were not allowed in the graduate astronomy program there until 1975. But Rubin forged ahead, ultimately receiving a doctorate from Georgetown University while raising four children. Even after earning her Ph.D., she struggled to gain admittance to leading observatories. In 1964, she became the first woman to receive formal approval to use the Palomar Observatory in Southern California.

While fighting gender discrimination battles on Earth, Rubin peered into the cosmos and examined the rotation of more than 200 galaxies. Among other findings, she determined that stars orbiting on the outer edges of galaxies moved at the same speed as those near the interior. The discovery defied the accepted norms of astronomy, which held that the far-flung stars should move more slowly. To account for the uniform speeds, Rubin concluded that the distant regions of galaxies contained considerable amounts of a dense, unseen mass, or dark matter, which affected everything from gravitational pull to the shape of galaxies to how stars move in relation to one another. Dark matter has not been directly observed, and its precise composition remains unknown, but scientists think it constitutes about 84% of the cosmos. “So important is this dark matter to our understanding of the size, shape, and ultimate fate of the universe,” Rubin wrote in Scientific American in 1998, “that the search for it will very likely dominate astronomy for the next few decades.”

Rubin, who joined the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1965 and spent most of her career there, continued to make new discoveries — including previously unknown galaxies — into the 21st century. For years, she was considered a leading contender for the Nobel Prize, but the award never came. Many attributed the oversight to gender bias among male scientists and prize committees. Rubin was active in promoting the careers of women in astronomy and other sciences and worked to help other women in those fields, but if she was disappointed at not receiving the Nobel Prize, she never said so in public.

Rubin published more than 100 scientific papers and was on the editorial boards of professional journals and Science magazine. She published a collection of essays, Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters, in 1997. She was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and in 1993, President Bill Clinton awarded her with the nation’s highest scientific award, the National Medal of Science. Among her other honors, she won the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society — the first woman to have done so since Caroline Herschel in 1828 — and asteroid 5726 Rubin was named after her. She received several honorary doctorates, including one from Princeton University half a century after having been barred from their graduate program.

Sandra Faber, a staff astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that Rubin was a “guiding light” for a generation of female astronomers. “Vera Rubin was a national treasure as an accomplished astronomer and a wonderful role model for young scientists,” said Carnegie president Matthew Scott. “We are very saddened by this loss.”

— Portions of text courtesy of The Washington Post and the Carnegie Institution of Washington

Kwok-Yung (Fred) Lo, 1947–2016

Dr. Kwok-Yung (Fred) Lo, 69, former director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and renowned researcher, died on December 16, 2016, in Charlottesville, Virginia. “[Lo] will always be remembered as an absolute visionary, not just for radio astronomy but also for how the global community of researchers could collaborate on essential areas of discovery,” said NRAO Director Tony Beasley. “Throughout his long career he touched many lives. We will greatly miss his guidance, wisdom, and intense focus on all aspects of astronomy.”

Lo was an eminent scientist who led the NRAO as its director and distinguished astronomer from September 2002 to May 2012. During Lo’s tenure, NRAO and its international partners completed the construction of and began science operations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest and most powerful telescope of its kind. Lo also led the NRAO during the rebirth and rebranding of the iconic Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in New Mexico as the much more capable Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. This period also saw extraordinary strides and discoveries with the Green Bank Telescope and the Very Long Baseline Array.

Lo was born in Hong Kong on October 19, 1947. He received his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and 1974, respectively. He joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1974 as a research fellow in radio astronomy. In 1976, Lo went to the University of California at Berkeley as a Miller Fellow. Two years later, he returned to Caltech where he held various research and teaching positions until 1986.

Lo then accepted the position of professor of astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and served as the chairman of its astronomy department from 1995 to 1997. Prior to coming to NRAO, Lo joined the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, as director of its newly formed Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He was also appointed professor of physics at the National Taiwan University in 1998.

Lo was an accomplished radio astronomer and physicist with wide ranging research interests. His studies included star formation in different environments, such as dwarf galaxies; starbursts in nearby and very distant galaxies; and the determination of the structure of Sagittarius A, the compact radio source at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. He was intimately involved in the construction and scientific use of all the millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave interferometer arrays in the U.S., and made the first millimeter-wave interferometric map of carbon monoxide emission from an external galaxy.

— Text courtesy of NRAO

Milestones

Dr. Paul Schenk Recognized with USRA Distinguished Service Award

The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) recognized Dr. Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute for sustained contributions to planetary science and his expertise in topographic mapping by spacecraft, which have enabled important new analyses that have fueled new discovery. As a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Dawn mission, he was actively engaged in results from asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. As a Co-Investigator on New Horizons, he was the lead for determining Pluto’s topography. Since 2015, Paul has authored or co-authored more than 20 papers on these and other related topics, and has made science accessible to the general public through numerous media interactions and outreach events.

The inaugural USRA President’s Awards recognizes outstanding achievements by all USRA staff, reflecting performance well above normal expectations for a given job assignment. It is awarded based on three categories (Distinguished Service, Individual Excellence, and Team Excellence). The award will be formally presented at a dinner reception on March 29, 2017, in Washington, DC.

NASA Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa to be inducted into U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame

Veteran NASA astronaut, Ellen Ochoa, Ph.D., the first Hispanic woman to go to space and 11th director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Ochoa joined NASA in 1988 as a research engineer at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. She moved to JSC in 1990 when she was selected as an astronaut candidate. After completing astronaut training, she served on the nine-day STS-56 mission onboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1993, conducting atmospheric studies to better understand the effect of solar activity on Earth’s climate and environment. She has flown in space four times, including STS-66, STS-96, and STS-110, logging nearly 1000 hours in orbit.

Born in California, Ochoa earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from San Diego State University and a master’s degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. As a research engineer at Sandia National Laboratories and Ames, Ochoa investigated optical systems for use in information processing. She is a co-inventor on three patents and author of several technical papers.

Ochoa has been recognized with NASA’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award for senior executives in the federal government. Five schools have been named for her, and she has received many other awards. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, serves on several boards, and chairs the Nomination Evaluation Committee for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

“I’m honored to be recognized among generations of astronauts who were at the forefront of exploring our universe for the benefit of humankind,” Ochoa said. “I hope to continue to inspire our nation’s youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math so they, too, may reach for the stars.”

Stephen Mackwell Elected Fellow of AAAS

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recognized Dr. Stephen J. Mackwell for his “fundamental contributions to experimental investigation of physical properties of geological materials combined with critical leadership in the planetary science community.” Each year, the organization elects Fellows whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science and its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.” Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by peers. This year, 391 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Dr. Jeffrey Isaacson, President and CEO of USRA, said, “We at USRA are very proud to have such a distinguished scientist on our staff. Steve Mackwell’s meritorious contributions to the advancement of science and his invaluable leadership in the planetary science community are outstanding examples of the positive impact he has left on the scientific field. His election to the rank of AAAS Fellow is a prestigious honor and yet another accolade in his distinguished career.”

Mackwell was honored at the annual AAAS Fellows Forum on February 18, 2017, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Eric Becklin Awarded the 2017 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship

Eric Becklin (USRA/California Institute of Technology) was the recipient of the American Astronomical Society’s 2017 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship award. This award was granted “for lifetime preeminence in astronomical research for his leadership role over the last half century in turning infrared astronomy into a fundamental tool for understanding the universe.” Becklin has pioneered discoveries using infrared observations in a wide range of contexts — including the galactic center, star-forming regions, evolved stars, brown dwarfs, exoplanets, and the obscured nuclei of other galaxies — with telescopes on the ground, in the stratosphere, and in space.

Included among Becklin’s other awards are the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy. He was also selected as a Guggenheim Fellow and is currently a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His expertise includes infrared astrophysics, photometry, imaging at infrared wavelengths, and instrumentation for astronomy. He has served in various positions, most notable among them being Acting Director, NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, Senior Scientist, Institute of Astronomy; Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii; Visiting Fellow, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Scotland; Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles; and Chief Scientist, USRA/Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) project. A prolific writer, Becklin has authored several papers, including many involving his work on SOFIA, managed by USRA for NASA.

Dr. Nicholas White, Senior Vice President of Science at USRA, said, “We are extremely delighted to see this prestigious recognition and honor bestowed on Eric. His leadership and advocacy for SOFIA has been critical to its success.”

National Space Society Honors NASA’s William Gerstenmaier with 2017 Space Pioneer Award

William H. Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, is the recipient of the National Space Society’s 2017 Space Pioneer Award in the Non-Legislative Government Service category. This award recognizes Gerstenmaier’s service as Associate Administrator as well as his dynamic career with NASA, which spans 40 years. The award will be presented on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the National Space Society’s 2017 International Space Development Conference.

Throughout his career and for many years under his management, Gerstenmaier has overseen the development and maintenance of the International Space Station — a blueprint for global cooperation off the Earth. Gerstenmaier’s indelible contributions to space station operations are helping to facilitate the growth of a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit (LEO) for scientific research, technology development, and human and cargo transportation. Gerstenmaier has also managed NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, the Orion spacecraft, the commercial crew program, and a revitalized space launch complex in Florida. The best of NASA’s human spaceflight program is yet to come, and that is largely thanks to what Gerstenmaier and the spaceflight team have done to push the boundaries in space for humans.

Before becoming Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters, he has held a series of leadership positions at the agency. These include manager of Space Shuttle Program Integration, head of the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle Operations Office, Director of Space Shuttle and Space Station Freedom Assembly Operations, Chief of the Projects and Facilities Branch of the Flight Design and Dynamics Division, Shuttle/Mir Program Operations Manager, and International Space Station Office Program Manager. Gerstenmaier earned a Bachelor of Arts in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1977, as well as a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1981 from the University of Toledo.

2017 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award Winners Announced

Katherine de Kleer (left) and Frances Butcher (right).

Katherine de Kleer and Frances Butcher have been selected as winners of the 2017 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award. The Pierazzo International Student Travel Award was established by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in memory of Senior Scientist Elisabetta (Betty) Pierazzo, to support and encourage graduate students to build international collaborations and relationships in planetary science.

Katherine de Kleer of the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the award for a U.S.-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting outside the U.S. Her research title is “The Impact of Io’s Volcanism on the Jovian Extended Neutral Environment,” and she will be attending the joint Japan Geoscience Union–American Geophysical Union meeting in Chiba, Japan on May 20–25, 2017.

Frances Butcher of the Open University in the United Kingdom will receive the award for a non-U.S.-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting in the U.S. Her research title is “Eskers Associated with Extant Glaciers in Mid-Latitude Graben on Mars: Evidence for Geothermal Controls upon Recent Basal Melting of Glaciers on Mars,” and she will be attending the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, on March 20–24, 2017.

2016 McKay and Wiley Award Recipients Named

The Gordon A. McKay Award —

The McKay Award honors the memory of Gordon A. McKay, and the award is given each year to the student who gives the best oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society. The 2016 McKay Award is given to Danielle N. Simkus (University of Alberta) for her presentation on “Compound-Specific Carbon Isotope Compositions of Aldehydes and Ketones in the Tagish Lake Meteorite.”

McKay Award recipient Danielle Simkus.

The Wiley Award —

Sponsored by the publisher of Meteoritics and Planetary Science, four Wiley Awards are given each year for outstanding oral presentations by students at the annual Meteoritical Society meeting. This year’s awardees are Kelly E. Miller (University of Arizona) for the presentation on “Copper Sulfides in the R Chondrites: Evidence Of Hydrothermal Alteration in Low Petrologic Types,” Sheryl Singerling (University of New Mexico) for the presentation on “Synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of Trace Elements in Focused Ion Beam Prepared Sections of Carbonaceous Chondrite Iron Sulfides (CM and CR) and Associated Metal (CR),” Timo Hopp (University of Münster) for the presentation on “Ruthenium Isotope Fractionation during Crystallization of Planetesimal Cores,” and Gavin G. Kenny (Trinity College, Dublin) for the presentation on “Impact Crater Environments as Potential Sources of Hadean Detrital Zircons.”

Wiley Award recipients (from left): Kelly E. Miller, Sheryl Singerling, Timo Hopp, and Gavin G. Kenny.

Barringer Awardees Named

The Lunar and Planetary Institute is pleased to announce the names of the students whose research will be supported by The Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research. Congratulations to the 2016 Barringer Awardees: Anna Losiak (Polish Academy of Sciences), Mara Murri (University of Pavia), Cheikh Niang (University of Cheikh Anta Diop), Grace de Oliveira (University of Campinas), and Auriol Rae (Imperial College London).

The Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research was established to support field work by eligible students interested in the study of impact cratering processes. The Fund provides a small number of competitive grants each year for support of field research at known or suspected impact sites worldwide.

LPI Announces the 2017 Career Development Award Recipients

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is pleased to announce the recipients of the tenth LPI Career Development Award. Congratulations to the 2017 recipients: Kevin Cannon (Brown University), Edgard Sikko Steenstra (Vrije Universiteit), Ali Bramson (University of Arizona), Auriol Rae (Imperial College London), Mallory Kinczyk (North Carolina State University), Gerrit Budde (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster Zur), Elise Harrington (University of Ontario), Stephanie Quintana-Bouchey (Brown University), Vivian Sun (Brown University), Arya Bina (Western University), Christy Caudill (Western University), Josiah Lewis (Washington, University in St. Louis), and Timothy Hahn (Washington, University in St. Louis).

The award is given to graduate students who have submitted a first-author abstract for presentation at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). The awards are based on a review of the application materials by a panel of planetary scientists, and recipients will receive a $1000.00 travel stipend to help cover their expenses for attending the conference. The Career Development Award is designed to support graduate students from the U.S. and other countries so that they can attend the LPSC, which provides an invaluable opportunity for students to network, present their own research, and to see firsthand the latest-breaking results from other researchers in their field.

Announcing the 2016 Stephen E. Dwornik Award Winners

The Dwornik Award was started in 1991 with a generous endowment by Dr. Stephen E. Dwornik, who wished to encourage U.S. students to become involved with NASA and planetary science. The award consists of a plaque and monetary award given for outstanding student presentations (poster and oral) or a plaque for honorable mentions (poster and oral) at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The awards are managed and judged by the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. Congratulations to the 2016 Dwornik Awardees:

Graduate Oral: Michelle S. Thompson (University of Arizona), “Simulation of Micrometeorite Impacts Through In Situ Dynamic Heating of Lunar Soil”

Honorable Mention — Graduate Oral: Mathieu G. A. Lapotre (California Institute of Technology), “Orbital and In Situ Observations in Support of the Existence of an Unknown Stable Aeolian Bedform Regime on Mars”

Graduate Poster: Cameron M. Mercer (Arizona State University), “Exploring Non-Uniform 40Ar* Loss in Apollo 16 Impact Melt Breccias Using a Laser Microprobe”

Honorable Mention — Graduate Poster: Lauren M. Jozwiak (Brown University), “Pyroclastic Eruptions on Mercury: Insights into Eruption Mechanisms from Vent Morphology”

Undergraduate Oral: Danielle G. Neighbour (University of Arkansas), “Cryogenic Viscous Liquids on Icy Moons”

Undergraduate Poster: Julianne Sweeney (State University of New York at Geneseo), “Crater Degradation and Surface Erosion Rates at the InSight Landing Site, Western Elysium Planitia, Mars”

Honorable Mention — Undergraduate Poster: Michael J. O’Shea (State University of New York at Geneseo), “Using the Morphology of Impact Craters as a Relative Age Indicator for Fluvial Activity at Xanthe Terra, Mars”

“MAC’s Old Team” Wins the National Space Society’s 2017 Space Pioneer Award for Special Merit

“MAC’s Old Team,” consisting of former employees of the McDonnell Aircraft, McDonnell-Douglas, and Boeing Companies in the St. Louis area, is the winner of the National Space Society’s 2017 Space Pioneer Award in the Special Merit category. This award recognizes the exemplary work this team did building our nation’s historic Mercury and Gemini spacecraft beginning 59 years ago. The National Space Society invites the public to join them in presenting the Pioneer Award to MAC’s Old Team on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the 36th NSS International Space Development Conference.

Members of MAC’s Old Team feel privileged to have worked on the Mercury and Gemini programs and are proud of a series of firsts, including the first American to fly in space, the first American to orbit Earth, the first spacecraft to change orbits, the first American to perform an Extravehicular Activity (EVA), the first in-orbit rendezvous between two spacecraft, the first docking between two spacecraft, and the setting of spacecraft flight endurance and altitude records.

As historically significant as these achievements may be, however, the team is most proud of the safety record. Over a period of more than 5 years and 16 manned flights, 19 different astronauts flew on Mercury and Gemini missions with durations ranging from 15 minutes to 2 weeks without injury or loss of life.

MAC’s Old Team.

NASA-Funded Website Lets Public Search for New Nearby Worlds

NASA is inviting the public to help search for possible undiscovered worlds in the outer reaches of our solar system and in neighboring interstellar space. A new website, called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, lets everyone participate in the search by viewing brief movies made from images captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. The movies highlight objects that have gradually moved across the sky. The new website uses the data to search for unknown objects in and beyond our own solar system. Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 is a collaboration among NASA, University of California–Berkeley, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Arizona State University, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and Zooniverse.

For more information about Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, visit http://backyardworlds.org.

New and Noteworthy

Note: Product descriptions are taken from the publisher’s website. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

BOOKS

Asteroids: Astronomical and Geological Bodies.

By Thomas H. Burbine. Cambridge University Press. 2017, 406 pp., Hardcover, $79.99. www.cambridge.org

Asteroid science is a fundamental topic in planetary science and is key to furthering our understanding of planetary formation and the evolution of the solar system. Groundbased observations and missions have provided a wealth of new data in recent years, and forthcoming missions promise further exciting results. This accessible book presents a comprehensive introduction to asteroid science, summarizing the astronomical and geological characteristics of asteroids. The interdisciplinary nature of asteroid science is reflected in the broad range of topics covered, including asteroid and meteorite classification, chemical and physical properties of asteroids, observational techniques, cratering, and the discovery of asteroids and how they are named. Other chapters discuss past, present, and future space missions and the threat that these bodies pose for Earth. Based on an upper-level course on asteroids and meteorites taught by the author, this book is ideal for students, researchers, and professional scientists looking for an overview of asteroid science.

Apollo VII–XVII: A Collection of Photographs Taken by NASA’s Apollo Program Astronauts 1968–1972.

By Simon Phillipson, Joel Meter, Delano Steen Meijer, and Floris Heyne. JDFS, 2016, 320 pp., Hardcover, $105.00. Available through amazon.com

This stunning pictorial collection revisits the iconic images taken by the astronauts of NASA’s Apollo program, 1968–1972. It begins with an essay written by Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham, sharing his memories and stories on early space exploration photography from the Apollo program. Photography has become a crucial technique for documenting the history of humankind. The early exploration of space is one such historical event, unrivaled among humanity’s achievements. Fortunately, the skill and daring of a very particular group of photographers, the Apollo astronauts, were able to bring back beautiful, moving, and instantly recognizable images. It is these images that created a new understanding of what it means to be human, living on this planet and its relation to the Sun and the stars. Two hundred twenty-five of these photographs are presented in large-print format. An additional chapter gives background information on the photographic equipment, the training, and the techniques the astronauts used to create these beautiful images using modified Hasselblad 70-millimeter film cameras onboard.

Shapes and Dynamics of Granular Minor Planets: The Dynamics of Deformable Bodies Applied to Granular Objects in the Solar System.

By Ishan Sharma. Springer, 2017, 354 pp., Hardcover, $179.00. www.springer.com

This book develops a general approach that can be systematically refined to investigate the statics and dynamics of deformable solid bodies. These methods are then employed to small bodies in the solar system. With several space missions underway and more being planned, interest in our immediate neighborhood is growing. In this spirit, this book investigates various phenomena encountered in planetary science, including disruptions during planetary flybys, equilibrium shapes and stability of small rubble bodies, and spin-driven shape changes. The flexible procedure proposed here will help readers gain valuable insights into the mechanics of solar system bodies, while at the same time complementing numerical investigations. The technique itself is built upon the virial method successfully employed by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1969) to study the equilibrium shapes of spinning fluid objects. However, here Chandrasekhar’s approach is modified in order to study more complex dynamical situations and include objects of different rheologies, e.g., granular aggregates, or “rubble piles.” The book is largely self-contained, although some basic familiarity with continuum mechanics will be beneficial.

Contemporary Planetary Robotics: An Approach Toward Autonomous Systems.

Edited by Yang Gao. Wiley, 2016, 432 pp., Hardcover, $205.00. www.wiley.com

For readers from both academia and industry wishing to pursue their studies and/or careers in planetary robotics, this book represents a one-stop tour of the history, evolution, key systems, and technologies of this emerging field. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the key techniques and technologies that help to achieve autonomous space systems for cost-effective, high-performing planetary robotic missions. The main topics covered include robotic vision, surface navigation, manipulation, mission operations, and autonomy, explained in terms of both theoretical principles and practical use. The book recognizes the importance of system design, and therefore discusses practices and tools that help take mission concepts to baseline design solutions, making it a practical piece of scientific reference suited to a variety of practitioners in planetary robotics.

The Secret Life of Equations: The 50 Greatest Equations and How They Work.

By Rich Cochrane. Firefly Books, 2016, 192 pp., Paperback, $24.95. www.fireflybooks.com

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity (E = mc^2) is a central theory in modern physics with implications on our insight into everything from black holes to the expansion of the universe. But how did Einstein come up with it? And what has happened to it since then? This is not a math book, but rather a map by which readers can discover equations from a different perspective. Selected from geometry, technology, science, chance, and mathematics, the 50 equations are explored by way of their history. Why were they needed? How were they developed? What is their value today? The equations are presented as follows: concise, understandable text highlighted with clever illustrations; visual and textual descriptions of the equations’ components, for ultimate clarity; “What’s It About” fictional scenarios to explain the original problems or theories in want of a solution or proof; and “What’s It Good For?” descriptions that tell how the equations proved theories and how they are used today. In uncomplicated text, the book follows the evolution of each equation, bringing to life the brilliant minds and unique characters that starred in the story, and how their achievements advanced modern theory. It points out the faults and problems that arose and explains how the equations are fundamental to our understanding of the world, not to mention the unfathomable universe. This book will enlighten and entertain in equal measure. It is excellent for readers interested in mathematics history and for students that would benefit from the allegorical explanations.

GLOBE

Pluto Globe.

Produced by Sky & Telescope, $24.99. www.shopatsky.com

This six-inch globe of Pluto combines a colorful NASA-authorized base map with names for 60 craters and other surface features. The mosaic used for this globe consists of more than 125 images acquired by cameras onboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during the seven days prior to and during its close flyby on July 14, 2015. Because Pluto rotated slowly during this period, the spacecraft recorded some areas with much higher resolution than others. Also, because Pluto’s north pole is strongly tipped toward the Sun, areas south of –30° latitude were in shadow and not seen. Sky & Telescope collaborated with scientists Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Ross Beyer of SETI/NASA-Ames, and the New Horizons team to produce a base map showing details as small as 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) across. The names of 60 craters and other features shown are informal names used by the New Horizons team in its publications. Labels on this globe use the official, Latinized versions of feature types approved by the International Astronomical Union.

FOR KIDS!!!

Dawn Probe: A Robot Explores the Dwarf Planet Ceres.

By James Bow. Rosen Publishing, 2017, 32 pp., Hardcover. $26.25. www.rosenpublishing.com

What’s the difference between an asteroid and a planet? Scientists struggled with this question for many years with regard to Ceres. Today, it’s called a “dwarf planet” and because of the Dawn mission, we know a lot about it! Robots have many cool features that bring the far reaches of space to scientists on Earth, and readers learn about the amazing technology the Dawn mission used to explore Ceres. Up-close photographs and full-color illustrations complement detailed, interesting content that teaches readers about the use of space robots from the idea and building stages to their launch and exploration. For grades 5 and 6.

Find Your Way in Space.

By Paul Boston. QEB Publishing, 2017, 32 pp., Hardcover. $14.95. www.quartoknows.com

Choose your mode of transport and set off on an adventure that will take you all the way across space. Can you navigate huge roundabouts with space shuttles, or cross bridges guarded by aliens? Negotiate pesky road obstructions by solving the math problems correctly. Pick up hidden objects, collect bonus points, and use your mapping skills to zoom backward and forward through the book. Incredibly busy and colorful artwork will delight young children, and once they reach their objective, readers can absorb themselves in all sorts of bonus math activities. For ages 5 to 8.

Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos.

By Nancy Atkinson. Page Street Publishing, 2016, 224 pp., Paperback, $19.99. www.pagestreetpublishing.com

Veteran space journalist Nancy Atkinson shares compelling insights from more than 35 NASA scientists and engineers, taking readers behind the scenes of the unmanned missions that are transforming our understanding of the solar system and beyond. Weaving together one-on-one interviews along with the extraordinary sagas of the spacecraft themselves, this book chronicles the struggles and triumphs of nine current space missions and captures the true spirit of exploration and discovery. Full color images throughout reveal scientific discoveries and the stunning, breathtaking views of our universe, sent back to Earth by our robotic emissaries to the cosmos. Travel along with the first mission to Pluto, explore Mars alongside the Curiosity Rover, join the unprecedented hunt for extrasolar planets, and more. For ages 13 and up.

Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt.

By Mary Kay Carson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2017, 80 pp., Hardcover. $18.99. www.hmhco.com

In July 2015 the robotic spacecraft New Horizons reached Pluto after a nine-and-half-year journey. It is the first spacecraft mission to Pluto, and it has revealed the ice dwarf and its five moons as never before. Images from the mission show a reddish surface covered in ice-water mountains, moving glaciers, and hints of possible ice volcanos and an underground ocean. Pluto is geologically alive and changing! Mission to Pluto lets you follow along with the team of scientists as they build New Horizons, fly it across the solar system, and make new discoveries about a world three billion miles away. For ages 10 to 12.

Watcher of the Skies: Poems about Space and Aliens.

Edited by Rachel Piercey and Emma Wright. The Emma Press, 2016, 128 pp., Paperback. $11.50. www.theemmapress.com

How big is the universe? Are there dogs in space? What if your friend — or your granddad — was an alien? Join the poets in wondering in Watcher of the Skies, a sparkling collection of poems about the outermost possibilities of space, life, and our imaginations. Fully illustrated by Emma Wright, and accompanied with helpful facts from space scientist Rachel Cochrane of the Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, and ideas for writing poems from Rachel Piercey, this is the perfect companion for any budding stargazer or astronaut. For ages 8 and up.

Calendar 2017

For the latest version of the meeting calendar, visit http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/calendar.

April

3–5 Titan Through Time 4 Workshop, Greenbelt, Maryland. http://ssed.gsfc.nasa.gov/titanworkshop/

3–7 Early Earth and ExoEarths: Origin and Evolution of Life, Warsaw, Poland. http://lifeorigins2017.ing.pan.pl/conference.html

10–14 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 2017 (ACM 2017), Montevideo, Uruguay. http://acm2017.uy

23–28 European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2017, Vienna, Austria. http://www.egu2017.eu/

24–26 Exoplanet Science with Small Telescopes: Precise Radial Velocities, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. http://web.sas.upenn.edu/smalltrv/

24–28 Astrometry and Astrophysics in the

Gaia Sky, Nice, France. https://iaus330.sciencesconf.org/

24–28 Astrobiology Science Conference, Mesa, Arizona. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/abscicon2017/

May

2–3 European Lunar Symposium — 2017, Munster Germany. https://els2017.arc.nasa.gov/

4–5 New Views of the Moon — Europe, Munster, Germany. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/newviews2017/

7–12 Radio Exploration of Planetary Habitability, Palm Springs, California. https://aas.org/meetings/aastcs/radiohab

9–11 Venus Modeling Workshop, Cleveland, Ohio. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/venusmodeling2017/

9–11 Chondrules as Astrophysical Objects Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia. http://chondrules.phas.ubc.ca/

15–19 International Conference on Mars Aeronomy, Boulder, Colorado. http://lasp.colorado.edu/meetings/marsaeronomy2017/index.php

15–19 Fifth IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Tokyo, Japan. http://pdc.iaaweb.org

15–19 The Applied Space Environments Conference (ASCE 2017), Huntsville, Alabama. http://sti.usra.edu/asec2017/

16–19 Fifth International Planetary Dunes Workshop, St. George, Utah. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/dunes2017/

22–24 The Disc Migration Issue: From Protoplanets to Supermassive Black Holes, Cambridge, United Kingdom. http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/meetings/2017/migration.issue.protoplanets.supermassive.black.holes

22–26 Astrophysics of Exoplanetary Atmospheres, Vietri sul Mare, Italy. http://www.mpia.de/~mancini/ases2

22–26 Japan Geoscience Union Meeting, Chiba, Japan. http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_e2016/greeting.html

29–Jun 3 International Interdisciplinary Workshop on “Accretion, Differentiation, and Early Evolution of the Terrestrial Planets,” Nice, France. https://www-n.oca.eu/morby/Accrete.html

29–Jun 23 Protoplanetary Disks and Planet Formation and Evolution, Garching, Germany. http://www.munich-iapp.de/scientific-programme/programmes-2017/protoplanetary-disks/

30–31 iCubeSat 2017 — The 6th Interplanetary CubeSat Workshop, Cambridge, United Kingdom. http://www.iCubeSat.org

June

4–8 230th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Austin, Texas. https://aas.org/meetings/aas230

6–8 Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2017), Beijing, China. http://www.glex2017.org

11–15 2017 American Astronomical Society Division of Dynamical Astronomy Meeting (AAS-DDA), London, United Kingdom. https://dda.aas.org/meetings/2017

12–15 3rd Planetary Data Workshop, Flagstaff, Arizona. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/planetdata2017/

13–15 Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), Greenbelt, Maryland. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/

13–15 Dust in the Atmosphere of Mars and Its Impact on the Human Exploration of Mars, Houston, Texas. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/marsdust2017/

18–23 Origins of Solar Systems: Making a Habitable Planet, South Hadley, Massachusetts. https://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=12346

19–23 Kepler and K2 Science Conference IV, Moffett Field, California. https://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/scicon4/

24–Jul 2 Workshop on Shock Metamorphism in Terrestrial and Extra-Terrestrial Rocks, Perth, Australia. http://www.sserviaustralia.org/event/shock-metamorphism-in-terrestrial-and-extra-terrestrial-rocks/

26–30 Near Infrared High Resolution Spectroscopy: Where Are We?, Prague, Czech Republic. http://eas.unige.ch/EWASS/session.jsp?id=SS7

26–30 Exoplanet Science in the Coming Decade: The Bright and Nearby Future, Prague, Czech Republic. http://eas.unige.ch/EWASS2017/session.jsp?id=S1

July

3–5 1st IUGG Symposium on Planetary Science, Berlin, Germany. http://www.dlr.de/iugg-ps2017

3–7 13th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting (APRIM 2017), Taipei, Taiwan. http://www.aprim2017.tw/

3–8 International Symposium on Education in Astronomy and Astrobiology (ISE2A), Utrecht, The Netherdlands. http://ise2a.uu.nl

16–21 XVIIIth International Conference on the Origin of Life, San Diego, California. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/issol2017/

23–28 80th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, Santa Fe, New Mexico. http://metsoc2017-santafe.com/

24–28 Celebrating 25 Years of the OGLE Project, Warsaw, Poland. https://ogle25.astrouw.edu.pl/

24–28 CHEOPS Science Workshop, Schloss Seggau, Austria. http://geco.oeaw.ac.at/links_CHEOPSsw17.html

August

13–16 2017 International Symposium on Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping, Hong Kong. http://event.lsgi.polyu.edu.hk/prsm2017/

14–17 The Third Workshop on Extremely Precise Radial Velocities (EPRV III), University Park, Pennsylvania. http://exoplanets.psu.edu/

14–18 International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) 2017 Scientific Assembly, Portland, Oregon. http://iavcei2017.org

15–18 Accretion: Building New Worlds, Houston, Texas. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/accretion2017/

20–24 Exoclipse 2017: Exploring New Worlds in the Shade, Boise, Idaho. https://physics.boisestate.edu/exoclipse/

September

5–7 Exoplanetary Systems in the PLATO Era, Coventry, United Kingdom. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/research/plato_mission_conference2017/

18–20 4th Global Applied Microbiology Summit, Dallas, Texas. http://appliedmicrobiology.cmesociety.com/

18–22 The Many Scales of the Universe: Galaxies, Their Suns, and Their Planets, Goettingen, Germany. http:/ag2017.uni-goettingen.de

25–27 Planet Formation and Evolution 2017, Jena, Germany. http://www.astro.uni-jena.de/~pfe2017

25–29 68th Annual International Astronautical Congress, Adelaide, Australia. http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2017/

October

15–20 49th Annual DPS Meeting, Provo, Utah. https://dps.aas.org/

22–25 2017 GSA Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington. https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/Events/Annual_Meeting/GSA/Events/gsa2017.aspx

November

6–11 9th International Conference on Geomorphology, New Delhi, India. http://www.icg2017.com/

13–15 1st IAA Conference on Space Situational Awareness, Orlando, Florida. http://www.icssa2017.com

13–17 Habitable Worlds 2017: A System Science Workshop, Laramie, Wyoming. https://nexss.info/community/workshops/habitable-worlds-2017