| DATE | EVENT | LOCATION |
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| Monday, Apr 1 |
Deadline: Lloyd B. Berkner Space Policy Internships: The goal of the Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internship is to provide promising graduate students with the opportunity to work in the area of civil space research policy in the nation's capital, under the aegis of the Space Science Board. The Board provides an independent, authoritative forum for information and advice on all aspects of space science and applications, and it serves as the focal point within the National Academies for activities on space research. Application deadline: April 1, 2013 For more information visit: Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internships |
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| Monday, Apr 1 |
Deadline: Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund Travel Grant: In the spirit of dedication to the growth of young scientists and engineers embodied by Gerald Soffen throughout his life, the Dr. Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Space Science Education offers Student Travel Grants. The Travel Grants are awarded to students pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees in aerospace-related sciences or engineering fields (astrobiology, astronomy, earth and space science, engineering, etc.) to attend a meeting at which they will present their research. Application deadline: ~April 1, 2013 For more information visit: Dr. Gerald A. Soffen Memorial |
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| Monday, Apr 1 |
Deadline: Graduate College Travel Grants: The Graduate College, in conjunction with GPSC, awards travel grants for graduate and professional students who are attending or presenting research at academic or professional conferences. Eligibility: Applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program at the U of A. Applicants must be in good academic standing. Applications must be complete and in the format specified to be considered. Six opportunities annually to apply. Next application deadline: April 1, 2013 See GPSC website for travel requirements. |
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| Monday, Apr 1 |
Deadline: PTYS/LPL Shandel Travel Award: Forward application materials to Mary Guerrieri. The Fund will be established to support travel expenses outside the State of Arizona during summer break for undergraduate or graduate students in the College of Science's Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory with regard to study, museum visits, special exhibits, seminars, instruction, competitions, research and other endeavors that are beyond those provided by the normal University of Arizona campus environment and are not part of the student's regular curriculum during the recipient's school year. Recipient should have completed at least the junior year of school and be returning to The University of Arizona for the following semester. The award will be given to one recipient, selected annually by the head of the Department of Planetary Sciences. |
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| Monday, Apr 1 Noon |
Brown Bag Colloquium: Dr. Edwin Kite: Dr. Edwin Kite Postdoctoral Scholar California Institute of Technology Host: Alfred McEwen Climate instability on tidally locked exoplanets (& closer to home?) |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 309 |
| Monday, Apr 1 1:30 pm |
Ph.D. Final Defense: Kathryn M. Volk: Kathryn M. Volk Final Defense Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences Kathryn M. Volk Department of Planetary Sciences Dynamical Studies of the Kuiper Belt and the Centaurs |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 309 |
| Monday, Apr 1 4 p.m. |
TAP Colloquium: Dr. Yoram Lithwick: Dr. Yoram Lithwick Northwestern University |
Steward Observatory: Room N210 |
| Tuesday, Apr 2 3:45 p.m. |
LPL Colloquium: Dr. Edwin Kite Dr. Edwin Kite Postdoctoral Scholar California Institute of Technology Host: Alfred McEwen Mars and the problem of planetary habitability It is not known whether Earth's long-term climate stability is rare or common. Kepler data suggest many Earth-radius habitable-zone planets lie within reach of JWST. The fraction of these that are habitable depends on the unknown processes that regulate long-term environmental stability. Mars' sedimentary record is the only known archive of a major planetary habitability transition. No rivers flow on today's Mars, but rovers and orbiters have found >3 Ga-old sedimentary rocks, dry rivers and paleolakes, and aqueous minerals. The nature of the early wet era, the processes that allowed surface liquid water, and the cause of climate deterioration are all unknown. In this talk, I will use a snowmelt model (ISEE-Mars) to understand the global environmental context of sedimentary rock formation on Mars. Greenhouse models struggle to maintain annual mean temperatures >273K on Early Mars, making snowmelt an attractive candidate water source for sedimentary-rock cementation. Snowmelt predicts that Mars never had a stable multibar atmosphere, consistent with results from our new paleobarometer. The "Curiosity" rover is currently exploring the moat encircling a 5km-high sedimentary rock mound in Gale Crater. This moat-and-mound pattern is common in Mars craters and canyons, but its origin is unknown. I will set out the evidence that moats and mounds grew together, shaped by slope winds down the crater and mound flanks. If time allows, I will discuss (rare) fluvial sediments that are anomalously recent. Results from a mesoscale model show these deposits may record transient, localized conditions, rather than a global return to wet conditions. Taken together, data and models hint at an early Martian climate comparable to the Antarctic Dry Valleys. The "Curiosity" rover will soon be in a position to test this hypothesis. In combination, we now have the tools and the data to recover quantitative information about trends, rhythms and aberrations in Early Mars habitability. Billion-year-baseline time series from Mars and Earth are complementary to "snapshots" of exoplanet climates...and both will be needed to develop a science of habitability on planets-in-general. |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 308 |
| Thursday, Apr 4 3:45 p.m. |
LPL Colloquium: Dr. Kevin Walsh Dr. Kevin Walsh Research Scientist Southwest Research Institute Host: Dante Lauretta The Grand Tack: Jupiter's migration to 1.5 AU, and how it shaped the inner solar system A persistent difficulty in terrestrial planet formation models is creating Mars analogs with the appropriate mass: Mars is typically an order of magnitude too large in simulations. A recent study found that a small Mars can be created if the planetesimal disk from which the planets form has an outermost edge at 1.0 AU. However, that work and no previous work, can explain such a truncation of the planetesimal disk and preserve the asteroid belt. We show that gas-driven migration of Jupiter inward to 1.5 AU, before its subsequent outward migration, can truncate the disk and repopulate the asteroid belt. This dramatic migration history of Jupiter suggests that the dynamical behavior of our giant planets was more similar to that inferred for extra-solar planets than previously thought, as both have been characterized by substantial radial migration. |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 308 |
| Friday, Apr 5 |
Deadline: Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research: The Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research has been established as a memorial to recognize the contributions of Brandon, Moreau, Paul, and Richard Barringer to the field of meteoritics and the Barringer family's strong interest and support over many years in research and student education. Proposals due April 5, 2013 For more information visit: The Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research |
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| Friday, Apr 5 Noon |
Brown Bag Colloquium: Dr. Kevin Walsh: Disrupting Asteroids - forming satellites and families Dr. Kevin Walsh Research Scientist Southwest Research Institute Host: Dante Lauretta Disrupting Asteroids - forming satellites and families |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 309 |
| Monday, Apr 8 Noon |
Brown Bag Colloquium: Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan: Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan Postdoctoral Fellow Yale University Host: Ilaria Pascucci Super-Earth Interiors Abstract: Latest exoplanet surveys are revealing an abundance of low mass exoplanets in the galaxy. Besides hundreds of candidates discovered by the Kepler space telescope, masses and radii have been measured for about ten confirmed `super-Earths', exoplanets with masses between 1 and 10 Earth masses. Being closest analogs to rocky planets in the solar system, detailed characterization of super-Earths is one of the frontier areas of exoplanet science today. In this talk, I will present the latest constraints emerging on the interior structures and formation environments of currently known super-Earths. Their interiors span a wide range of compositions, from water worlds with thick volatile envelopes to super-Mercuries, lava planets, and diamond planets, testing the limits of our understanding of mineralogies and equations of state under exotic conditions. These constraints are made possible by precise measurements of masses, radii, and spectra of super-Earths, and elemental abundances of their host stars, together with new modeling techniques. I will discuss a new and comprehensive modeling approach which includes hybrid models of super-Earth interiors and non-gray atmospheres, as well as cosmochemistry of their formation environments. I will present a comparative analysis of several transiting super-Earths and will focus particularly on two super-Earths (GJ 1214b and 55 Cancri e) which represent distinct end-members in the thermo-chemical phase space. The implications of our results for the diversity of geochemical, geophysical, and astrobiological conditions on super-Earths will be discussed. I will outline key questions that define the future of super-Earth characterization, along with new avenues for theoretical, observational, and experimental efforts. |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 309 |
| Monday, Apr 8 4 p.m. |
TAP Colloquium: TBA |
Steward Observatory: Room N210 |
| Tuesday, Apr 9 3:45 p.m. |
LPL Colloquium: Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan Postdoctoral Fellow Yale University Host: Ilaria Pascucci Exoplanetary Atmospheres Abstract: Recent advances in exoplanet observations and theoretical methods are leading to unprecedented constraints on the physicochemical properties of exoplanetary atmospheres. Atmospheric properties derived from exoplanetary spectra provide critical clues regarding not only their chemical diversity and various atmospheric processes, but also their interior compositions and formation mechanisms. In this talk, I will present many of the latest results in this field, both in observations and theory, and will discuss the promising outlook for the future. I will present constraints on the elemental abundances, non-equilibrium chemistry, temperature inversions, atmospheric dynamics, and the presence of clouds/hazes, for a sizable ensemble of extrasolar planets---both transiting and directly imaged, and including gas giants, ice giants, and super-Earths. These constraints result from detailed theoretical modeling and interpretation of spectral data from extensive observational efforts using major ground-based and space-borne infrared instruments, a survey of which will be presented. I will also discuss how these atmospheric constraints are being used to develop new classification schemes for exoplanets, and to constrain conditions of their formation and subsequent evolution. The emerging picture of exoplanetary atmospheres and formation will be discussed vis-a-vis our understanding of planets in the solar system. The exciting prospects of characterizing exoplanetary atmospheres using current, upcoming, and future observational facilities will be discussed, along with several open questions of fundamental nature in the field. |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 308 |
| Monday, Apr 15 4 p.m. |
TAP Colloquium: TBA |
Steward Observatory: Room N210 |
| Tuesday, Apr 16 3:45 p.m. |
LPL Colloquium: Dr. Channon Visscher Dr. Channon Visscher Research Scientist Southwest Research Institute Host: Adam Showman Chemistry in impact-generated disks and planetary atmospheres Chemical processes play a key role in shaping the observational and geochemical properties of planetary objects. Moreover, better understanding these processes may yield important clues about planetary formation and evolution. In this two-part talk, I will discuss new chemical models exploring 1) the chemistry of the impact-generated proto-lunar disk and 2) chemical processes in the upper atmospheres of giant planets inside and outside of the solar system. For both cases, the model results will be discussed in light of recently available observational constraints by exploring the physical and chemical processes that produced the elemental and isotopic abundance patterns observed in lunar materials, and the coupled photochemical, thermochemical, and dynamical processes that are responsible for the observational properties of planetary atmospheres. |
Kuiper Space Science: Room 308 |
| Monday, Apr 22 4 p.m. |
TAP Colloquium: TBA |
Steward Observatory: Room N210 |
| Tuesday, Apr 23 3:45 p.m. |
LPL Graduate Student Colloquium: Michelle Thompson Graduate Student in the Department of Planetary Sciences Kelly Miller Graduate Student in the Department of Planetary Sciences |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 308 |
| Tuesday, Apr 30 3:45 p.m. |
LPL Graduate Student Colloquium: Donna Viola Graduate Student in the Department of Planetary Sciences Ali Bramson Graduate Student in the Department of Planetary Sciences |
Kuiper Space Sciences: Room 308 |
