Explore Planetary and
Solar Systems Science at LPL
Welcome to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
$3M in NASA Funding to Help Students Build CubeSats
NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity program will give students in Arizona and Puerto Rico the opportunity to collaborate with scientists and engineers on the next generation of space exploration technology.
Rare Blue Asteroid Reveals Itself During Fly-By
By Teddy Kareta, UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory - October 24, 2018 Blue asteroids are rare, and blue comets are...
A New Lens for Life-Searching Space Telescopes
UA researchers have designed a new kind of telescope that is a cheaper, lighter and more powerful option than creating telescopes using ever-larger mirrors. With a fleet of the newly designed space telescopes, they aim to scour a thousand worlds for the chemical signatures of life.
Research Focus Areas
Pursuing interdisciplinary research spanning the breadth and depth of planetary science.
Solar & Heliospheric
LPL's Solar and Heliospheric Research Group studies the Sun’s atmosphere and magnetic field as it moves outward at supersonic speeds throughout the solar system until it encounters the local interstellar medium.
Solar & Heliospheric
Theoretical Astrophysics
The Theoretical Astrophysics Program (TAP) is an interdisciplinary research program that includes the departments of Physics, Astronomy, Planetary Sciences, and Applied Mathematics, as well as the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
Theoretical Astrophysics
Planetary Astronomy
The planets of the solar system, along with their satellite systems, are our only accessible example of the end state...
Planetary Astronomy
Exoplanets
Understanding how planets form and evolve and how life emerged on Earth are among the most fundamental questions in planetary...
Exoplanets
Spacecraft Missions and Instrumentation
Exploring the Universe as investigators on spacecraft mission and instrumentation teams.
OSIRIS-REx
LPL is home to the OSIRIS-REx mission. OSIRIS-Rex arrived at asteroid Bennu in 2018; it has begun to survey and map Bennu, navigating in close proximity to the asteroid, and will ultimately touch the surface for five seconds to gather a sample of the asteroid.
OSIRIS-REx
HiRISE (MRO)
The HiRISE operations center, which includes not only observation planning, but the execution of commands sent to the spacecraft along with actual image processing, is located within LPL at the University of Arizona.
HiRISE (MRO)
NEOWISE
NEOWISE is a NASA infrared-wavelength astronomical space telescope with the mission to identify and characterize the population of near-Earth objects. NEOWISE is also characterizing more distant populations of asteroids and comets to provide information about their sizes and compositions.
NEOWISE
Psyche
The Psyche mission, launching in 2022, is a journey to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.
Psyche
Discover Planetary Sciences
Earn a Ph.D. with a major in Planetary Sciences.
Graduate Program
The Department of Planetary Sciences offers multidisciplinary programs leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree with a major in planetary sciences.
Undergraduate Program
The Department of Planetary Sciences offers an undergraduate minor in Planetary Sciences.
Astrobiology Minor
Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field that combines astronomy, geology, biology and chemistry.
Public Education and Outreach
Faculty, staff, and students engage with diverse communities.
Space Imagery Center
The Space Imagery Center at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is a research collection of NASA planetary photography, cartographic...
Space Drafts
Space Drafts is Tucson’s flavor of Astronomy on Tap. Talks are held one Wednesday of every month at one of Tucson’s finest microbreweries, The Borderlands Brewing Company . Space Drafts is free and open to all ages (of humans and dogs alike).
OSIRIS-REx
The OSIRIS-REx mission is an Asteroid Sample Return Mission— Exploring our Past, Securing our Future through Pioneering Asteroid Science....