Department News

This year's Summer Science Saturday public open house event featured the Parker Solar Probe (PSP). Professor Joe Giacalone, co-investigator for the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun instrument aboard PSP, presented a lecture titled, Parker Solar Probe: A Mission to Touch the Sun. Over 300 attendees spent time learning about a variety of research and disciplines through displays and activities provided by numerous local groups, including LPL graduate students, OSIRIS-REx,  UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Planetary Science Institute, Texas Instruments, Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium, Arizona Native Plant Society, UA Insect Collection, UA Mirror Lab, and the International Association of Astronomical Artists, among several others.  

Next year's Summer Science Saturday, Apollo 50: Next Giant Leap, is planned for July 20, 2019, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and in anticipation of future exploration of the moon and Mars.

This semester, the LPL Graduate Students, led by Christopher Hamilton and Joseph Spitale, travelled to the Petrified Forest National Park and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The focus of the field trip was to explore the geological record of northeastern Arizona to better understand processes and paleo-environments that existed during the time of Pangea; and to develop a deeper sense of place by understanding the cultural significance of geological landmarks within the Navajo Nation. 

The assembly of the supercontinent Pangea began approximately 335 million years ago as earlier-formed continental units came together. Then, about 160 million years later, Pangea started to break apart. This time period spanned the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras and included the Permian–Triassic extinction event. This mass extinction occurred about 252 million years ago and eliminated over 95% of marine and 70% of terrestrial species—making it the most devastating of the five ancient mass extinction events that occurred on Earth.

On the first day of the field trip, the group visited the Petrified Forest, which is known for its fossils and particularly for its well-preserved fossilized trees. These trees grew about 225 million years ago; and at the time, the Appalachian Mountains formed a southwest–northeast trending mountain range that spanned the middle of Pangea. When tall trees—including conifers, tree ferns, and gingkoes—fell into the rivers that flowed off of these mountains, some of the logs were rafted toward a deltaic region and buried beneath sand. Over time, the wood within these logs was then replaced by silica and become jasper logs, which are now being exposed within layers of the Chinle Formation. In the National Park, Archaeologist Amy Schott helped to provide students with the opportunity to both examine the exceptional fossilized trees from the Triassic Period and better understand the cultural significance of the region for Navajo, Hopi and Zuni people, as well as for Pueblo settlers and even older nomadic communities.

On the second day, the LPL group visited to Canyon de Chelly, where Park Guide Delta Higdon introduced students to the geological and cultural history of the region. The LPL group was fortunate to be able to walk into the canyon, descending past a major erosional unconformity at the base of the Late Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate (Lowermost Member of the Chinle Formation) and through cross-bedded layers of the Permian De Chelly Sandstone. The de Chelly Sandstone was deposited 230 to 205 million years ago, when northeastern Arizona was part of a vast desert located north of the equator and much like today’s Sahara Desert. The sandstone is well exposed through much of the Southwest, but its type locality is Canyon de Chelly, where it is spectacularly exposed in the canyon walls and as a sandstone spire, called Spider Rock, which raises 229 m (approximately 750 feet) above the canyon floor. In the canyon, students saw ancient dwellings of the Navajo people and petroglyphs etched into the walls of the Navajo and Ancestral Puebloans. On the third day of the field trip, the group revisited Petrified Forest National Park and first explored the northern part of the park, which provides sweeping view into the Painted Desert. The group then ventured along the Blue Mesa trail, which winds its way through colorful exposures within the Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation. This geological member underlies younger sandstone unit that contain petrified logs, and as the overlying units are eroded, some of the fossilized wood is transported down into the gullies. Some of the larger petrified logs locally form erosion resistant caprocks that lead to the development of wild erosional landforms as the surrounding material is stripped away.

After three intense days, the LPL group returned to Tucson and is now looking forward to next semester’s field trip to White Sands National Monument.

Kamber Schwarz joined LPL in September 2018 as a NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Sagan Fellow working with Associate Professor Ilaria Pascucci. Kamber's research combines millimeter and sub-millimeter observations with chemical modeling to study the molecular content and physical properties of protoplanetary disks. She is interested in constraining the timescales and mechanisms for the removal of volatile molecules from the disk gas, with the goal of determining the amount of volatile carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen available to forming planets.

Kamber grew up in Hereford, Arizona. She received her B.S. in Astronomy and Physics in 2012 from the University of Arizona, where she was also a NASA Space Grant intern. She earned her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Michigan with Professor Edwin Bergin (2018). Her graduate work focused on characterizing the abundance of volatile molecular gas in disks. During her free time, Kamber enjoys practicing yoga and playing table top games.

Mihailo Martinović joined LPL in September 2018 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Assistant Professor Kristopher Klein. His research focuses on understanding of the acceleration and heating mechanisms of the solar wind through measuring and describing fluctuations of electromagnetic field in the solar wind plasma. Answering these questions is the main task of two current major heliospheric missions—NASA's Parker Solar Probe and ESA's Solar Orbiter, on both of which Mihailo actively participates, as well as one of the central unresolved topics in current heliophysics.

Mihailo was born and raised in Ivanjica (western Serbia). He obtained a B.S. in Applied and Computational Physics (2011), as well as M.Sc. degree in Theoretical and Experimental Physics (2012) at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. He earned his Ph.D. in Space Plasma Physics at the University of Belgrade and Paris Observatory in 2016. His dissertation topic was a study of the quasi-thermal noise that appears due to fluctuations of the electric field in a plasma and is measurable in the interplanetary medium.

When he's not working, Mihailo enjoys reading historical and philosophical books, playing chess, and practicing karate—he has a Master (black belt) degree in Shotokan style karate—and spending time with his family. 

Susan Brew, who served as Program Manager for UA and Arizona NASA Space Grant Consortium since its beginning in 1988, transitioned to retirement this fall. During her career with Space Grant, Susan directly supported over 1,300 UA students—future STEM leaders, mentors, and affiliates; her work has positively impacted the lives of countless others across the nation. Susan spent much of the past few months working with her successor, Michelle Coe.

Michelle officially joined LPL in July 2018 as the Program Manager for the Arizona/NASA Space Grant Consortium. Michelle, who is a past Space Grant undergraduate intern and Space Grant Fellow at the University of Arizona, is excited to come full-circle and get the opportunity to work alongside affiliates, students, and mentors across the state. Before joining LPL, Michelle worked for several years leading (n (originally Space Grant-funded) environmental science program that was an extension of the UA Geography Department’s Community and School Garden Program. During that time, she worked with K-12 students on citizen science activities related to current environmental science projects happening at the university. Most recently, she worked with students collecting data for the Biosphere 2’s Agrivoltaics (agriculture + photovoltaics) research project.

Michelle is originally from a small town called Boulder City, Nevada, that was built up around the Hoover Dam. She loves to spend time with friends, family, and her Shiba Inu, Morde. You may find her outside spying on insects and plants, bicycling around town, or at home watching The Great British Baking Show while trying out a new recipe!

HiRISE is now part of the curriculum for a high school class in Avellino, Italy. This year, the students of the second class, section A, of the classical high school Publio Virgilio Marone, will translate Mars photo captions into Latin as part of a collaboration with HiRISE through the BeautifulMars Project. The captions will be translated under the guidance of professors Gabriele Alfinito (Latin), Nobila Paciello (English), and Aniello Mazzei (Sciences) and videos will be created to illustrate the work done. All this is possible with the full support of the school’s principal Luigia Trivisone. Everyone is proud to collaborate on the project!

Brad Smith, retired University of Arizona professor of Planetary Sciences and Astronomy, passed away on July 3, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. More information about Brad's life and career is available from http://shorelips.net/bradsmith/

LPL was priviledged to host a memorial service for Professor Smith on September 22.

Congratulations to the five students who completed their doctorates over the summer and fall 2018 semesters! 

	Corwin Atwood-Stone is currently an instructor of Physics at Hinds Community College (Raymond, Miss.). He defended his dissertation, Planetary Granular Topography: Slope Angles and Crater Concentric Ridges, on July 26.  Alfred McEwen was Corwin's research advisor.
	Sky Beard defended Noble Gas Chronology of Meteorites: Brachinites, Ureilites, and Chelyabinsk on September 24, and will begin a postdoctoral position at the University of Macau. Sky was advised by Tim Swindle.
	Ali Bramson defended her Ph.D. dissertation titled, Radar Analysis and Theoretical Modeling of the Presence and Preservation of Ice on Mars, on July 31. Shane Byrne served as Ali's advisor. Ali is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at LPL, working with Lynn Carter.
	Ethan Schaefer defended his dissertation, Quantifying Geomorphic Features: Relative Albedos, Skeletonization, and Multifractality, on November 19, with Alfred McEwen as dissertation chair.
	Xianyu Tan's defense of Atmospheric Circulation of Brown Dwarfs and Directly Imaged Extrasolar Giant Planets took place on November 2. He has accepted a position as a postdoctoral scholar at Oxford University. Adam Showman served as dissertation chair.