On December 13, NASA’s flying observatory, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), flew over the Kuiper Space Sciences building and the UArizona mall, concluding its final flight to Davis Monthan Air Force Base before becoming an exhibit at the Pima Air and Space Museum.

SOFIA replaced the venerable Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Many LPL researchers collected infrared observations of Solar System objects on these flying observatories over the years.

By Christopher Hamilton

This semester, the PTYS 590 Planetary Geology Field Studies course intended to explore sedimentary units in Northern Arizona, but unfortunately—due to a last-minute case of COVID-19—the main field trip was cancelled. The health and safety of our students is paramount and the potential risk for developing an outbreak was too great to undertake a five-day trip to a remote field site.

Instead, the class took a daytrip to explore highlights in the Tucson area. LPL’s Eric Christensen and Carson Fuls were fantastic in arranging an impromptu visit to UArizona's magnificent telescopes on Mt. Lemmon, with Carson providing an outstanding tour of the Catalina Sky Survey’s 1.5-meter (60-inch) f/1.6 telescope. The Catalina Sky Survey is responsible for the discovery of nearly half the total known near-Earth objects (NEO) population and it was incredible to not only see the massive telescope, but also to learn about the lightning-fast processing techniques used to identify the NEOs in near-real time.

After descending the mountain—stopping at several magnificent overlooks from the Catalina mountains along the way—the class visited Tanque Verde Falls for a hike to explore the local geology and natural beauty of the Tucson area.

Later in the semester, the class met for an off-campus social event to get to know one another better and hear the excellent presentations that the students had prepared for the field trip. In the coming year, we plan to return to Northern Arizona and anticipate this will be an excellent opportunity for students to explore aeolian landforms deposited during the time of Pangea as well as more recent products of fluvial erosion—ranging from slot canyons to Glen Canyon, Monument Valley, the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and aspects of Native American history and culture in the region.

In the meantime, students are preparing for an exciting field trip to the Big Island of Hawai'i in March 2023, which will be led by Shane Byrne, Christopher Hamilton, and Brett Carr. Students will explore the island's incredible volcanic landscapes---including products of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption in the East Rift Zone and this year’s new eruption from Mauna Loa (the world’s largest active volcano)---as a planetary analog.

You can support future field study opportunities by donating to the Wilkening-Sill endowment.                                                    

Reed Spurling is a senior majoring in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Math and Planetary Sciences (PTYS). Favorite PTYS courses include PTYS 411, Geology and Geophysics of the Solar System and PTYS 442, Mars. Another favorite was Regents' Professor Dante Lauretta's Spacecraft Mission Design class; for this course, students were split into three teams to design concepts for robotic solar system missions. This classwork enabled Reed to successfully apply for a summer internship at KinetX, a company that navigates the Lucy and New Horizons solar system missions for NASA.

Reed works with Drs. Virginia Gulick and Stefano Nerozzi to analyze flood channel systems on Mars. He maps the locations and sizes of impact craters in and around these channels and then runs statistics on the data to determine an approximate age for the channels. Reed also works with Aerospace professors Sergey Shkarayev and Adrien Bouskela on communication systems for dynamic soaring sailplane gliders. Engineless sailplanes should be able to fly for extended periods of time above Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, and other planets with sufficient atmospheres, bridging gaps in observing capabilities between orbiting missions and surface missions.

Reed is the founder of the UArizona Near Space Club and is planning on a career in solar system exploration. When not in class or mapping craters, Reed likes to cook and read.

Dr. Arnaud Salvador joined LPL in August 2022 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. He works with Associate Professor Tyler Robinson on the characterization of rocky exoplanets observed in direct imaging. In particular, he investigates the capabilities of future direct imaging observatories in retrieving atmospheric properties and surface conditions of distant rocky worlds. By considering the effects of observational constraints and prior information, his work aims to refine instruments design and define the most efficient observing strategies at recognizing a habitable planet.

Another aspect of his research is dedicated to the early evolution of rocky planets, focusing on the cooling, solidification, and outgassing of the magma ocean in interaction with the atmosphere, and the implications for early water ocean formation on Earth, Venus, and exoplanets.

Arnaud received his B.S. in Earth Sciences from Blaise Pascal University (Clermont-Ferrand, France) in 2013, his M.S. in Planetary Sciences from the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in 2015, and his Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from Paris-Saclay University in 2018. He was then a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), and Northern Arizona University in January 2021.

Arnaud enjoys playing table tennis, skateboarding, reading, being in nature, and watching the night sky.

We would like to thank all those who have donated to LPL in 2022. Thanks to everyone for supporting research, education, and outreach at LPL.

Maizey Benner

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high achieving scientists and engineers, early in their careers. 

Sam Myers

Assessing the Limitations of NEATM-like Models with IRTF and NEOWISE Data

Advisor: Ellen Howell

Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology

Mackenzie Mills

Effects of subsurface Fluid Reservoirs on Martian Geomorphology in Utopia Planitia

Advisor: Alfred McEwen

Samantha Moruzzi

Faulting in Pluto's Ice Shell: An Investigation of Local Strain and Stress Concentrations from Refreezing of the Ice Shell Beneath Sputnik Basin

Advisor: Jeff Andrews-Hanna