Scientists at Northern Arizona University mapped frozen water hidden just below the surface of Mars, with the goal of finding the best spots for future astronauts to visit. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports.
Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS
Buried water ice influences the temperature of a planet’s surface. The team used heat-sensing instruments on two orbiting spacecraft to map fluctuations in temperature during different seasons on Mars. They crunched the data in… Read more
Tip of the ICEBERG: NAU planetary scientists developing large-scale ‘imagery-computing superhighway’ – NAU News
Scientists are creating ways to compile and interpret an abundance of high-resolution satellite images on a continental scale to better understand Antarctica, Arizona and the world.
The same sophisticated satellite imaging techniques being developed to map and identify the size and composition of uncharted land in Antarctica soon may help scientists produce finely detailed geologic maps of the Lower Colorado River Corridor and better understand its geologic history.
Mark… Read more
One step closer to living on Mars: NAU scientists contribute to NASA’s ‘treasure map’ of widespread water ice near planet’s surface – NAU News
In anticipation of sending humans to Mars by 2033, NASA scientists are searching for suitable locations to land on the Red Planet. Ideally, these potential landing sites would have high scientific value for exploration while offering natural resources to sustain human life. In the last 20 years, the community studying Mars has made significant progress mapping and characterizing reservoirs of ice.
In a new study published in… Read more
NAU planetary scientist Chad Trujillo awarded prestigious international Farinella Prize
Sept. 19, 2019
Chad Trujillo, assistant professor at Northern Arizona University, has been awarded the 2019 Paolo Farinella Prize by the Europlanet Society for his contributions in the field of planetary science concerning “The Trans-Neptunian Population.”
Along with collaborator Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution for Science, Trujillo was honored at an award ceremony on Sept. 16 at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) in Geneva, Switzerland. Shepard and Trujillo presented… Read more
New names, same strengths: The creation of two departments to help advance pioneering work in physics, astronomy fields
Aug. 29. 2019
With new Ph.D. programs, a new research center, a new college and expanded faculty, all in the last three years, new departments weren’t far behind.
This summer, the Department of Physics and Astronomy split into the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences (APS) and the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science (APMS). APMS is in the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, while APS stays in the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural… Read more
NAU astrophysicist leads international team in ‘unprecedented’ discovery of unique infrared light signature on Neptune’s moon Triton
July 29, 2019
Triton orbits Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun, some 2.7 billion miles from Earth—at the cold outer fringe of the Solar System’s major planet zone. Surface temperatures hover near absolute zero, so low that common compounds we know as gases on Earth freeze into ices. Triton’s atmosphere, which is 70,000 times less dense than… Read more