Dr. Veronica Bray, Associate Staff Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, talks about the new findings from the New Horizons mission to the Pluto system and highlight some of the work still being done to study this wonderfully weird world!

Dr. Vishnu Reddy, Assistant Professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, talks about NEOCam, an infrared telescope that will scan the skies to discover moving objects including asteroids and comets that pose a threat to the Earth. It is a mission proposal that is currently under review by NASA as part of the Discovery program. NEOCam will conduct a comprehensive survey of our solar system discovering thousands of new objects. The talk will present an overview of asteroids, how they...

Dr. Caitlin Griffith, Professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, talks about her research on Titan. Titan’s surface appears familiar. We recognize the lakes that resemble those on Earth, along with channels indicative of rainfall. In addition, we find washes like those in Arizona and dunes reminiscent of Namibia, Africa, which are shaped by weather. These terrestrial-like features result from Titan’s unique resemblance to Earth. In Titan’s atmosphere, the second most abundant gas in...

Dr. Hamilton explores volcanic processes on Mars through a combination of satellite image analysis and comparisons with volcanoes in Iceland, Hawaii, and the Continental United States. Results show that the most recent episodes of volcanic activity on Mars are dominated by enormous fissure-fed lava flows. Such events are rare within the modern geologic record on Earth, but comparable to older terrestrial "flood lava" eruptions that formed the Columbia River Basalt Group. The presentation also...

On the evening of July 4, 2016, NASA’s New Frontiers spacecraft Juno will ignite its main engine to enter an unprecedented cloud-skimming orbit around Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet. Jupiter is the archetype giant planet, now known to be a very common type of substellar object in our Galaxy. Juno will make a series of close-range passes to look at Jupiter’s atmosphere and interior and obtain benchmark data about the class of planet that best preserves the first million years of...

New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto on 14th July this year providing our first close up views of the Pluto system. Pluto's surface is remarkably diverse, displaying a range of surface features, terrain ages and compositions. Dr. Bray will present some of the preliminary released results from the Geology/Geophysics and Composition Investigations teams