LPIB Issue 164 (April 2021)

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THE CHICXULUB IMPACT CRATER: Producing a Cradle of Life in the Midst of a Global Calamity

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LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFORMATION BULLETIN April 2021 Issue 164 FEATURED STORY

THE CHICXULUB IMPACT CRATER: Producing a Cradle of Life in the Midst of a Global Calamity DAVID A. KRING, LUNAR AND PLANETARY INSTITUTE

Expedition 364 mission patch

Introduction when the International Ocean Discov- an area that had been a stable sediment ery Program (IODP) and International catchment for over 100 million years? Strategically located scientific drilling Continental Scientific Drilling Program Clues began to emerge when the core can be used to tap the Earth for evi- (ICDP) initiated a new campaign with was analyzed. Logging revealed chem- dence of evolutionary upheavals that the call sign Expedition 364. Drilling ical and petrological variations on the transformed the planet. A good example from a marine platform a few meters granitic theme, plus felsite and dolerite is the Yucatán-6 borehole in Mexico above the sea surface, the new borehole intrusions, in a granitoid rock sequence that recovered rock samples from 1.2 reached a depth of 1335 meters be- that represented continental crust that and 1.3 kilometers beneath Earth’s neath the sea floor (mbsf). The borehole had been assembled through a series of surface. I used those samples 30 years penetrated seafloor sediments that bury tectonic events over more than a billion ago to show that a buried, geophysical- the crater, finally reaching impactites at years. However, that crust in the core ly anomalous structure on the Yucatán a depth of 617 mbsf. Continuous core was crosscut by seams of impact melt Peninsula contained a polymict breccia was recovered from 506 mbsf, within rock and suevite. Moreover, quartz and with shock metamorphism and an impact Eocene sediments deposited 48 million other minerals in the granitoid rocks were melt rock, indicating the buried structure years ago, to the bottom of the borehole deformed, corresponding to shock pres- was an immense impact crater that was within the crater’s 66-million-year-old sures of 16 to 18 gigapascals, indicating excavated 66 million years ago. That peak ring. The core is a scientific marvel, the tectonic construction of the crust had structure, which we called Chicxulub, was exceeding the expedition’s highest hopes been superseded by an impact event. produced by a ~100-million-megaton of success. Here, I briefly summarize blast responsible for a global environ- the science party’s analyses of that core Those observations indicated the granit- mental calamity and mass extinction that and the insights they are gleaning about oid rocks were uplifted from the geologic defines the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) peak ring formation and the biological basement of the Yucatán, far beneath a boundary in Earth’s evolution (see LPIB, communities that reoccupied the site after carbonate platform sequence of sedi- March 2016, for additional details of most life on Earth had been extinguished. mentary strata that covers the peninsula. that discovery). The impact provoked a Numerical simulations of the impact biological crisis that extinguished indicator Formation of the integrated with borehole observations species throughout the world, including suggest the crystalline rock was uplift- winged pterosaurs in the air, non-avian Crater’s Peak Ring ed from a depth of 8 to 10 kilometers. dinosaurs on land, and apex predator During the crater-forming process, the mosasaurs in the seas, along with 75% of Granite. Lots of spectacular-looking uplifted rock formed a transient central the total breadth of species that existed granite. That was a common observa- peak that collapsed outward to form on Earth at that time. Life was decimated. tion when meter after meter of core was a peak ring, overturning the granitoid pulled from the sea, bringing to light one rocks. A dramatic cycle of compres- Science has returned twice to probe the of the expedition’s key questions: Why sion, dilation, rotation, and shear all depths of Chicxulub, most recently in 2016 was granite so near Earth’s surface in occurred within minutes as the crust of

Earth flowed at speeds in excess of 100 being traced across the Chicxulub basin kilometers per hour, producing zones where the breccia blankets an ~3-kilo- of microcommunited rock (cataclasites), meter-thick central melt sheet. Ejected shear faults, and deformation bands that debris was also launched beyond the cross-cut shock metamorphic fabrics. crater rim, where some of it flew through Shearing is particularly intense in the the atmosphere faster than the speed of basal 100 meters of the core, produced sound, producing sonic booms like bil- when overlying granitoid rocks were lions of simultaneously falling meteorites. thrust over impact melt that had already That curtain of debris hit the sea surface covered underlying basement rocks. with such high speeds it caused the sea The resulting impact crater looked very to boil with cavitation. The debris dis- much like the Schrödinger basin on the placed seawater, too, while cascading Moon, before being hidden from view to the seafloor and pummeling marine beneath Tertiary sediments. Asymmetries organisms caught in its path. The speed in Chicxulub’s peak ring and underlying of that debris hitting Earth’s surface grew mantle uplift were noted, however, and larger with distance from the crater and explored in numerical simulations of increasingly ploughed into the surface the crater-forming event. Those results it landed upon. Because the Chicxulub suggest the impactor had a trajectory impact occurred at sea (albeit above from the northeast to the southwest. The continental crust rather than oceanic transient central uplift, potentially rising crust), the ballistic sedimentation process more than 10 kilometers into the atmo- often mixed ejecta with water. In those sphere, was momentarily higher than cases, fluid target materials escaped the An 83-millimeter-diameter granitic core from the Mt. Everest and would have been visible final deposit, leaving behind a blanket Chicxulub peak ring that is crosscut with cataclastic halfway across the Gulf of Mexico if of wholly ejected rock and solidified and hydrothermal veins, and which also has been not obscured by >25 trillion metric tons impact melt. At greater distances, shock-metamorphosed, as illustrated with planar deformation features with ~5-micrometer spacing of ejecta lofted into the atmosphere. beyond the unit traditionally mapped in quartz (inset, with field of view 245 micrometers as proximally emplaced continuous wide). Photomicrograph of quartz by expedition Deposition of ejecta, impact melt spherules cascad- scientist Ludovic Ferrière. Previously published by D. ed through the atmosphere and seas A. Kring, Ph. Claeys, S. P. S. Gulick, J. V. Morgan, G. S. Collins, and the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 Sci- Impactites throughout the region, forming blankets ence Party (2017) Chicxulub and the exploration of of glass that are still preserved in Beloc large peak-ring impact craters through scientific dril- Some of that ejecta fell back onto the (Haiti), Arroyo el Mimbral (Mexico), ling. GSA Today, 27, DOI: 10.1130/GSATG352A.1. granitoid peak ring, producing 130 and Gorgonilla Island (Colombia). meters of melt-bearing polymict breccia (suevite) and impact melt rock. The The impact also generated a vapor-rich Decimating the basal melt rock is a small portion of the ejecta plume that expanded from the 104 to 105 cubic kilometers of molten point of impact, accelerating through the Marine Environment rock generated by wholesale melting of atmosphere as it raced toward space. Earth’s crust by the impact. Overlying Superheated to temperatures on the order The concept of “ground zero” literally ex- breccia clast sizes grow smaller toward of 10,000°, that plume and other ejecta ploded into our lexicon with the 21-kilo- the top of the suevite, but do not form ignited vegetation on distant shores. Back- ton Trinity blast in the Jornada del Muerto a single (normally graded) unit going wash from impact-generated tsunamis desert valley of New Mexico in 1945. from large to small clast sizes. Rather, and/or strong atmospheric circulation The devastating effects of high-energy ex- there is at least one erosional contact carried charcoal from those fires back plosions were immediately obvious and in the lower portion of the breccias and to the crater, where it is found buried in began coloring descriptions of impacting several size-graded intervals toward the core on top of the peak ring. That asteroids like the collision that produced the top of the sequence, indicating high-energy ejecta plume also carried Barringer Meteorite Crater (aka Meteor reworking by marine currents, including vaporized components of the impacting Crater) in Arizona. The Chicxulub impact impact-generated seiches produced object. When it and other debris reaccret- blast was nearly five billion times more when tsunamis and other waves washed ed to Earth, they heated the atmosphere energetic than the Trinity test and seven to and fro across the ocean basin. and generated a firestorm over a broader million times more energetic than the area. Scorched woodland fragments from Meteor Crater event. The Chicxulub blast Impact melt and suevite sampled in the those fires were incorporated into peak- occurred in a thriving marine ecosystem borehole cover more than 100,000 ring sediments, too, with iridium rainout that was, with a flash of light, vaporized. square kilometers of the Gulf seafloor. over a longer period of time, producing The seismic properties of the suevite are a second peak in charcoal abundance. In the mid-1990s, I used the results of

pounds per square inch (or a few to tens of megapascals) and likely lethal out to distances of about 2000 kilometers in the open sea. Underwater shock waves were also reflected, producing an amplifying (compression) wave from the seafloor and negative (rarefaction) wave from the sea-air interface. Both types of reflected waves modified peak pressure values and the shape of the pressure pulse that passed through seawater. Moreover, the shock wave that passed through the crust of Earth generated an additional wave at the seafloor interface. Collectively, those effects and the collapse of transient crater walls to produce the final crater rim generated a series of propagating disturbanc- Core section immediately above impact suevite, es. Shock waves reflected by the seafloor with an iridium anomaly produced when condensed moved slower than the primary shock components of the impactor settled through the at- wave, approaching acoustic speeds of mosphere and blanketed Earth’s surface. A helium-3 anomaly reflects changes in post-impact sedimen- 1500 meters per second, reaching shore tation rates. Also shown are charcoal anomalies, shortly before the Chicxulub crater was the first likely due to scorched vegetation along fully formed ~10 minutes after the impac- the coast, carried out to sea by tsunami backwash, tor first made contact with the sea surface. while the second may be due to atmospheric rainout of debris lofted and scattered by a firestorm over a larger region. The core section is ~1 meter tall and The pathology of internal damage pro- 83 millimeters wide. duced by the blast in marine organisms is gruesome, so I limit a description of those effects to the most general terms. The pres- boundary. Seafloor rudist and coral reefs, sure pulse generated extensive hemor- oysters, gastropods, and giant inoceramid rhaging and bone fractures in vertebrates, clams were buried by rockfalls and land- including mosasaurs and a variety of slides triggered by the impact’s seismic bony and cartilaginous fish. The outcome impulses (equivalent to a magnitude 10 was worse for Cretaceous species with earthquake initially, followed by a series Top panel: Pre-impact paleogeography of the Gulf of Mexico region. Middle panel: The Chicxulub closed air bladders (like modern cod and of lower-energy tectonic events) if not impact crater superimposed on that late Cretaceous rockfish) than those with air bladders that buried by impact ejecta and secondary paleogeography. The impactor hit the sea, penetra- open to the mouth (like modern salmon) debris carried by the backwash of im- ting carbonate shelf sediments, underlying carbonate or those with no air bladders (like modern pact-generated tsunamis. The sea surface platform strata that included sulfate-rich anhydrite beds, and crystalline basement rocks. Impact melt fills halibut and sole). Over a larger area, the was filled with faunal and floral flotsam the crater. The surrounding landmass was affected by pressure pulse and acoustic energy likely from tsunami backwash that drained rav- an air blast and fire. Coastal seas were turbid with deafened mosasaurs (with ears similar to aged coastal mangroves and from marine debris. Bottom panel: Post-impact view of the crater. those of modern sea turtles), plesiosaurs animal kills. That post-impact scene was In this view, early Tertiary vegetation covers the land, but the crater has not yet been buried by seafloor (with ears similar to those of modern sea cloaked in darkness by a debris-filled sediments. Credit: Pre-impact paleogeographic re- turtles or whales, depending on the spe- sky, but the smell of smoke and stench of construction provided by John Snedden, University of cies), and other animals with inner and putrefying carcasses and vegetation filled Texas-Austin. Other illustration details by the author. middle ear structures. Because marine an- the air. Although we scientists normally Credit: Art by Victor O. Leshyk for the LPI. imals use hearing to navigate, avoid pred- and necessarily write in colorless tones ators, and forage, the loss of hearing was of objectivity, we also have to acknowl- nuclear explosion tests to calculate shock crippling if not deadly (as it is in modern edge the horror of the impact’s aftermath. pressure and air blast effects on fauna humpback whales with blast-damaged and flora that inhabited the land around ears). Impact-generated tsunamis carried Those acute regional effects were Meteor Crater. Those same principles sea life onto shore, stranding fish, am- significantly compounded by global can be used to evaluate the blast effects monites, and other organisms where environmental perturbations (e.g., at- in marine ecosystems that extended they suffocated. A species of lagoonal mospheric heating by reaccreting ejecta, for hundreds of kilometers around the crab that existed along the gulf coast cooling by atmospheric dust blocking Chicxulub impact site. Near the coast, would seemingly have been better fitted sunlight, and then heating again by shock pressure radiating through the for survival from that marine assault, but greenhouse warming gases; particu- water may have been several thousand it disappeared completely at the K-T lates in the atmosphere that shut down

hydrothermal activity and determine the habitability of that hydrothermal system. I found the first hints of that hydrothermal system while studying the samples used to prove Chicxulub’s impact origin in 1991. Hydrothermal overprinting of shock metamorphic features was pervasive. Hy- drothermal alteration was also detected in core recovered by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program at Yaxcopoil in 2001–2002, providing a foundation for a petrogenetic model that traced the cooling of the hydrothermal system, and a thermal evolution model that explored the subsurface extent and duration of the hydrothermal system.

The Expedition 364 team found evidence of subsurface streams of water that were heated and driven upwards toward the boundary between the crater floor and the bottom of the Yucatán sea, confirming the pre-expedition thermal A three-dimensional cross-section of the hydrothermal system in the Chicxulub impact crater and its seafloor evolution model. Groundwater flow- vents. Credit: Art by Victor O. Leshyk for the LPI. ing through the crust toward the peak ring may have been supplemented by photosynthesis; acid rain) that drove organisms is suggested by phosphatic fossils smaller amounts of seawater drawn many species to extinction. Low-frequen- of fish and crustaceans deposited within that down into the system. The groundwater cy components of the impact’s acoustic same interval and potentially as rapidly as was saline, because it was derived from energy radiated through the sea to the a few years. Trace fossils indicate the sea- basinal brines similar to those along the farside of the world, where those anom- floor substrate was colonized by burrowing gulf coast today. The salinity of water alous vibrations may have forewarned survivors within a few years of impact and may have been further enhanced by life there of its impending doom. that a multi-tiered macrobenthic community subsurface boiling, particularly in the existed within 700,000 years. Those data vicinity of the central melt sheet and Recovery of indicate the crater was a more favorable a smaller volume of melt in the trough site for biologic recovery than other marine between the peak ring and crater rim. Life Within a settings around the world. Interestingly, an impact-generated hydrothermal system (de- Heated water streaming around the Crater-Filling Sea scribed in more detail below) may have had edges of the central melt sheet percolat- an important role in that recovery by provided through fractured rock in the peak ring One might wonder how and when life ing nutrients and warm water to the seafloor and rose to the seafloor where it vented returned to ground zero. The post-impact environment. In addition to that post-impact into the sea. The rock core recovered sediment portion of the core obtained by recovery story, the new rock core is pro- from that peak ring is cross-cut by fossil the new drilling effort reveals a fairly rapid viding a measure of Eocene environmental hydrothermal conduits that are lined with recovery by the few species that survived changes, including those that occurred multi-colored minerals, some, appropri- the global mass extinction event. In the sea during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Max- ately enough, a fiery red-orange color. above the crater’s peak ring, a cyanobac- imum (PETM) about 56 million years ago Nearly two dozen minerals precipitated terial bloom may have occurred within when global temperatures rose dramatically. from the fluids as they coursed through months of the impact. A high-productivity Expedition samples are producing a rich the porous and permeable rocks of the ecosystem with diverse benthic and plank- tapestry of life’s evolution in an area where peak ring, replacing the rock’s original tonic foraminifera (single-celled organisms the biological slate was nearly wiped clean. minerals. Based on those observations, with calcified shells) developed within it is easy to imagine black and white 30,000 years, although nannoplankton Submarine and “smoking” submarine vents throughout were slower to recover. Over 60 species of the uplifted range of seafloor mountains foraminifera lived near the seafloor above Subterranean Biome that form the ~90-kilometer-diameter the crater where sources of organic material peak ring around the crater center. The had recovered for feeding. A food chain Two key objectives of Expedition 364 hydrothermal system was spatially that included larger, higher trophic-level were to test models of impact-generated extensive, chemically and mineralogical-

ly modifying ~1.4 × 105 km3 of Earth’s Close inspection of the core revealed A search for other types of thermophilic crust, a volume more than nine times another startling find: The submarine organisms and metabolic pathways in that of the Yellowstone Caldera system. and subterranean hydrothermal system the hydrothermal system is underway. harbored life. From 15,000 kilograms Minerals identified in the new rock of rock recovered from the borehole, Implications for core indicate the hydrothermal system tiny spheres of the mineral pyrite, only was initially very hot with temperatures 10 millionths of a meter in diameter, the Hadean Earth of 300° to 400°C. Such high initial were discovered nestled within low- and Mars

Because the Chicxulub impact crater is “ Life in the system our best proxy for impact basins that covered Hadean and early Archean Earth more than 3.8 billion years ago, extracted energy — or fed Expedition 364 findings have important implications for origin of life models. Thousands of impact craters the size of from — chemical reactions Chicxulub and larger covered Earth’s surface during that early epoch of planetary evolution. Some of the largest that occurred in the impact events vaporized surface waters, turning potential subaerial and marine ecosystems into uninhabitable waste- fluid-filled rock system.” lands. Studies of Chicxulub demonstrate, however, that those same impact events temperatures when plugged into a er-temperature hydrothermal mineral thermal evolution model suggest the assemblages in the porous, permeable hydrothermal system persisted for about impact breccias that cover the peak ring. 2 million years, which is supported by Isotopes of sulfur indicate the spheres of two additional observations in the core. pyrite, called framboids, were formed by a microbial ecosystem adapted to Magnetic minerals that precipitated in the the hot mineral-laden fluid of a hydro- hydrothermal system recorded changes thermal system that coursed through the in Earth’s magnetic field, including a shattered rocks of the Chicxulub peak change from reverse polarity when the ring. Cavities within the overlying suevite crater formed to a period of normal po- had been transformed into microbi- larity at some later time. That paleomag- al nurseries after the impact event. netic clock indicates hydrothermal activity remained at temperatures in excess of Life in the system extracted energy — or the magnetic recording temperature of fed from — chemical reactions that 100° to 250°C temperature for at least occurred in the fluid-filled rock system. 150,000 years, when the next magneti- Microbes took advantage of sulfate in cally normal period occurred, implying the fluid and its conversion to sulfide, pre- it took at least 1.5 million years for the served as pyrite, to provide the energy system to cool completely to ~50°C. needed to thrive. The sulfate-reducing, hot-water (thermophilic) organisms were Moreover, submarine venting of hydro- like some of the bacteria and archaea thermal fluids on the seafloor deposited found at Yellowstone and other hydro- manganese in post-impact sediments. thermal systems today. Similar sulfur A biostratigraphically calibrated isotope signatures in overlying sediments chronology of those core sediments imply sulfate-reducing organisms per- indicates venting persisted for about sisted for at least 2.5 million years after Section of the Chicxulub core with the hydrother- 2.1 million years. As the hydrother- impact, potentially in both the subsurface mal minerals dachiardite (bright orange), analcime (colorless and transparent), and pyrite framboids mal system aged, peak hydrothermal and in the water column above the crater (not visible because of their small sizes). The activity migrated toward the center of floor. Those microbial communities may minerals partially fill cavities in the rock that were the crater, where hydrothermal activity be the source of nutrients needed for niches for microbial ecosystems. This is a composite may have persisted for a longer period larger organisms described above that illustration of core section 0077-63R-2 and a closeup image of a portion of that core recovered of time over the central melt sheet. populated the crater soon after impact. from 685 meters below the sea floor.

system within a melt sheet and underly- to better reconstruct the complex target ing crater floor, and the return of life to rock assemblage, including the amounts a central crater basin. Such a borehole of limestone and anhydrite as sources

could be drilled along the margins of of CO2 and SOx, respectively, that may the central melt sheet on land (e.g., as have greatly influenced impact-generat- in site 1 in the diagram of potential ed modification of the world’s climate. future drilling sites) or at sea (site 2). Finally, a deep borehole that penetrates The astrobiological implications of the thickest part of the melt sheet in the impact-generated hydrothermal sys- crater center would allow science teams tems in planetary crusts throughout the to evaluate its thermal evolution, differ- solar system prompted a borehole (site entiation, and would provide insights 3) in the peak ring on the farside of about basin-size impact melt sheets that the Chicxulub crater from the Expedi- would complement observations at the Potential future scientific drilling sites designed to tion 364 site. That core would make it Sudbury basin in Canada, which was explore other attributes of the Chicxulub impact cra- possible to assess spatial variations in similar in size to Chicxulub before being ter and its influence on the evolution of life on Earth. Site locations are for illustration purposes only and peak-ring hydrothermal activity. That eroded. Importantly, the borehole would do not account for current land use, cultural issues, location would also target a different provide a measure of hydrothermal and local geologic limitations. Credit: Background portion of uplifted basement target rocks, activity, seafloor venting, and how they image produced from NASA MODIS satellite which could reveal lithological effects affected biologic systems above a melt observations in October 2004. on peak-ring formation and post-impact sheet. To penetrate the melt sheet will produced impact craters with porous, fluid flow, while also providing additional require a borehole at least 4 kilome- permeable subsurface environments; that material to piece together the tectonic ters deep, which would make it among such impact craters host vast subsurface evolution of the Yucatán Peninsula. the deepest scientific boreholes drilled hydrothermal systems; and that those on Earth. The drilling location could systems can, in turn, host microbial eco- A borehole that penetrates the ejec- be on land or at sea (sites 7 and 8). systems. In the Chicxulub proxy for such ta blanket that covers the carbonate ecosystems, microbial sulfate reduction platform shelf could be used to evaluate Each of these borehole locations has the occurred, which is a metabolic pathway the volume and composition of ejecta potential to be as scientifically pro- used as long ago as 3.52 billion years toward the suspected up-range side of ductive as the Expedition 364 drilling ago in the Paleoarchean. Sulfate may not the crater and the recovery of life on the site. Collectively, that suite of borehole have been available in the Hadean, but carbonate shelf adjacent to the impact locations would provide the first compre- other metabolic reactions would have site. One wonders what the sea did with hensive assessment ever made of a large, been available to provide the energy the chemical and biological potential well-preserved impact basin and would yields required by life. Thus, the results of fresh rock surfaces generated by the guide our assessment of such structures of Expedition 364 support the impact ejecta blanket. Such a borehole could be on planets throughout our solar system origin of life hypothesis and promotes the drilled on land (site 4) or at sea (site 5). and among extrasolar planetary systems. idea that life on Earth (and potentially elsewhere in the solar system, such as To evaluate how water depth affected Conclusions Mars) emerged from an impact crater. ejecta deposition and the recovery of life, it would be useful to have a borehole The Chicxulub impact crater is one of Future Prospects that penetrates the ejecta blanket and the most extraordinary scientific sites the inner carbonate platform toward the in the world: It is the smoking gun of Expedition 364 core illustrates how suspected downrange side of the crater, the impact mass extinction hypothesis perfectly geologic, geochemical, geo- where there was a relatively shallow and at the center of an evolutionary biological, and geophysical evidence is seaway between the crater and the radiation 66 million years ago that led preserved in the buried Chicxulub impact coast. That borehole would have to be on to the origin of our own species, Homo crater and suggests the immense and land (e.g., site 6). Excavated lithologies sapiens; it is the world’s best preserved complex structure can be used to study in this borehole may differ from those peak-ring or multi-ring impact basin a broad range of geologic and biologic in other boreholes and could be used on Earth and, thus, a model for such processes. For several years, the community has discussed the need for a borehole into the central melt sheet to assess chemical and mineralogical differentiation “ The Chicxulub impact crater is one of of that melt and its implications for early planetary crustal growth, thermal erosion the most extraordinary scientific sites and metamorphism of the underlying in the world.” crater floor, the nature of a hydrothermal

structures throughout the solar system; LPI Online Resources Cockell, M. J. L. Coolen, L. Ferrière, S. Green, and the Chicxulub crater illustrates K. Goto, H. Jones, C. M. Lowery, C. Mellett, R. how such impact events can chemically Chicxulub Impact Event website Ocampo-Torres, L. Perez-Cruz, A. E. Pickersgill, and thermally modify large volumes of with educational materials C. Rasmussen, H. Sato, J. Smit, S. M. Tikoo, N. planetary crust and produce unique (https://www.lpi.usra.edu/ Tomioka, J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, M. T. Whalen, L. subterranean habitats for microbial science/kring/Chicxulub/) Xiao, and K. E. Yamaguchi (2018) Extraordinary ecosystems that may be a proxy for Video simulations of impact events, including rocks from the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact the earliest of life on our planet and a Chicxulub-sized impact event (https:// crater: P-wave velocity, density, and porosity potentially elsewhere where impact www.lpi.usra.edu/exploration/training/ measurements from IODP/ICDP Expedition 364. events modify hydrous planetary crust. resources/impact_cratering/) Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 495, 1–11.

Acknowledgments. This report is a celebration C. M. Lowery, T. J. Bralower, J. D. Owens, F. J. of the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the Suggested Readings of Rodríguez-Tovar, H. Jones, J. Smit, M. T. Whalen, Chicxulub crater. It is also designed to summarize Expedition Results P. Claeys, K. Farley, S. P. S. Gulick, J. V. Morgan, recent studies of the crater that the lunar and S. Green, E. Chenot, G. L. Christeson, C. S. planetary science community may find interesting. Cockell, M. J. L. Coolen, L. Ferrière, C. Gebhardt, Those new results were produced by members of 2016 K. Goto, D. A. Kring, J. Lofi, R. Ocampo-Torres, L. the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 Science Party J. Morgan, S. Gulick, T. Bralower, E. Chenot, G. Perez-Cruz, A. E. Pickersgill, M. H. Poelchau, A. and their collaborators, all of whom are gratefully Christeson, P. Claeys, C. Cockell, G. S. Collins, M. S. P. Rae, C. Rasmussen, M. Rebolledo-Vieyra, acknowledged: I. Arenillas, N. Artemieva, J. A. J. L. Coolen, L. Ferrière, C. Gebhardt, K. Goto, H. U. Riller, H. Sato, S. M. Tikoo, N. Tomioka, J. Arz, T. Bauersachs, P. A. Bland, M. E. Böttcher, T. J. Jones, D. A. Kring, E. Le Ber, J. Lofi, X. Long, C. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J. Vellekoop, A. Wittmann, L. Bralower, L. Brun, D. Burney, J. Carte, A. J. Cavosie, Lowery, C. Mellett, R. Ocampo-Torres, G. R. Osinski, Xiao, K. E. Yamaguchi, and W. Zylberman (2018) B. Célérier, S. A. Chen, E. Chenot, S. Chernonozhkin, L. Perez-Cruz, A. Pickersgill, M. Pölchau, A. Rae, C. Rapid recovery of life at ground zero of the end- G. Christeson, R. Christoffersen, P. Claeys, C. S. Rasmussen, M. Rebolledo-Vieyra, U. Riller, H. Sato, Cretaceous mass extinction. Nature, 558, 288–291. Cockell, G. S. Collins, M. J. L. Coolen, J. Cosmidis, D. R. Schmitt, J. Smit, S. Tikoo, N. Tomioka, J. Urrutia- M. A. Cox, X. Cui, T. M. Davison, S. J. deGraaff, T. Fucugauchi, M. Whalen, A. Wittmann, K. Yamaguchi, J. Lofi, D. Smith, C. Delahunty, E. Le Ber, L. Brun, Déhais, C. Delahunty, T. Demchuk, F. Demory, N. J. and W. Zylberman (2016) The formation of peak G. Henry, J. Paris, S. Tikoo, W. Zylberman, Ph. A. deWinter, M. Ebert, M. Elfman, T. M. Erickson, M. rings in large impact craters. Science, 354(6314), Pezard, B. Célérier, D. R. Schmitt, C. Nixon, and the S. Fantle, K. Farley, J.-G. Feignon, L. Ferrière, K. H. 878–882, DOI: 10.1126/science/aah6561. Expedition 364 Scientists: S. Gulick, J. V. Morgan, Freeman, J. Garbar, J. Gattacceca, C. Gebhardt, T. Bralowerv, E. Chenot, G. Christeson, P. Claeys, C. S. Goderis, M. Gonzalez, K. Goto, S. L. Green, K. 2 017 Cockell, M. J. L. Coolen, L. Ferrière, C. Gebhardt, S. Grice, R. A. F. Grieve, S. P. S. Gulick, E. Hajek, B. D. A. Kring, P. Claeys, S. P. S. Gullick, J. V. Morgan, Green, K. Goto, H. Jones, D. A. Kring, X. Long, C. Hall, P. J. Heaney, G. Henry, P. J. A. Hill, A. Ishikawa, G. S. Collins, and the IODP-ICDP Expedition Lowery, C. Mellett, R. Ocampo-Torres, L. Perez-Cruz, D. M. Jarzen, H. L. Jones, S. Jung, P. Kaskes, C. 364 Science Party (2017) Chicxulub and the A. Pickersgill, M. Poelchau, A. Rae, C. Rasmussen, Koeberl, D. A. Kring, P. Kristiansson, T. J. Lapen, exploration of large peak-ring impact craters M. Rebolledo-Vieyra, U. Riller, H. Sato, J. Smit, N. E. LeBer, H. Leroux, L. Leung, J. Lofi, X. Long, F. J. through scientific drilling. GSA Today, 27(10), 4–8. Tomioka, J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, M. Whalen, A. Longstaffe, C. M. Lowery, S. L. Lyons, N. McCall, C. Wittmann, and K. E. Yamaguchi (2018) Drilling- Mellett, H. J. Melosh, J. V. Morgan, C. R. Neal, C. induced and logging-related features illustrated from Nixon, N. B. Nuñez Otaño, R. Ocampo-Torres, J. N. Artemieva, J. Morgan, and the Expedition IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 downhole logs and M. K. O’Keefe, K. O’Malley, J. Ormö, G. R. Osinski, 364 Science Party (2017) Quantifying the borehole imaging tools. Scientific Drilling, 24, 1–13. J. D. Owens, J. Paris, B. H. Passey, N. Patel, M. 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Tomioka, F. J. Tovar, G. Turner-Walker, in zircon and apatite from the Chicxulub 2019 J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, V. Vajda, F. Vanhaecke, S. J. impact crater, Yucatán, Mexico. Geological C. Lowery, J. V. Morgan, S. P. S. Gulick, T. J. M. Van Malderen, J. Vellekoop, C. M. Verhagen, Magazine, 155(6), 1330–1350. Bralower, G. L. Christeson, and the Expedition 364 S. Warny, M. T. Whalen, J. Wheeler, M. J. Scientists (2019) Ocean drilling perspectives on Whitehouse, A. Wittmann, L. Xiao, K. E. Yamaguchi, G. L. Christeson, S. P. S. Gulick, J. V. Morgan, meteorite impacts. Oceanography, 32, 120–134. J. C. Zachos, J. Zhao, and W. Zylberman. I thank C. Gebhardt, D. A. Kring, E. LeBer, J. Lofi, C. Martin Schmieder, Dan Durda, Julie Tygielski, Linda Nixon, M. Poelchau, A. S. P. Rae, M. Rebolledo- J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, L. Pérez-Cruz, J. Morgan, Chappell, Delia Enriquez, Renée Dotson, and Paul Vieyra, U. Riller, D. R. Schmitt, A. Wittmann, S. Gulick, A. Wittmann, J. Lofi, and IODP- Schenk for their assistance during production. T. J. Bralower, E. Chenot, Ph. Claeys, C. S. ICDP Expedition 364 Science Party (2019)

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F. M. Schulte, A. Wittmann, S. Jung, J. V. Morgan, S. A. Wittmann, and J. V. Morgan (2021) Evidence Van Malderen, T. J. Bralower, S. P. S. Gulick, D. P. S. Gulick, D. A. Kring, R. A. F. Grieve, G. R. Osinski, of carboniferous arc magmatism preserved in the A. Kring, C. M. Lowery, J. V. Morgan, J. Smit, M. U. Riller, and the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 Science Chicxulub impact structure. GSA Bulletin, in press. T. Whalen, and the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 Party (2021) Ocean resurge-induced impact melt Scientists (2021) Globally distributed iridium layer dynamics on the peak-ring of the Chicxulub impact S. Goderis, H. Sato, L. Ferrière, B. Schmitz, D. preserved within the Chicxulub impact structure. structure, Mexico. International Journal of Earth Burney, P. Kaskes, J. Vellekoop, A. Wittmann, Science Advances, 7, 13 pp., eabe3647. Sciences, DOI: 10.1007/s00531-021-02008-w. T. Schulz, S. Chernonozhkin, Ph. Claeys, S. J. de Graaff, T. Déhais, N. J. de Winter, M. C. H. Ross, D. F. Stockli, C. Rasmussen, S. P. S. Elfman, J.-G. Feignon, A. Ishikawa, C. Koeberl, Gulick, S. J. de Graaff, Ph. Claeys, J. Zhao, L. P. Kristiansson, C. R. Neal, J. D. Owens, M. Xiao, A. E. Pickersgill, M. Schmieder, D. A. Kring, Schmieder, M. Sinnesael, F. Vanhaecke, S. J. M.

CHICXULUB CRATER

HONORING INGENUITY

Lori S. Glaze Director, NASA’s Planetary Science Division, April 2021

When last I wrote, we were still antic- helicopter had to be small. To fly in Mars’ to go well, we are anticipating Ingenuity’s ipating the landing of the Mars 2020 atmosphere (with a density just 1% of first flight no earlier than April 11. This will Perseverance Rover on Mars. Since then, Earth’s), it had to be lightweight. To survive be a real “Wright brothers’ moment” — in as the whole world knows, Perseverance the incredibly cold nights on Mars, it needs fact, Ingenuity carries a very small amount safely touched down in Jezero Crater enough power for its internal heaters. Yet of material from the Wrights’ famous Flyer where it will search for the evidence of the engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion wings as a tribute to the birth of aviation past life on Mars. But before the rover Laboratory (JPL) rose to these challenges in 1903. With Ingenuity we are writing the begins exploring Jezero Crater in earnest, and we are poised to make the first con- next chapter in the history of flight. we will perform an important and historic trolled, powered flight on another planet technology demonstration with the with Ingenuity. As a technology demonstration, there are Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. no scientific instruments on Ingenuity itself At the time of writing it was confirmed that — its sole objective is to conduct flight Ingenuity — a 1.8-kilogram (4-pound) Ingenuity passed a major milestone — by tests in the thin atmosphere of Mars and rotorcraft — has now been successfully surviving its first night on Mars after its collect important engineering data. The lowered to the surface of Mars from the separation from Perseverance. Ingenuity scientific instruments and communication underbelly of Perseverance and is currently is now sitting squarely within the 10 x 10 capabilities of Perseverance, however, proceeding through a series of pre-flight meter “airfield” that has been chosen for will be vital to the success of Ingenuity. activities. To say that our helicopter’s its flat nature and lack of obstructions. In Perseverance will be used to relay the name — provided by Tuscaloosa County the coming days, several further checkouts flight instructions, and the precise time of High School student Vaneeza Rupani and events will occur. For example, the the first flight will be determined based last year through the “Name the Rover” restraints that have been holding the rotor on several factors, including modeling of contest — is apt is a major understatement. blades together since before launch will be local wind patterns and measurements Ingenuity is the complete embodiment of released, and subsequent low-speed and from the Mars Environmental Dynamics cleverness, originality, and inventiveness. high-speed spin tests of the blades and Analyzer (MEDA) instrument. If all goes To be accommodated on Perseverance, the motors will be undertaken. If all continues to plan, we expect Ingenuity to climb at

about 1 meter per second, hover about ensure the scientific integrity of our mission, and go” maneuver. The samples of Bennu 3 meters above the surface for up to 30 but I am also thrilled that Ingenuity — a will arrive back on Earth in September seconds, and then safely descend and technology demonstration experiment — 2023, when — thanks to the ingenuity of touch back down on Mars. After the first could be incorporated into the Mars 2020 the mission’s engineers and operators — flight, there should be the opportunity to mission. Experiments like this are vital if scientists will get to work unraveling the conduct up to four more flights during the we are to continue to push the envelope secrets of our solar system contained within. 30-sol “Month of Ingenuity.” of possibility in our robotic exploration of the solar system. When the Sojourner rover After more than a year of pandemic per- Of course, we will also be using landed on Mars in 1997, it opened up a severance, I am so grateful to be honoring Perseverance’s cameras to keep a close brand-new way to explore the surface of the Wright brothers, Jacob van Zyl (and eye on the Ingenuity flights, and we expect Mars — a method that we now take almost his JPL colleagues), and Vaneeza Rupani to obtain plenty of high-definition images for granted. By making bold steps with our — embodying the past, present, and future and videos. The rover will be positioned technology, we can expand our horizons spirit of ingenuity — as part of the Mars away from the helicopter at a location we and broaden the scope of science from 2020 mission. In the words of Vaneeza, have named the Van Zyl Overlook — for future missions. “the ingenuity and brilliance of people our much-missed colleague Jakob van working hard to overcome the challenges Zyl who passed away unexpectedly last During the Month of Ingenuity another of interplanetary travel are what allow us year. Jakob served in many crucial roles of our ongoing missions will also pass all to experience the wonders of space at JPL for more than 30 years, including as through a major event. Before starting its exploration.” I could not have summed director for the Solar System Exploration journey back to Earth in May, OSIRIS-REx up the importance of Ingenuity, and the Directorate. His leadership saw the success made one final flyby of Bennu on April lessons it will teach us, better. of many NASA missions and projects, 7. This flyby provided the opportunity to including Ingenuity. obtain new images of the asteroid, and specifically, to characterize how the sur- As Director of NASA’s Planetary Science face at the Nightingale sampling site was Division my foremost responsibility is to altered during October’s successful “touch

THE 52ND LUNAR AND PLANETARY SCIENCE CONFERENCE

The 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science important to young scientists, with student a half days of virtual sessions, including the Conference (LPSC) was held virtually participation at approximately 36% of following topics: and was co-chaired by Lisa Gaddis total attendance. The meeting organi- (Lunar and Planetary Institute) and Eileen zation was provided by the Lunar and • Initial Results from the Mars 2020 Stansbery (NASA Johnson Space Center). Planetary Institute. Perseverance Rover Mission — Attendance was the highest in the history NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance of the conference, with 2,217 attendees LPSC began with a successful and enjoy- rover, the first mission in a multi-mis- from 53 countries. Submitted abstracts able welcome event on Sunday afternoon sion campaign to return Mars samples totaled 1,781 abstracts from 46 countries. in Gather.town. Beginning on Monday back to Earth, landed in Jezero LPSC continues to be accessible and morning, the conference featured four and crater on February 18, 2021. This session covered initial scientific results from the first month of operations of the Perseverance rover on Mars. Presentations reviewed the geologic setting of Perseverance’s landing site observed from orbiter data and in situ images and radar data, as well as initial geochemical, mineralogic, and atmospheric results. • Fulfilling Apollo Goals and Preparing for Artemis — Special samples returned during Apollo have been stored under unique conditions. These samples include a soil core sealed on the lunar surface in a Core Sample Vacuum Container (CSVC) and frozen samples. The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) initiative simulates a new and inexpensive lunar sample-return mission that fulfills The main lobby in the virtual conference environment. some of the goals of Apollo and offers

new perspectives on lunar volatile reservoirs and processes shaping the Moon. The results of this initiative will provide a fundamental reference point for Artemis with respect to the collection, curation, and analysis of volatile-bearing lunar samples. The ANGSA teams reported on new information from these samples, including geologic context; Preliminary Examination Team results; stratigra- phy and dynamics of lunar landslide deposits; and mineralogy, geochemistry, chronology, organic, and stable isotopic data. • Scientific Exploration of the Lunar South Pole: Scientific studies of the The Masursky Lecture with John Grotzinger. lunar south polar environment are being pursued at a frenzied pace to provide information for robotic and astrobiology. The Galileo and and exotic traverses. This session missions starting in 2021 and human Cassini missions provided the first covered the next two decades of missions in 2024. The session cap- observations indicating oceans Ocean Worlds exploration, high- tured those fast-paced research results beyond Earth. This perspective was lighting planned, proposed, and in terms of remote sensing, modeling, broadened by the Dawn and New potential future science investiga- and sample analysis; dispersed them Horizons missions to Ceres and tions, mission concepts, instruments, to the community; and sparked addi- Pluto, respectively. Today, NASA and technologies. tional scientific studies that have the is planning the Flagship-class • The complete program and abstracts benefit of ensuring the best science is Clipper mission to Europa and New are available at www.hou.usra.edu/ accomplished when surface opera- Frontiers-class Dragonfly mission meetings/lpsc2021/program/. tions commence. to Titan, while ESA is planning the • The Next Two Decades of Ocean L-class JUICE mission to Jupiter’s The plenary session on Monday afternoon Worlds Exploration: Ocean Worlds ocean worlds. Future in situ explo- featured the Masursky Lecture, “The Early have emerged as a priority class ration may target icy surfaces, Aqueous Environment of Mars Inferred of targets in planetary science planetary oceans, plume samples, from Mission Lifetime Results by the Curiosity Rover at Gale Crater,” by John Grotzinger. During the Thursday NASA Headquarters Briefing and daily Meet- and-Greet Sessions, representatives from the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate addressed meeting attendees.

In the virtual LPSC environment, post- ers were accessible throughout the conference via iPosters. Pre-recorded presentations and recordings of all live presentations were available as on-de- mand content for 30 days after the end of LPSC. As a first all-virtual LPSC, the week offered attendees many opportunities to share science and interact with each other in the virtual environment.

The LPSC 2021 Twitter wall in the virtual conference environment.

— Text provided by Jamie Shumbera (Lunar and Planetary Institute)

TOUCHDOWN! NASA’S MARS PERSEVERANCE ROVER SAFELY LANDS ON RED PLANET

The largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world touched down on Mars on February 18, 2021, after a 203-day journey traversing 472 million kilometers (293 million miles). Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST).

The Mars 2020 mission launched July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, packed with groundbreaking technology. The Perseverance rover mission marks an ambitious first step in the effort to collect Mars samples and return them to Earth.

“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally — when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and This image was captured while NASA’s Perseverance rover drove on Mars for the first time on March 4, 2021. sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to One of Perseverance’s Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) captured this image as the rover completed a rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA short traverse and turned from its landing site in Jezero Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our of ancient microbial life. To that end, the monumental — including that life might nation’s spirit of persevering even in the Mars Sample Return campaign, being have once existed beyond Earth.” most challenging of situations, inspiring planned by NASA and ESA (European and advancing science and exploration. Space Agency), will allow scientists Some 45 kilometers (28 miles) wide, The mission itself personifies the human on Earth to study samples collected by Jezero Crater sits on the western ideal of persevering toward the future and Perseverance to search for definitive signs edge of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact will help us prepare for human explo- of past life using instruments too large basin just north of the martian equa- ration of the Red Planet in the 2030s.” and complex to send to the Red Planet. tor. Scientists have determined that 3.5 billion years ago, the crater had its own About the size of a car, the 1,026-kilo- “Because of today’s exciting events, river delta and was filled with water. gram (2,263-pound) robotic geologist the first pristine samples from carefully and astrobiologist will undergo several documented locations on another The power system that provides elec- weeks of testing before it begins its two- planet are another step closer to tricity and heat for Perseverance year science investigation of Mars’ Jezero being returned to Earth,” said Thomas through its exploration of Jezero Crater. While the rover will investigate Zurbuchen, associate administrator for Crater is a Multi-Mission Radioisotope the rock and sediment of Jezero’s ancient science at NASA. “Perseverance is Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). lakebed and river delta to characterize the first step in bringing back rock and The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) the region’s geology and past climate, a regolith from Mars. We don’t know provided it to NASA through an ongo- fundamental part of its mission is astro- what these pristine samples from Mars ing partnership to develop power biology, including the search for signs will tell us. But what they could tell us is systems for civil space applications.

during entry, and the Terrain-Relative the first ground-penetrating radar on the Equipped with seven primary science Navigation system autonomously guided surface of Mars and will be used to deter- instruments, the most cameras ever sent the spacecraft during its final descent. The mine how different layers of the martian to Mars, and its exquisitely complex data from both are expected to help future surface formed over time. The data could sample caching system — the first of its human missions land on other worlds help pave the way for future sensors that kind sent into space — Perseverance will more safely and with larger payloads. hunt for subsurface water ice deposits. scour the Jezero region for fossilized remains of ancient, microscopic martian On the surface of Mars, Perseverance’s With an eye on future Red Planet life, taking samples along the way. science instruments will have an oppor- explorations, the Mars Oxygen In-Si- tunity to shine scientifically. Mastcam-Z tu Resource Utilization Experiment “Perseverance is the most sophisticated is a pair of zoomable science cameras (MOXIE) technology demonstration will robotic geologist ever made, but veri- on Perseverance’s remote sensing mast, attempt to manufacture oxygen out of fying that microscopic life once existed or head, that creates high-resolution, thin air — the Red Planet’s tenuous and carries an enormous burden of proof,” color 3D panoramas of the martian mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere. The rover’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument, which has sensors on the mast and chassis, will provide key information about pres- “ This mission is about what ent-day Mars weather, climate, and dust.

Recently deployed from the belly of humans can achieve when Perseverance, the diminutive Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration that will attempt the first powered, they persevere. We made it controlled flight on another planet.

Project engineers and scientists will this far. Now, watch us go.” now put Perseverance through its paces, testing every instrument, subsys- said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s landscape. Also located on the mast, the tem, and subroutine over the next few Planetary Science Division. “While we’ll SuperCam uses a pulsed laser to study months. Only then will they deploy the learn a lot with the great instruments we the chemistry of rocks and sediment helicopter to the surface for the flight have aboard the rover, it may very well and has its own microphone to help test phase. If successful, Ingenuity could require the far more capable laboratories scientists better understand the rocks’ add an aerial dimension to exploring and instruments back here on Earth to properties, including their hardness. the Red Planet in which such helicopters tell us whether our samples carry evi- serve as scouts or make deliveries for dence that Mars once harbored life.” Located on a turret at the end of the rov- future astronauts away from their base. er’s robotic arm, the Planetary Instrument Paving the Way for for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) and the Once Ingenuity’s test flights are complete, Human Missions Scanning Habitable Environments with the rover’s search for evidence of ancient Raman and Luminescence for Organics microbial life will begin in earnest. “Landing on Mars is always an incredibly and Chemicals (SHERLOC) instruments difficult task, and we are proud to continue will work together to collect data on “Perseverance is more than a rover, and building on our past success,” said JPL Mars’ geology close-up. PIXL will use more than this amazing collection of men Director Michael Watkins. “But, while an X-ray beam and suite of sensors to and women that built it and got us here,” Perseverance advances that success, this delve into a rock’s elemental chemis- said John McNamee, project manager of rover is also blazing its own path and dar- try. SHERLOC’s ultraviolet laser and the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mis- ing new challenges in the surface mission. spectrometer, along with its Wide Angle sion at JPL. “It is even more than the 10.9 We built the rover not just to land but to Topographic Sensor for Operations and million people who signed up to be part find and collect the best scientific samples eNgineering (WATSON) imager, will of our mission. This mission is about what for return to Earth, and its incredibly com- study rock surfaces, mapping out the humans can achieve when they persevere. plex sampling system and autonomy not presence of certain minerals and organic We made it this far. Now, watch us go.” only enable that mission, they set the stage molecules, which are the carbon-based for future robotic and crewed missions.” building blocks of life on Earth.

The Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing The rover chassis is home to three science Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) sensor suite instruments as well. The Radar Imager for collected data about Mars’ atmosphere Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) is

BREAKTHROUGH WATCH ENABLES NEARBY HABITABLE-ZONE EXOPLANETS TO BE DIRECTLY IMAGED

On February 10, 2021, Breakthrough (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the might take some time and will require Watch, the global astronomical pro- Paranal Observatory in Chile open up the the involvement and ingenuity of gram looking for Earth-like planets possibility of the detection of a candidate the larger scientific community.” around nearby stars, announced a exoplanet in Alpha Centauri A’s habitable new observing technique with unprec- zone. While the team emphasizes that The findings result from the evolution of edented sensitivity to image exoplanets other explanations are possible for the ever more powerful and sensitive imag- directly. Their initial observations also faint signal, an intriguing possibility is that ing technologies (an order of magnitude resulted in the detection of a weak signal they’ve observed a planet roughly five to more sensitive to temperate planets than in Alpha Centauri A’s habitable zone, seven times Earth’s size orbiting within the earlier exoplanet imaging approaches) part of the star system nearest to Earth. habitable zone of the nearest Sun-like star. and demonstrate the feasibility of imaging rocky, habitable-zone exoplanets The technological achievements and “We were amazed to find a signal in our with radii smaller than Neptune. The the discussion of possible origins of data. While the detection meets every achievement was made possible through this weak signal were presented by criteria for what a planet would look cooperation among leading international the global team of astronomers in the like, alternative explanations — such space organizations, universities, and journal Nature Communications in an as dust orbiting within in the habitable the private sector initiative, Breakthrough article titled, “Imaging low-mass plan- zone or simply an instrumental artifact Watch. Further analysis is underway ets within the habitable zone of Alpha of unknown origin — have to be ruled to investigate the candidate planet. If Centauri.” Data obtained from 100 hours out,” said the study’s lead author, Kevin the planet orbiting in the habitable of observation by the NEAR (New-Earths Wagner, a Sagan Fellow in NASA’s zone of Alpha Centauri is confirmed, in the AlphaCen Region) program at Hubble Fellowship Program at the it will have significant implications the European Southern Observatory’s University of Arizona. “Verification for the future of space exploration.

Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to ours, at 4.37 light-years [about 41 trillion kilometers (25 trillion miles)] away. It consists of two Sun-like stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, plus the red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. Current knowledge of Alpha Centauri’s planetary systems is sparse. In 2016, a team using ESO instruments discovered one such possibly rocky planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. But potential Alpha Centauri A and B planetary systems have remained unknown quantities until now.

At 8 meters (8.75 yards) in aperture, the ESO’s Very Large Telescope is among the world’s largest. In 2019 — with support from the Breakthrough Watch initiative — it was outfitted with new instrumentation that has allowed scientists, for the first time, to detect sub-Neptune- sized exoplanets in the habitable zones Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (wide-field view). Credit: of nearby stars, heralding a significant STSCI/NASA. advance in observational capabilities.

The imaging of potentially habitable exo- oped in collaboration with the University “ESO is glad to have contributed its planets has presented a major technical of Uppsala in Sweden, the University expertise, substantial infrastructure, challenge since the starlight reflecting of Liège in Belgium, CEA, Université and observing time on the Very Large off them from their host stars is generally Paris-Saclay, the California Institute Telescope to the NEAR project and looks billions of times dimmer than the light of Technology in the U.S., and Kampf forward in the years ahead to exploring coming to us directly from those stars. Telescope Optics in Munich, Germany. other nearby star systems,” commented Resolving a small planet close to its star ESO project leader Markus Kasper. at a distance of several light-years has In addition to advancing coronagraph been compared to spotting a moth circling technologies, the NEAR experiment further “The new capability that we demonstrated a streetlamp dozens of miles away. To developed technologies for adaptive with NEAR to directly image nearby solve this problem, in 2016, Breakthrough optics to strategically deform the tele- habitable-zone planets is inspiring Watch and ESO launched a collaboration scope’s secondary mirror, compensating to further developments of exoplanet to build a thermal infrared coronagraph, for the distortion produced by Earth’s science and astrobiology,” says Kevin designed to block out most of the light atmosphere. It has also employed novel Wagner, University of Arizona. coming from the star and optimized to chopping strategies that reduce noise capture the infrared light emitted by the by allowing the instrument to switch Pete Worden, executive director of the warm surface of an orbiting planet. rapidly between target stars — as fast Breakthrough Initiatives, said, “Only a as every 50 milliseconds — and thus few years ago, we set out on a search In addition to helping reduce the light of maximize the available telescope time. for possible Earth-like planets circling the target star and thereby reveal potential Alpha Centauri A and B. We built the terrestrial exoplanets’ signatures, the coro- Beginning on May 21, 2019, ESO’s machinery that could do the job, and now nagraph modifies existing instrumentation astronomers at ESO’s VLT conducted a candidate planet has revealed itself. to optimize its sensitivity to infrared wave- 100 hours of observation to establish The power of concerted, global scien- lengths, enabling it to detect potential heat the presence or absence of planets tific collaboration is quite astonishing.” signatures similar to that emitted by Earth. within Alpha Centauri’s habitable zones. Habitable-zone planets as small as about “When we collaborate on a global scale, Building upon these advances, NEAR, an three times the size of Earth became we discover new worlds, and we keep ambitious $3 million observation pro- detectable with the upgraded instru- advancing,” said Yuri Milner, founder of gram led by Breakthrough Watch and mentation. Rocky planets have radii that the Breakthrough Initiatives. “The identi- ESO, conducted more than 100 hours of are typically less than about 1.7 times fication of a candidate habitable-zone observation beginning in 2019 to hunt that of Earth. NEAR has demonstrated planet in our celestial backyard will for exoplanets within the habitable zones that such worlds will likely soon be continue to power our curiosity.” of the two Sun-like stars. It was devel- imaged at the rate of current progress.

MUCH OF EARTH’S NITROGEN WAS LOCALLY SOURCED

Where did Earth’s nitrogen originate? planets formed in the inner part of “Researchers have always thought Rice University scientists show one pri- our solar system and the dynamics that the inner part of the solar system, mordial source of the indispensable of far-flung protoplanetary disks. within Jupiter’s orbit, was too hot for building block for life was close to home. nitrogen and other volatile elements The study by Rice graduate student and to condense as solids, meaning that The isotopic signatures of nitrogen in lead author Damanveer Grewal, Rice volatile elements in the inner disk were iron meteorites reveal that Earth like- faculty member Rajdeep Dasgupta in the gas phase,” Grewal said. ly gathered its nitrogen from both the and geochemist Bernard Marty at region beyond Jupiter’s orbit and the the University of Lorraine, France, Because the seeds of present-day rocky dust in the inner protoplanetary disk. appears in Nature Astronomy. planets grew in the inner disk by ac- creting locally sourced dust, he said, it Nitrogen is a volatile element that, Their work helps settle a prolonged appeared they did not contain nitrogen like carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, debate over the origin of life-essential or other volatiles, necessitating their makes life on Earth possible. Knowing volatile elements in Earth and other delivery from the outer solar system. An its source offers clues to how rocky rocky bodies in the solar system. earlier study by the team suggested much

of this volatile-rich material came to Earth concentration of the via the collision that formed the Moon. nitrogen-15 isotope, while those from the outer disk New evidence clearly shows were rich in nitrogen-15. only some of the planet’s nitrogen came from beyond Jupiter. This suggests that the protoplanetary disk split In recent years, scientists have into two reservoirs within analyzed nonvolatile elements in the first few million years, meteorites, including iron meteorites the outer rich in the nitro- that occasionally fall to Earth, to gen-15 isotope and the show dust in the inner and outer inner rich in nitrogen-14. solar system had completely different isotopic compositions. “Our work completely changes the current “This idea of separate reservoirs had narrative,” Grewal The solar protoplanetary disk was separated into two reservoirs. The in- only been developed for nonvolatile said. “We show that the ner solar system material had a lower concentration of nitrogen-15, and elements,” Grewal said. “We wanted volatile elements were the outer solar system material was nitrogen-15 rich. A new Rice Uni- to see if this is true for volatile elements present in the inner disk versity study shows that the nitrogen isotope composition of present-day Earth came from both reservoirs. Credit: Illustration by Amrita P. Vyas. as well. If so, it can be used to deter- dust, probably in the form mine which reservoir the volatiles in of refractory organics, present-day rocky planets came from.” from the very beginning. This means that “At least for our own planet, we now contrary to current understanding, the know the entire nitrogen budget does Iron meteorites are remnants of the cores seeds of the present-day rocky planets — not come only from outer solar system of protoplanets that formed at the same including Earth — were not volatile-free.” materials,” said Dasgupta, Rice’s time as the seeds of present-day rocky Maurice Ewing Professor of Earth, planets, becoming the wild card the Dasgupta said the finding is significant Environmental, and Planetary Sciences. authors used to test their hypothesis. to those who study the potential habitability of exoplanets, a topic of great “Even if other protoplanetary disks The researchers found a distinct nitro- interest to him as principal investigator of don’t have the kind of giant planet gen isotopic signature in the dust that Cycles of Life-Essential Volatile Elements migration resulting in the infiltration of bathed the inner protoplanets within in Rocky Planets (CLEVER Planets), a volatile-rich materials from the outer about 300,000 years of the formation NASA-funded collaborative project ex- zones, their inner rocky planets closer of the solar system. All iron meteorites ploring how life-essential elements might to the star could still acquire volatiles from the inner disk contained a lower come together on distant exoplanets. from their neighboring zones,” he said.

NASA’S OSIRIS-REX MISSION PLANS FOR MAY ASTEROID DEPARTURE

On May 10, 2021, NASA’s Origins, “Leaving Bennu’s vicinity in May puts The May 2021 departure also provides Spectral Interpretation, Resource Iden- us in the ‘sweet spot,’ when the depar- the OSIRIS-REx team with the opportunity tification, Security, Regolith Explorer ture maneuver will consume the least to plan a final spacecraft flyby of Bennu. (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will say farewell amount of the spacecraft’s onboard This activity was not part of the original to asteroid Bennu and begin its jour- fuel,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS- mission schedule. However, the team is ney back to Earth. During its October REx deputy project manager at NASA’s studying the feasibility of a final obser- 20, 2020, sample collection event, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Green- vation run of the asteroid to potentially spacecraft collected a substantial amount belt, Maryland. “Nevertheless, with learn how the spacecraft’s contact with of material from Bennu’s surface, likely over 593 miles per hour (265 meters Bennu’s surface altered the sample site. exceeding the mission’s requirement per second) of velocity change, this of 60 grams (2 ounces). The space- will be the largest propulsive maneuver If feasible, the flyby will take place in craft is scheduled to deliver the sample conducted by OSIRIS-REx since the early April 2021 and will observe the to Earth on September 24, 2023. approach to Bennu in October 2018.” sample site, named Nightingale, from

This illustration shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departing asteroid Bennu to begin its two-year journey back to Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

a distance of approximately 3.2 kilo- These post-TAG observations would when the mission will enter its Earth meters (2 miles). Bennu’s surface was also give the team a chance to assess Return Cruise phase. As it approach- considerably disturbed after the touch- the current functionality of science es Earth, OSIRIS-REx will jettison the and-go (TAG) sample collection event, instruments onboard the spacecraft — Sample Return Capsule (SRC). The SRC with the collector head sinking 48.8 specifically the OSIRIS-REx Camera will then travel through Earth’s atmo- centimeters (1.6 feet) into the asteroid’s Suite (OCAMS), OSIRIS-REx Thermal sphere and land under parachutes at surface. The spacecraft’s thrusters also Emission Spectrometer (OTES), OSIRIS- the Utah Test and Training Range. disturbed a substantial amount of surface material during the back-away burn. “ These post-TAG observations would The mission is planning a single flyby, mimicking one of the observation also give the team a chance to assess sequences conducted during the mission’s Detailed Survey phase in 2019. OSIRIS- the current functionality of science REx would image Bennu for a full rotation to obtain high-resolution images of the instruments onboard the spacecraft.” asteroid’s northern and southern hemi- spheres and the equatorial region. The team would then compare these new REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer Once recovered, NASA will transport images with the previous high-resolution (OVIRS), and OSIRIS-REx Laser Altim- the capsule to the curation facility at imagery of Bennu obtained during 2019. eter (OLA). It is possible the instruments the agency’s Johnson Space Center in became coated in dust during the sample Houston and distribute the sample to “OSIRIS-REx has already provided incred- collection event, and the mission wants laboratories worldwide, enabling scien- ible science,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s to evaluate the status of each. Under- tists to study the formation of our solar director of the Planetary Science Division standing the health of the instruments system and Earth as a habitable planet. at the agency’s headquarters in Washing- is also part of the team’s assessment of ton. “We’re really excited the mission is possible extended mission opportunities planning one more observation flyby of after the sample is delivered to Earth. asteroid Bennu to provide new information about how the asteroid responded The spacecraft will remain in asteroid to TAG and to render a proper farewell.” Bennu’s vicinity until May 10, 2021,

ASTRONOMERS UNCOVER MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS OF “SUPER-EARTHS”

Mini-Neptunes and super- Earths up to four times Earth’s size are the most common exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. Until now, super-Earths were thought to be the rocky cores of mini-Neptunes whose gassy atmospheres were blown away. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, astronomers from McGill University show that some of these exoplanets never had gaseous atmospheres, shedding new light on their mysterious origins.

From observations, we know about 30–50% of host stars Artist’s impression of the rocky super-Earth HD 85512 b, one of more than 50 new exoplanets found by HARPS. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser. have one or the other, and the two populations appear in approximately equal proportion. Assistant Professor in the Department the surrounding nebular gas, the shell But where did they originate? of Physics at McGill University can no longer shrink, and growth stops. and the McGill Space Institute. One theory is that most exoplanets For smaller cores, this shell is tiny, so are born as mini-Neptunes, but The findings suggest that not all super- they remain rocky exoplanets. The some are stripped of their gas shells Earths are remnants of mini-Neptunes. distinction between super-Earths and by radiation from host stars, leaving Rather, the exoplanets were formed by mini-Neptunes comes from the ability of behind only a dense, rocky core. This a single distribution of rocks, born in a these rocks to grow and retain gas shells. theory predicts that our galaxy has spinning disk of gas and dust around very few Earth-sized and smaller host stars. “Some of the rocks grew “Our findings help explain the origin exoplanets known as Earths and mini- gas shells, while others emerged and of the two populations of exoplanets, Earths. However, recent observations remained rocky super-Earths,” she says. and perhaps their prevalence,” says show this may not be the case. Lee. “Using the theory proposed in the How Mini-Neptunes and study, we could eventually decipher To find out more, the astronomers used Super-Earths Are Born how common rocky exoplanets like a simulation to track the evolution of Earths and mini-Earths may be.” these mysterious exoplanets. The model Planets are thought to form in a spinning used thermodynamic calculations based disk of gas and dust around stars. Rocks on how massive their rocky cores are, larger than the Moon have enough how far they are from their host stars, gravitational pull to attract surrounding and how hot the surrounding gas is. gas to form a shell around its core. Over time, this gas shell cools down and shrinks, “Contrary to previous theories, our creating space for more surrounding study shows that some exoplanets can gas to be pulled in and causing the never build gaseous atmospheres to exoplanet to grow. Once the entire shell begin with,” says co-author Eve Lee, cools down to the same temperature as

ROCKS SHOW MARS ONCE FELT LIKE ICELAND

Weathering of sedimentary rock at Gale Crater likely happened under Iceland-like temperatures more than three billion years ago, when water still flowed on Mars. Rice University researchers compared data collected by the Curiosity rover, correlated with conditions at various places on Earth, to make their determination. Credit: NASA.

More than three billion years ago, seasons similar rocks and soils on Earth to find “Sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater instead in Gale Crater probably felt something a correlation between the planets. detail a climate that likely falls in between like those in Iceland. A Rice University these two scenarios,” said Thorpe, now study focuses on the ancient martian crater, The study published in JGR Planets a Mars sample return scientist at NASA with scientists comparing data from the takes data from well-known and vary- Johnson Space Center contractor Curiosity rover to places on Earth where ing conditions in Iceland, Idaho, and Jacobs Space Exploration Group. “The similar geologic formations have experi- other locations worldwide to see which ancient climate was likely frigid but also enced weathering in different climates. provided the best match for what the appears to have supported liquid water rover sees and senses in the crater in lakes for extended periods of time.” Out of several sites, Iceland’s basaltic ter- that encompasses Mount Sharp. rain and cool weather with temperatures The researchers were surprised that typically less than 3 degrees Celsius (38 The crater once contained a lake, but there was so little weathering of rocks degrees Fahrenheit) was the closest ana- the climate that allowed water to fill it on Mars after more than three bil- log to ancient Mars. The study determined is the subject of a long debate. While lion years, such that the ancient Mars that temperature had the biggest impact some argue that early Mars was rocks were comparable to Icelandic on how rocks formed from sediment warm and wet and with rivers and sediments in a river and lake today. deposited by ancient martian streams. lakes, others think it was more likely cold and dry with glaciers and snow. “On Earth, the sedimentary rock record The study by postdoctoral alumnus does a fantastic job of maturing over time Michael Thorpe, martian geologist Kirsten Siebach of Rice, and geoscientist Joel Hurowitz However, on Mars, we see of State University of New “ York at Stony Brook set out to answer questions about the very young minerals in the forces that affected sands and mud in the ancient lakebed. mudstones that are older Data collected by Curiosity during its travels since landing on Mars in 2012 provide details than any sedimentary about the chemical and physical states of mudstones formed in an ancient lake. However, the rocks on Earth, suggesting chemistry does not directly reveal the climate conditions when the sediment eroded upstream. weathering was limited.” The researchers had to look for

with the help of chemical weathering,” The makeup of sand and mud in Iceland while fluvial processes continued to Thorpe noted. “However, on Mars, we see was the closest match to Mars based on deposit sediments in the crater. This shift very young minerals in the mudstones that analysis via the standard chemical index shows the technique can be used to help are older than any sedimentary rocks on of alteration (CIA), a basic geological tool track climate changes on ancient Mars. Earth, suggesting weathering was limited.” used to infer past climate from a sample’s chemical and physical weathering. While the study focused on the lowest, The researchers directly studied sed- most ancient part of the lake sediments iments from Idaho and Iceland and “As water flows through rocks to erode Curiosity has explored, other studies compiled studies of similar basaltic and weather them, it dissolves the most have also indicated the martian climate sediments from a range of climates soluble chemical components of the probably fluctuated and became drier worldwide, from Antarctica to Hawaii, minerals that form the rocks,” Siebach with time. “This study establishes one to bracket the climate conditions they said. “On Mars, we saw that only a way to interpret that trend more quanti- thought were possible on Mars when small fraction of the elements that dis- tatively, by comparison to climates and water was flowing into Gale Crater. solve the fastest had been lost from the environments we know well on Earth mud relative to volcanic rocks, even today,” Siebach said. “Similar tech- “Earth provided an excellent laboratory though the mud has the smallest grain niques could be used by Perseverance for us in this study, where we could use size and is usually the most weathered.” to understand ancient climate around a range of locations to see the effects its landing site at Jezero Crater.” of different climate variables on weath- “This really limits the average annual ering, and average annual temperature temperature on Mars when the lake In parallel, climate change, especially had the strongest effect for the types of was present because if it were warmer, in Iceland, may shift the places on rocks in Gale Crater,” said Siebach, a then more of those elements would Earth best-suited for understanding member of the Curiosity team who is a have been flushed away,” she said. the past on both planets, she said. Perseverance operator. “The range of climates on Earth allowed us to cali- The results also indicated the climate brate our thermometer for measuring shifted over time from Antarctic-like the temperature on ancient Mars.” conditions to become more Icelandic

ORBIT OF MOST DISTANT OBJECT EVER OBSERVED IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM CONFIRMED

A team of astronomers have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar system. The planetoid, which has been nicknamed “Farfarout,” was first detected in 2018, and the team has now collected enough observations to pin down its orbit. The Minor Planet Center has now given it the official designation of 2018 AG37.

Farfarout’s nickname distinguished it from the previous record-holder “Farout,” found by the same team of astronomers in 2018. In addition to associate professor Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona Solar system distances to scale, showing the newly discovered planetoid nicknamed “Farfarout,” compared to University’s Department of Astronomy other known solar system objects. Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa, Scott S. Sheppard (Carnegie Institution and Planetary Science, the discovery for Science), and Brooks Bays (University of Hawaii). team includes Scott S. Sheppard of

the Carnegie Institution for Science likely experienced strong gravitational very faint because of their extreme and David Tholen from the University interactions with Neptune over the age distances from the Sun. Farfarout is just of Hawai’i Institute for Astronomy, who of the solar system and is why it has the tip of the iceberg of solar system have an ongoing survey to map the such a large and elongated orbit. objects in the very distant solar system.” outer solar system beyond Pluto. “A single orbit of Farfarout around the Because Neptune strongly interacts with Farfarout will be given an official name Sun takes a millennium,” said Tholen. Farfarout, Farfarout’s orbit and movement (like Sedna and other similar objects) “Because of this long orbital, it moves cannot be used to determine if there after its orbit is better determined over the very slowly across the sky, requiring is another unknown massive planet next few years. It was discovered at the several years of observations to in the very distant solar system since Subaru 8-meter (8.75-yard) telescope precisely determine its trajectory.” these interactions dominate Farfarout’s located atop Maunakea in Hawai’i orbital dynamics. Only those objects and recovered using the Gemini North Farfarout is very faint; based on its whose orbits stay in the very distant and Magellan telescopes in the past brightness and distance from the Sun, the solar system, well beyond Neptune’s few years to determine its orbit based team estimates its size to be about 400 gravitational influence, can be used to on its slow-motion across the sky. kilometers (248.5 miles) across. Assuming probe for signs of an unknown massive it is an ice-rich object, this puts it on planet. These include Sedna and 2012 Farfarout’s average distance from the Sun the low end of being a dwarf planet. VP113, which, although they are currently is 132 astronomical units (AU); 1 AU is closer to the Sun than Farfarout (at the distance between Earth and the Sun. “The discovery of Farfarout shows our around 80 AU), never approach Neptune For comparison, Pluto is only 39 AU from increasing ability to map the outer and thus would be strongly influenced the Sun. The newly discovered object solar system and observe farther and by the possible Planet X instead. has a very elongated orbit that takes farther towards the fringes of our solar it out to 175 AU at its most distant, and system,” said Sheppard. “Only with “Farfarout’s orbital dynamics can help us inside the orbit of Neptune, to around the advancements in the last few years understand how Neptune formed and 27 AU, when it is close to the Sun. of large digital cameras on very large evolved, as Farfarout was likely thrown telescopes has it been possible to into the outer solar system by getting Farfarout’s journey around the Sun efficiently discover very distant objects too close to Neptune in the distant takes about a thousand years, crossing like Farfarout. Even though some of past,” said Trujillo. “Farfarout will likely the massive planet Neptune’s orbit these distant objects are quite large, strongly interact with Neptune again every time. This means Farfarout has being dwarf planet in size, they are since their orbits continue to intersect.”

SATURN’S TILT CAUSED BY ITS MOONS

Two scientists from the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory – PSL/CNRS) have just shown that the influence of Saturn’s satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Their work, published on January 18, 2021, in the journal Nature Astronomy, predicts that the tilt will increase even further over the next few billion years.

The conclusion of recent work carried out by scientists from the CNRS, Sorbonne

Artist’s impression of the migration of Titan and the tilt of Saturn. Credit: Coline SAILLENFEST/IMCCE.

University, and the University of Pisa after its formation, Saturn’s rotation next few billion years, the inclination of shows that Saturn’s tilt may be caused axis remained only slightly tilted. It was Saturn’s axis could more than double. by its moons, finding that the current tilt only roughly a billion years ago that its of Saturn’s rotation axis is caused by the satellites’ gradual motion triggered a The research team had already reached migration of its satellites, and especially resonance phenomenon that continues similar conclusions about the planet Jupiter, by that of its largest moon, Titan. today — Saturn’s axis interacted with which is expected to undergo comparable Neptune’s path and gradually tilted tilting due to the migration of its four main Recent observations have shown that until it reached the inclination of 27 moons and resonance with Uranus’s Titan and the other moons are gradually degrees that is observed today. orbit. Over the next five billion years, the moving away from Saturn much faster inclination of Jupiter’s axis could increase than astronomers had previously These findings call into question previous from 3 degrees to more than 30 degrees. estimated. By incorporating this increased scenarios. Astronomers were already in migration rate into their calculations, the agreement about the existence of this researchers concluded that this process resonance. However, they believed affects the inclination of Saturn’s rotation that it had occurred very early on, axis — as its satellites move further over four billion years ago, due to a away, the planet tilts more and more. change in Neptune’s orbit. Since that time, Saturn’s axis was thought to have The decisive event that tilted Saturn is been stable. Saturn’s axis is still tilting, thought to have occurred relatively and what we see today is merely a recently. For over three billion years transitional stage in this shift. Over the

A “SUPER-PUFF” PLANET LIKE NO OTHER

suggests that gas giant planets form a lot more easily than previously believed. Published in the Astronomical Journal by a team of astronomers from Canada, the U.S., Germany, and Japan, the new analysis of WASP-107b’s internal structure has big implications.

“This study pushes the boundaries of our theoretical understanding of how giant-sized planets form. WASP-107b is one of the puffiest planets out there, and we need a creative solution to explain how these tiny cores can build such massive gas envelopes,” says co-author Eve Lee, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at McGill University and McGill Space Institute.

Artistic rendition of the exoplanet, WASP-107b, and its star, WASP-107. Some of the star’s light streams through the exoplanet’s extended gas layer. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, M. Kornmesser. As Big as Jupiter but Ten Times Lighter The core mass of the giant exoplanet of astronomers, including McGill WASP-107b is much lower than what University Professor Eve Lee. WASP-107b was first detected in was thought necessary to build up the 2017 around WASP-107, a star about immense gas envelope surrounding This intriguing discovery by Caroline 212 light-years from Earth in the Virgo giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, Piaulet of the Université de Montréal constellation. The planet is very close to according to a Canadian-led team under the supervision of Björn Benneke its star — over 16 times closer than Earth

is to the Sun. About as big as Jupiter but A Gas Giant in the Making said. “The planet was later able to ten times lighter, WASP-107b is one of migrate to its current position, either the least dense exoplanets known — a Planets form in the disc of dust and gas through interactions with the disc or with type astrophysicists have dubbed “super- that surrounds a young star called a other planets in the system,” she says. puffs” or “cotton-candy” planets. protoplanetary disc. Classical models of gas giant planet formation are based The astronomers first used observations on Jupiter and Saturn. In these, a solid Discovery of a Second Planet of WASP-107 obtained at the Keck core at least ten times more massive than The Keck observations of the WASP- 107 system cover a much longer period of time than previous studies have, allowing the research team to make an additional discovery — the existence of “ For WASP-107b, the most a second planet, WASP-107c, with a mass of about one-third that of Jupiter, plausible scenario is that considerably more than WASP-107b’s. WASP-107c is also much farther from the central star; it takes three years to the planet formed far complete one orbit around it, compared to only 5.7 days for WASP-107b. Also interesting, the eccentricity of this second away from the star, where planet is high, meaning its trajectory around its star is more oval than circular.

the gas in the disc is cold “WASP-107c has in some respects kept the memory of what happened in its system,” said Piaulet. “Its great eccentricity hints enough that gas accretion at a rather chaotic past, with interactions between the planets which could have led to significant displacements, like can occur very quickly.” the one suspected for WASP-107b.”

Observatory in Hawaii to assess the Earth is needed to accumulate a large The researchers plan to continue planet’s mass more accurately. They used amount of gas before the disc dissipates. studying WASP-107b, hopefully with the radial velocity method, which allows the James Webb Space Telescope set scientists to determine a planet’s mass Without a massive core, gas giant to launch in 2021, which will provide by observing the wobbling motion of its planets were not thought able to cross a much more precise idea of the host star due to the planet’s gravitational the critical threshold necessary to build composition of the planet’s atmosphere. pull. They concluded that the mass of up and retain their large gas envelopes. WASP-107b is about one-tenth that of Jupiter, or about 30 times that of Earth. How then do we explain the existence of WASP-107b, which has a much In analyzing the planet’s most likely less massive core? Professor Lee, internal structure, they came to a surprising who is a world-renowned expert conclusion — with such a low density, the on super-puff planets like WASP- planet must have a solid core of no more 107b, has several hypotheses. than four times the mass of Earth. This means that more than 85% of its mass is included “For WASP-107b, the most plausible in the thick layer of gas that surrounds this scenario is that the planet formed far core. In comparison, Neptune, which has away from the star, where the gas a similar mass to WASP-107b, only has in the disc is cold enough that gas 5–15% of its total mass in its gas layer. accretion can occur very quickly,” she

UPCOMING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

For upcoming educator and public Total Lunar Eclipse on May 26, 2021 engagement opportunities regarding NASA planetary exploration, contact local astronomical societies, The eclipse will be visible throughout the Pacific Ocean and parts planetariums, museums, local of eastern Asia, Japan, Australia, and western North America. A scientists, and NASA’s Solar System total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon and the Sun are on Ambassadors (solarsystem.nasa.gov/ exact opposite sides of Earth. For more information, visit eclipse. solar-system-ambassadors/directory). gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2021May26T.pdf. Ask them to join your events and share their experiences or resources with your audience.

KEEP UP WITH PERSEVERANCE Keep your audiences up-to-date with the latest news from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover mission. For more information, visit mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/news/.

JPL MARS RESOURCES Resources are available for those interested in learning more about Mars. JPL’s Mars Resources collection includes activities for families to do at home, videos, animations, stories, and articles. For more information, visit solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1679/mars-resources.

NASA SMD ROSES–2021, F.6 SCIENCE ACTIVATION PROGRAM INTEGRATION

The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Science Activation • Integration of data into science learning, in alignment Program seeks to enable NASA science experts and content into with the SMD Strategy for Data Management the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with and Computing for Groundbreaking Science learners of all ages. Specific focus areas for this opportunity and the NASA Science Data Overview include: Proposals are due May 14, 2021. For more information, visit • Heliophysics content, including the upcoming annular nspires.nasaprs.com/external/viewrepositorydocument/ (2023) and total (2024) solar eclipses cmdocumentid=807870/. • Dissemination of SMD assets (science content and data, space and airborne platforms, and scientific and technical personnel) into communities or specific audience networks

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) supports NASA’s goal to in fields of science relevant to NASA. Interested applicants may expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe in apply by one of three annual application deadlines: March 1, which we live. Selected by a competitive, peer-review process, July 1, and November 1. For more information, visit npp.usra. NPP fellows complete one- to three-year fellowships that offer edu/. scientists and engineers unique opportunities to conduct research

AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY EDUCATION PRIZE

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) Education Prize rec- Nominations for AAS prizes must be submitted online by June ognizes outstanding contributions to the education of the public, 30, 2021. For more information, visit aas.org/grants-and-prizes/ students, and the next generation of professional astronomers. prize-nominations.

NASA COMMUNITY COLLEGE NETWORK INVITES SCIENTISTS TO PARTICIPATE

The NASA Community College Network (NCCN), operated by the SETI Institute through funding from NASA’s Science Activation program, is recruiting 25 NASA- funded scientists to participate from April 2021 through June 2022 to help shape the development of their network. This program will bring NASA subject matter experts, research findings, and educational resources into the science classrooms of the United States’ community college system. NCCN is accepting applications which will be considered to ensure broad-scale representation from across the United States for this pilot cohort.

Participants will work with NCCN to bring will also contribute to the assessment of the NCCN program by accessible content to community colleges. This might involve participating in occasional surveys and interviews conducted by refining and developing materials or directly connecting with the program’s external evaluator. community college instructors and their students. The NCCN team will facilitate and coordinate interactions and activities with participating community college instructors. Participants will also If you are interested in this program and can make the attend a total of 10 hours of virtual project meetings, and sessions commitment, please complete the participant form at https:// discussing best practices for sharing NASA science content docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUJrte3BB_6L5jYMPzKt and resources with community college instructors and students. Qqok7D09-Frd7qROr3LO0kzzuSsw/viewform. Flexible options will be offered to fit your schedule. Participants

Spotlight on Education” highlights events and programs that provide opportunities for planetary scientists to become involved in education and public engagement. If you know of space science educational programs or events that should be included, please contact the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s Education Department at [email protected].

JOHN W. ALRED

material analysis, process simulation, robotic and human spacecraft, performing and robotic mission surface science to as the lead engineer responsible for the evaluate new directions for research Stardust Discovery Mission launch vehicle and set a path for future science in the interface and meteoroid protection design, Artemis Program — a perfect capstone leading the Boeing ISS Plasma Team, for his career. John also served on the and providing external contamination Astromaterials Research and Exploration verification of U.S.-produced International Science (ARES) core leadership team Space Station hardware. providing Division level expertise and research strategies. Before being named Prior to teaching and mentoring at Branch Chief in 2020, John was the Lead universities, Dr. Alred served as the of the Non-Metallic Materials Team in Director of the NASA Advanced Design the Materials and Processes Branch of the Program at Universities Space Research Structural Engineering Division. He has Association (USRA) and managed served as the Deputy Manager for Space 44 universities, ensuring engineering Environments and as the Deputy Manager capstone design courses were related for ISS Materials and Processes at the to active NASA programs and initiatives. John W. Alred began his career with Johnson Space Center. At the conclusion of this program, he NASA and the Johnson Space Center as a became the Director of Advanced summer intern and later joined the Center Before his stellar career with NASA, Programs at Eagle Engineering, where after graduation, performing engineering Dr. Alred served as visiting professor at he led Lunar/Mars studies and assorted analyses for the Space Shuttle and early Texas A&M University in the Aerospace, advanced mission planning activities for Space Station development studies. He Mechanical, and Nuclear Engineering NASA and aerospace industry customers. led cross-agency studies of planetary Departments and an Adjunct Professor surface architectures and systems for at the University of Houston Mechanical Alred earned Bachelors of Science human exploration of the Moon and Mars Engineering Department and the degrees in Physics and Mathematics in his early years. University of Houston’s Sasakawa Institute from the University of Central Arkansas. for Space Architecture. He continued He then earned his Master of Science Dr. John Alred culminated his career as the his passion for research by applying his and Doctorate degrees in Physics from Branch Chief for Astromaterials Research. expertise and experience serving in a Baylor University. He led scientists performing planetary variety of aerospace industry positions on

— Text courtesy of NASA/JSC Eileen Stansbery

GEORGE CARRUTHERS 1939–2020

When the Apollo 16 mission landed on the fundamental to communications, remote Moon in 1972, astronauts set up the first sensing, and the operation of space observatory to survey the cosmos from a systems. The telescope also peered into celestial body. It was designed and built deep space, shining light on star formation by the astronomer George Carruthers. By and clusters and the interstellar medium. capturing light in a part of the spectrum Carruthers has died, aged 81. inaccessible to terrestrial telescopes, Carruthers’s Far Ultraviolet (FUV) lunar As an African American, his contributions camera produced the first global images to high-profile human spaceflight missions of Earth’s upper atmosphere, a region made Carruthers a sought-after role

model for Black scientists and engineers compact telescope had flexible operating Universe. From the Skylab space station and those from other communities configurations that mimicked the capability in 1973–1974, his camera mapped stars, underrepresented in research and groups of much larger systems. interstellar clouds, and other objects, campaigning for equity in academia and producing data that improved navigation, industry. Carruthers was dedicated to In 1970, Carruthers’s telescope confirmed remote sensing, and astronomy. From a mentoring students in schools, community the existence of molecular hydrogen in sounding rocket in 1974, he produced centers, and universities. He advised them interstellar space. This discovery, which the first images of the atomic hydrogen to build wide-ranging expertise early received international acclaim, filled corona surrounding comet Kohoutek and, on so that they could adapt to emerging a significant gap in understanding the later, similar images of comet Halley. problems in research — guidance his interstellar medium and provided a father, a civil engineer, had given him. framework for explaining how stars form. He was instrumental in setting up the NRL’s It was then considered a step towards high-school apprenticeship program, Born in 1939 in Cincinnati, Ohio, resolving the riddle of the Universe’s short courses at community centers, and Carruthers grew up in the Jim Crow era of “missing mass.” continuing education for local teachers. racial-segregation laws, which formally Through Project SMART, he enhanced ended only in 1964, the year he got Sounding-rocket programs permitted outreach at the National Air and Space his PhD. His family encouraged him to frequent, relatively inexpensive, and short- Museum and the historically Black study mathematics and science, but it turnaround opportunities to test and use Howard University in Washington, DC. was his own reading of science-fiction sensors. Carruthers’s genius was in making The legacy of Carruthers’s outreach work and astronomy books that awakened his very complex and delicate technology continues today. NRL space scientist fascination with space flight. With the work flawlessly on space vehicles as McArthur Jones co-chairs the task force money he earned as a delivery boy, he they pitched, spun, and shook. He was on diversity, equity, and inclusion set ordered lenses and had built a telescope intensely focused on designing, building, up as part of the US National Science from cardboard tubing by the age of ten. and “testing, testing, testing.” Foundation’s CEDAR (Coupling, Energetics, When his father died in 1952, his mother and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions) moved the family to Chicago, Illinois. A The Apollo 16 lunar camera and program. Others whom Carruthers few years later, Carruthers built a more spectrograph produced global-scale inspired can be found at institutions from advanced telescope at the city’s Adler images of Earth’s upper atmosphere, the US Air Force Research Laboratory to Planetarium. including its outer ionized layer, or universities and aerospace businesses. ionosphere. These images revealed details He tracked the progress of sounding about equatorial arcs of charged particles Carruthers was a man of vision. Usually rockets (which follow suborbital stretching around the globe — phenomena reserved, his demeanor was transformed trajectories) and the earliest satellites under study today as the interplay when he was generously sharing his and read up on the work of the between the atmosphere and ionosphere. wisdom and his scientific and engineering Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in NRL theorists and observational prowess. He opened doors for local Washington, DC. After gaining his astronomers have used the images to young people by opening himself up to PhD in aeronautical and astronomical discover new features and confirm earlier them. Of racism, he said, “When I was engineering at the University of Illinois at localized samplings. their age, I had no role models because Urbana-Champaign, he won a place on nobody ever publicized them, not that the NRL’s postdoctoral program. Carruthers’s Earth images have paved the they didn’t exist…therefore many of the way for global space-weather forecasting minority students didn’t know that they had So began Carruthers’s lifelong research in the same way that global satellite a future in science.” Carruthers worked to career at the NRL. His first endeavor systems are used to predict surface change that. was using a sounding rocket to search weather. Elements of current NASA for molecular hydrogen in space. He missions that focus on the ionosphere and devised a better way to capture FUV upper atmosphere (ICON and GOLD) spectra, amplifying diffuse and faintly lit can be traced to Carruthers’s first global objects. Like a video camera, his telescope images. converted photons into energetic electrons that were amplified and recorded by Carruthers continued to study the upper electron-sensitive film. The resulting atmosphere and probe the structure of the

— Text courtesy of Nature (2021)

JOHN HOFFMAN 1930–2021

Dr. John Hoffman, professor emeritus the international reputation in space mass spectrometer for the lander that of physics and founding faculty experimentation that UT Dallas enjoys analyzed gases from soil samples on member of the University of Texas at today,” said Dr. Roderick Heelis, who the Red Planet, which shed light on Dallas, died February 3. He was 91. joined UT Dallas in 1972 and is director Mars’ atmosphere and climate history. of the Center for Space Sciences and Beginning in the 1960s, Hoffman Distinguished Chair in Natural Sciences He also designed mass spectrometers that designed and built scientific instruments and Mathematics. “His devices performed flew on NASA’s Atmosphere Explorer C for satellites, planetary missions, and with such predictable reliability that he was and D satellites. Also on board was an other space probes for experiments that the ‘go-to guy’ whenever key discoveries instrument designed by Hoffman’s brother, traveled millions of miles throughout the of the elemental gas concentrations in Robert, who was a space scientist at solar system. His mass spectrometers — planetary environments were required.” NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. instruments that measure the characteristics of atoms and molecules found in In a 2009 interview, Hoffman described “I’ll never forget hearing John speak and atmospheres and soils — helped explore growing up with both music and physics; show mass spectrometer data coming back Halley’s comet; accompanied Apollo his father was a chemistry professor, and from the Moon’s surface live during my 15, 16, and 17 astronauts to the Moon his mother an accomplished pianist. He very first week at UT Dallas in September and the Pioneer mission to Venus; and picked up the clarinet and eventually the 1972,” said Dr. A. Dean Sherry, professor aided in the discovery of water on Mars. oboe, but he said he had a “big fight” of chemistry and the Cecil H. and Ida with himself trying to decide whether to Green Distinguished Chair in Systems In 1966 he joined the atmospheric pursue science or music. Ultimately, he Biology. “Needless to say, John had and space sciences research group at received his bachelor’s degree in physics a huge influence on all young faculty the Graduate Research Center of the from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, who came to the University over many Southwest (GRCSW), which became as it is now known, and his master’s and decades. He will never be forgotten.” the University of Texas (UT) at Dallas in doctoral degrees from the University of 1969. In addition to teaching, Hoffman Minnesota. Hoffman’s mentor there was Hoffman served as head of the Department was a member of the William B. Hanson Dr. Alfred O.C. Nier, who pioneered of Physics from 1978 to 2001 and was Center for Space Sciences, which is the development of mass spectrometry. associate dean for undergraduate part of the Department of Physics in education from 2000 to 2009. He also the School of Natural Sciences and Before he joined the GRCSW, was president of the Texas Section of Mathematics. He retired in 2017. Hoffman spent seven years at the the American Association of Physics U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Teachers from 1993 to 1995 and was UT “In the early days of space sciences at UT developing miniaturized mass Dallas’ representative to the Texas Space Dallas, John Hoffman built a large number spectrometers for spaceflight. Grant Consortium from 1992 to 2006. of space experiments for operation at Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, and As a member of NASA’s Phoenix Mars In 2016 Hoffman and fellow founding comets. He provided a foundation for Mission in 2008, Hoffman designed a faculty member Dr. James Carter,

an associate professor emeritus of and the obvious affection that Professors “John was not just an instrument builder, he geosciences who invented simulated Carter and Hoffman had for our students.” was also an outstanding communicator,” Moon dirt, visited Dr. Richard C. Heelis said. “Many have enjoyed the Benson, who had just been installed In addition to his teaching and motivational talks about his research as the new UT Dallas president. research, Hoffman was very active work as well as his explanations of in science outreach, participating in fundamental physical processes illustrated “I thoroughly enjoyed my conversations physics demonstrations and hands-on with lively demonstrations. Unselfish with Professor Hoffman, and I marveled activities for children and the public engagement with his peers and students at his many accomplishments as a scholar on campus, in schools, and in the alike is the reason that John became so and educator,” said Benson, who holds community. Hoffman was not only a successfully immersed in the growth of the Eugene McDermott Distinguished member of the team that flew a mass the University from its original days. University Chair of Leadership. “My first spectrometer on the European Space such meeting was in 2016 when he and Agency’s Giotto mission to Halley’s comet “We will miss the many contributions Professor Carter came to my office to in 1986, he also flew with colleagues made by John in so many areas. But extend the singular, and utterly delightful, on a Braniff International Airways what a joy to look back on all his tradition of resting class rings in a box of special flight to show the passengers a accomplishments and to recognize simulated lunar regolith before issuing the better view of the famous comet than that his contributions are permanently rings to the students who would wear them. could be obtained from the ground. embedded in the work we do today.” I was struck by the whimsey of the tradition

— Text courtesy of the University of Texas at Dallas (2021)

GÜNTER W. LUGMAIR 1940–2021

Günter W. Lugmair did pioneering work for determining the age of in isotope geochemistry and was most lunar and meteorite specimens, recently Emeritus in the Geosciences which is now considered one Research Division. Lugmair was born of the most reliable and widely in 1940 in Wels, Austria. He studied used techniques for dating physics and obtained his doctorate in terrestrial rocks and explaining 1968 at the University of Vienna. From their history. He proved the 1965 to 1968, he worked at the Max former existence of a certain Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, samarium isotope in meteorites Germany. In 1968, he immigrated to and thereby answered questions the United States, where he became about the early history of our a research chemist at the University of solar system. Lugmair made California (UC), San Diego. He returned important contributions to our to Germany to become Director of the knowledge of the formation processes of Department of Cosmochemistry at the chemical elements in stars by determining Lugmair’s work was recognized Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in the isotopic composition of trace metals internationally. During his career, he 1996. After his retirement in 2005, he with unprecedented precision. He also received awards from NASA, the returned to California and was named succeeded in determining the age of National Academy of Science, and the Distinguished Research Scientist at UC our solar system precisely at 4.57 billion Meteorological Society. He was the San Diego, becoming Emeritus in 2007. years. In 1998, he found evidence of recipient of the Geochemical Society’s the extraterrestrial origin of the iridium V. M. Goldschmidt Award, given for He made significant contributions to anomaly. It is considered an indication major achievements in geochemistry or understanding the genesis of the solar of the impact hypothesis, which traces cosmochemistry. He was also a fellow of system and profoundly influenced the the extinction of many large animal the American Geophysical Union and evolution of isotope geochemistry. In 1974, species about 65 million years ago to a member of Academia Europaea. he developed a mass spectrometric method the consequences of a meteorite impact.

DONALD A. MORRISON 1936–2021

family immigrated to Gasport, New York, Apollo program. He was involved with where he attended Royalton-Hartland astronaut training and analysis of lunar High School. After high school, he served samples. While working for the Lunar in the Army from 1955 to 1958 with Receiving Laboratory, Donald met his wife the 10th Mountain Division. He earned of 52 years, Ruth Ann Clark. He served as a bachelor’s degree at the University an adjunct professor at the University of of Buffalo, a master’s degree from Houston Clear Lake from 1990 to 1992. the University of Alaska, and a PhD in He continued researching planetology Geology from the University of Idaho. His and terrestrial geology and worked on Donald A. Morrison, 84, died January 16, area of expertise was mineralogy and the “return to the moon initiative” until he 2021, at home in Highland Village, Texas. petrology. retired in 1999. After moving to Highland He was born in Mount Forrest, Ontario, Village to be closer to his grandchildren, to Allen Irwin Morrison and Margaret Donald began working at NASA Johnson Donald joined the Elm Fork Chapter of Mary Lennox on July 19, 1936. The Space Center in 1967 at the time of the Master Naturalists.

— Text courtesy of Mulkey-Mason Funeral Home

RAFAEL NAVARRO-GONZÁLEZ 1959–2021

Dr. Rafael Navarro-González, chemist and biology. He identi- and astrobiologist, passed away on fied the role of volcanic January 27, 2021, from complications lightning in the origin of with COVID-19. A tribute to Rafael will be life on Earth. scheduled at a later time when COVID-19 is a lower risk. Rafael was a talented and Rafael Navarro-González was born Institute of Nuclear Science at UNAM. internationally recognized scientist. He in Mexico City on April 25, 1959. He Among the most significant of his con- was the recipient of the 2009 Alexander earned a bachelor’s in biology from tributions is the detection of organics in von Humboldt Medal, the World the National Autonomous University of Mars-like environments on Earth. He was Academy of Sciences Award in Earth Mexico (UNAM) and a PhD in Chemistry a Co-I on the SAM instrument onboard Sciences, and the first recipient of the from the University of Maryland at NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and Molina fellowship. His research blended College Park. Dr. Navarro-González on the HABIT instrument onboard ESA’s laboratory simulations, fieldwork, and established the Laboratory of Plasma ExoMars mission. theoretical modeling in chemistry, physics, Chemistry and Planetary Studies of the

KOICHIRO TSURUDA 1937–2020

Professor Koichiro Tsuruda passed away plasma science research. He also served loved him. He suffered from Parkinson’s on the morning of December 3, 2020, as the Director of the Institute of Space disease in his later years, but he passed at the age of 83. After conducting VLF and Astronautical Science (ISAS) from away peacefully at home with his family observations and research, Dr. Tsuruda 2003 to 2005 and guided the Institute watching over him. created a new method of electric field through the difficult period just after it measurement and installed it on the was integrated into the Japan Aerospace S-520-9 sounding rocket, the Akebono Exploration Agency. Dr. Tsuruda had satellite, and the Geotail satellite, which both a gentle personality and a strong was a major break-through in solar system resilience in his spirit, and many people

— Text courtesy of Masato Nakamura, ISAS

As a young NASA researcher who was familiar with his seminal Akebono wave space program with extensive knowledge the Deputy Project Scientist on the Global papers. He was an outstanding scientist and skill and forming long-lasting Geospace Science set of satellites, I had who took time to explain a number of relationships with NASA. He is one of our the pleasure of traveling to ISAS and key plasma wave concepts to me that I original space pioneers and will be missed working with the Geotail scientists where will never forget. We again met when he I met Dr. Tsuruda. I was already very headed ISAS guiding that nation’s robotic

— Text courtesy of NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green

NASA STATEMENT ON NOMINATION OF BILL NELSON FOR AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR

to lead our agency. Bill Science, and Transportation Committee. has a proven history of Previously, he represented Florida’s 9th supporting our work and 11th Congressional Districts in the U.S. here at NASA and House of Representatives. While chair of has helped advance the House space subcommittee, Nelson America’s position in flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia human exploration, as a payload specialist on the STS-61C science, aeronautics, mission in 1986. He was appointed to and technology. While the NASA Advisory Council by former the Senate must confirm Administrator Jim Bridenstine in May 2019. the nomination, I look Acting NASA Administrator Steve forward to continuing to work with Bill For information about NASA’s Jurczyk released the following statement and the Biden-Harris administration missions, discoveries, and after the nomination by President to carry out NASA’s many critical activities, visit www.nasa.gov. Joe Biden of Bill Nelson to serve as missions in the years to come.” the 14th NASA administrator: Nelson represented Florida in the Senate “I’m pleased President Biden has from 2001–2019 where he served as nominated former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson ranking member on the Commerce,

NASA STATEMENT ON NOMINATION OF PAM MELROY FOR AGENCY DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR

The following is a statement from Acting solar system, and beyond. She is a roles, including at Lockheed Martin, the NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk on the proven leader with bold vision and, if Federal Aviation Administration, the announcement of the intended nomination confirmed by the Senate, I look forward Defense Advanced Research Projects by President Joe Biden of former NASA to working with her and Sen. Nelson Agency, Nova Systems Pty, Australia, and astronaut Pam Melroy to serve as the to ensure NASA’s future success.” as an advisor to the Australian Space agency’s deputy administrator: Agency. She currently is an independent One of only two women to command consultant and a member of the National “Pam’s experience as an astronaut, shuttle a space shuttle, Melroy logged more Space Council’s Users Advisory Group. space commander, and U.S. Air Force than 38 days in space. All three of her test pilot would bring to NASA a unique missions were assembly missions to build For information about NASA’s perspective on the opportunities and the International Space Station. After missions, discoveries, and challenges facing the agency. Pam is serving more than two decades in the activities, visit www.nasa.gov. driven by a desire to solve the biggest Air Force and as a NASA astronaut, issues here on Earth, throughout the she took on a number of leadership

NASA CELEBRATES ‘HIDDEN FIGURE’ MARY W. JACKSON WITH BUILDING NAMING CEREMONY

featured video tributes with reflections on Jackson’s career and legacy from a variety of individuals, including family and friends, current and former NASA employees and astronauts, celebrities, elected officials, and others. The event also featured a video of poet Nikki Giovanni reading an excerpt from her poem “Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea,” which is about space and civil rights.

Jackson was born and raised in Hampton, Virginia. She initially worked as a math teacher in Calvert County, Maryland, and also held jobs as a bookkeeper and as a U.S. Army secretary before beginning her aerospace career. In 1942, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics Bryan Jackson, grandson of Mary W. Jackson, left, and Raymond Lewis, son-in-law of Mary W. Jackson, right, and physical science from Hampton unveil the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters sign during a ceremony officially naming the building on Friday, February 26, 2021, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky. Institute (now Hampton University).

After two years in the computing pool at On February 26, 2021, NASA The work of Jackson and others in Langley’s Langley, Jackson received an offer to work celebrated the agency’s first African West Area Computing Unit caught in the 4-by-4-foot Supersonic Pressure American female engineer, Mary W. widespread national attention in the 2016 Tunnel, a 60,000-horsepower wind tunnel Jackson, with a ceremony to formally Margot Lee Shetterly book “Hidden Figures: capable of blasting models with winds name the agency’s headquarters The American Dream and the Untold Story approaching twice the speed of sound. building in Washington in her honor. of the Black Women Mathematicians Who There, she received hands-on experience Helped Win the Space Race.” The book conducting experiments. Her supervisor Jackson began working at the National was made into a popular movie that same eventually suggested she enter a training Advisory Committee for Aeronautics year, with award-winning actress Janelle program that would allow Jackson to (NACA) — the forerunner of NASA Monáe playing Jackson’s character. earn a promotion from mathematician to — in April 1951. From her initial role engineer. Because the classes were held as a “human computer” within the In 2019, Jackson, along with her fellow at then-segregated Hampton High School, segregated West Area Computing Unit “Hidden Figures” Katherine Johnson, Jackson needed special permission to of what would become NASA’s Langley Dorothy Vaughan, and Christine join her white peers in the classroom. Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Darden, were posthumously awarded to becoming an engineer, to managing the Congressional Gold Medal – the Jackson completed the courses, earned Langley’s Federal Women’s Program highest civilian award – for their work. the promotion, and in 1958 became and championing equal employment On June 24, 2020, NASA announced its NASA’s first African American female opportunity efforts at the center toward intent to name the building the Mary W. engineer. For nearly two decades during the end of her career, Jackson’s Jackson NASA Headquarters building. her engineering career, she authored or pioneering efforts and commitment to co-authored numerous research reports, helping others have inspired generations In addition to unveiling a building sign most of which focused on the behavior — both at NASA and beyond. with Jackson’s name, Friday’s event of the boundary layer of air around

airplanes. In 1979, she joined Langley’s The legacy of Jackson and others lives on View photos from the event at Federal Women’s Program, where she through NASA’s continuing commitment flic.kr/s/aHsmUwnzw7. worked hard to address the hiring and to diversity and inclusion. Jackson’s promotion of the next generation of commitment to excellence, diversity, Read a biography of Mary W. Jackson female mathematicians, engineers, and inclusion, and teamwork represents by Shetterly at www.nasa.gov/ scientists. She retired from Langley in not only the best of NASA’s current content/mary-w-jackson-biography. 1985 and passed away in Hampton talent, but also the future of the agency. on February 11, 2005, at the age of Embracing an inclusive culture is central Learn more about NASA’s Hidden 83. She was preceded in death by her to all NASA does and is reflected in the and Modern Figures at www. husband, Levi Jackson Sr., and was recent addition of inclusion as one of the nasa.gov/modernfigures. survived by her son, Levi Jackson Jr., and agency’s core values, along with safety, her daughter, Carolyn Marie Lewis. integrity, teamwork, and excellence.

NASA INTRODUCES NEW FLIGHT DIRECTORS IN CLASS OF 2021

NASA has selected four new additions technical knowledge and leadership Becoming a NASA flight director is no to its cadre of flight directors to oversee skills, they will be ready to oversee human easy task. Applicants are required to operations of the International Space spaceflight missions to, from, and aboard have a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field Station. The newest inductees in the the space station, as well as the lunar like engineering or computer science. class of 2021 are Diane Dailey, Chloe missions of NASA’s Artemis program. They also must have a background of Mehring, Fiona Turett, and Brandon Lloyd. professional experience, especially With the addition of this new class, in a high-stress environment requiring They will work in the Mission Control the role of flight director has been fast-paced decision-making. Center of NASA’s Johnson Space Center held by only 101 individuals across (JSC) in Houston to lead teams of flight NASA’s history. The new class will Meet NASA’s newest flight directors, all of controllers, engineers, and countless follow in the footsteps of Apollo-era whom began their NASA careers at JSC: professionals, both agencywide and flight directors, such as Gene Kranz internationally. Following a rigorous and the namesake of the Mission training program that includes both Control Center, Christopher C. Kraft.

Dailey started her career at NASA in 2006 in the space station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) group. As an ECLSS flight controller, she logged more than 1,700 hours of console time, supported 10 space shuttle missions, and led the ECLSS team for Expedition 22. She transitioned to the Integration and System Engineering (ISE) group, where she was the lead flight controller for the 10th and 21st Commercial Resupply Services missions for SpaceX. In addition, she was the ISE lead for NASA’s SpaceX Demo-1 and Demo-2 crew spacecraft test flights, working from development through splashdown to contribute to the successful return of American spaceflight capability from the United States to the space station. Dailey also is a capsule communicator (capcom) controller and instructor. Most recently, she served as the group lead for the electrical and mechanical systems team. Dailey Diane Dailey, part of NASA’s was raised in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University in College flight director class of 2021. Station with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. Credit: NASA.

Mehring started her NASA career in 2008 in the Flight Operations’ propulsion systems group and supported 11 space shuttle missions. She served as propulsion support officer for Exploration Flight Test-1, the first test flight of the Orion spacecraft that will be used for Artemis missions to the Moon. Mehring is a lead NASA propulsion officer for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and serves as backup lead for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. In this role, she supported the Boeing Pad Abort Test and was the ascent/entry propulsion officer for Starliner’s first test flight, Orbital Flight Test-1. On the SpaceX side, she was the NASA propulsion officer for the In-Flight Abort Test, as well as the Demo-1 and Demo-2 test flights. She is from Mifflinville, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in State College. Chloe Mehring, part of NASA’s flight director class of 2021. Credit: NASA.

Turett began her NASA career in 2009 in Safety and Mission Assurance, supporting propulsion system safety for the last nine space shuttle missions. She later served as a program director for Manna Project International in Managua, Nicaragua, for a year before returning to NASA and becoming a flight controller and instructor for the space station’s Motion Control System. Turett was the Expedition 56 control system lead for both crew training and real-time operations. She then was the lead for operational integration of the Gateway outpost that will orbit the Moon and the lunar Human Landing System programs, and served as Flight Operations lead for Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element before becoming the Flight Operations integration manager for Gateway. She is from Rochester Hills, Michigan, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Fiona Turett, part of NASA’s flight director class of 2021. Credit: NASA.

Lloyd began his NASA career in 2008, developing Orion crew training systems. Lloyd later became a space station Environmental and Thermal Operating Systems (ETHOS) flight controller and logged more than 3,000 hours of console time, serving as ETHOS lead for Northrop Grumman’s first commercial resupply services mission, Orbital-1, several spacewalks, and Expedition 42. He was the ETHOS lead for integration for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, and led development of joint emergency operations for the NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Lloyd also was capcom lead for emergency operations, and SpaceX’s 17th Commercial Resupply Mission. Most recently, he served as the Avionics Trainee Group lead, responsible for training and certification of new flight controllers. Lloyd was raised in Plano, Texas, and graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a minor in entrepreneurship. Brandon Lloyd, part of NASA’s flight director class of 2021. Credit: NASA.

Learn more about careers at NASA at: https://www.nasa.gov/careers.

conjunction is defined as a maneuver into one another. close approach between two objects in space, usually NASA and the Department of Defense at very high speed. have decades of experience in proactively managing collision risks, as well as The Starlink spacecraft potential impacts. Effective mitigation are equipped with global relies on inter-operator coordination, navigation satellite service accurate data, a sound technical basis receivers to estimate orbital for risk analysis, as well as proactive parameters, an ion propulsion processes for appropriate actions to system, and an autonomous mitigate risks. By working together through maneuvering capability that this agreement, the approach to collision provide data for prompt avoidance can be improved for all users. An illustration showing some of the many NASA satellites in Earth and proactive exchange orbit. Credit: NASA. of information. Both NASA In addition to this agreement, NASA is and SpaceX benefit from this supporting growth in the U.S. commercial NASA and SpaceX have signed a joint enhanced interaction by ensuring all parties space sector through the release of agreement to formalize both parties’ strong involved are fully aware of the exact the “Spacecraft Conjunction Assessment interest in the sharing of information to location of spacecraft and debris in orbit. and Collision Avoidance Best Practices maintain and improve space safety. This Handbook,” which the agency issued agreement enables a deeper level of SpaceX has agreed its Starlink satellites in December 2020 to improve global coordination, cooperation, and data will autonomously or manually awareness of space activity and to sharing, and defines the arrangement, maneuver to ensure the missions of share NASA lessons learned regarding responsibilities, and procedures for flight NASA science satellites and other close approach coordination and safety coordination. The focus of the assets can operate uninterrupted from a mitigation. The handbook is available agreement is on conjunction avoidance collision avoidance perspective. Unless at https://go.nasa.gov/34f9ijM. and launch collision avoidance between otherwise informed by SpaceX, NASA NASA spacecraft and the large has agreed to not maneuver its assets in For more information about constellation of SpaceX Starlink satellites, the event of a potential conjunction to NASA’s programs and projects, as well as related rideshare missions. A ensure the parties do not inadvertently visit http://www.nasa.gov/.

NASA SELECTS FIREFLY AEROSPACE FOR ARTEMIS COMMERCIAL MOON DELIVERY IN 2023

NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace The award is part of the agency’s This is the sixth award for lunar surface of Cedar Park, Texas, approximately Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) delivery under the CLPS initiative. $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 initiative, in which NASA is securing the science investigations and technology service of commercial partners to quickly This is the first delivery awarded to Firefly demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The land science and technology payloads Aerospace, which will provide the lunar delivery, planned for Mare Crisium, a on the lunar surface. The initiative is a key delivery service using its Blue Ghost low-lying basin on the Moon’s near part of NASA’s Artemis program. Firefly lander, which the company designed and side, will investigate a variety of lunar Aerospace will be responsible for end-to- developed at its Cedar Park facility. This surface conditions and resources. Such end delivery services, including payload facility also will house the integration of investigations will help prepare for integration, launch from Earth, landing NASA and any non-NASA payloads, and human missions to the lunar surface. on the Moon, and mission operations. also will serve as the company’s mission

operations center for the 2023 delivery.

Mare Crisium, where Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost will land, is a more than than 482.8-kilometer-wide (300-mile- wide) basin where instruments will gather data to provide insight into the Moon’s regolith — loose, fragmented rock and soil — properties, geophysical characteristics, and the interaction of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field.

The payloads, collectively expected to total 94 kilograms (207 pounds) in mass, include:

• The Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC), which will determine how lunar regolith sticks Illustration of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander on the lunar surface. The lander will carry a suite of 10 to a range of materials exposed science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023 as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar to the Moon’s environment during Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Credit: Firefly Aerospace. landing and lander operations. Components will be derived from the by studying electric and magnetic the physics of rocket exhaust on the Materials International Space Station fields. The investigation will make regolith, and the displacement of Experiment (MISSE) facility currently use of a flight-spare magnetometer, dust, gravel, and rocks is critical to on the International Space Station. a device that measures magnetic understanding how to best avoid fields, originally made for the kicking up surface materials during the • The Next Generation Lunar Mars Atmosphere and Volatile terminal phase of flight/landing on Retroreflectors (NGLR), which will EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft the Moon and other celestial bodies. serve as a target for lasers on Earth currently orbiting Mars. to precisely measure the distance • The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), between Earth and the Moon. The • The Lunar Instrumentation for which will generate a non-uniform retroreflector that will fly on this mission Subsurface Thermal Exploration with electric field using varying high voltage also will provide data that could be Rapidity (LISTER), which is designed on multiple electrodes. This traveling used to understand various aspects to measure heat flow from the interior field, in turn, carries away the particles of the lunar interior and address of the Moon. The probe will attempt to and has potential applications in fundamental physics questions. drill 2–3 meters (7–10 feet) into the thermal radiators, spacesuit fabrics, lunar regolith to investigate the Moon’s visors, camera lenses, solar panels, • The Lunar Environment Heliospheric thermal properties at different depths. and many other technologies. X-ray Imager (LEXI), which will capture images of the interaction • The Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), which • The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment of Earth’s magnetosphere with is designed to acquire lunar (LuGRE), which is based on GPS. the flow of charged particles from regolith from the surface and LuGRE will continue to extend the Sun, called the solar wind. transfer it to other instruments that the reach of GPS signals and, if would analyze the material or successful, be the first to discern • The Reconfigurable, Radiation Tolerant put it in a container that another GPS signals at lunar distances. Computer System (RadPC), which spacecraft could return to Earth. aims to demonstrate a radiation- • The CLPS initiative is a key part of tolerant computing technology. Due • Stereo CAmeras for Lunar Plume NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration to the Moon’s lack of atmosphere and Surface Studies (SCALPSS 1.1), which efforts. The science and technology magnetic field, radiation from the Sun will capture video and still images payloads sent to the Moon’s will be a challenge for electronics. This of the area under the lander from surface as part of the initiative will investigation also will characterize the when the engine plume first disturbs help lay the foundation for human radiation effects on the lunar surface. the lunar surface through engine missions and a sustainable human shutdown. Long-focal-length cameras presence on the lunar surface. • The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder will determine the pre-landing surface (LMS), which is designed to topography. Photogrammetry will For more information about CLPS, visit characterize the structure and be used to reconstruct the changing http://www.nasa.gov/CLPS. composition of the Moon’s mantle surface during landing. Understanding

will work. It will provide command and NASA AWARDS CONTRACT control and serve as the docking hub for the outpost. HALO will support science investigations, distribute power, provide TO LAUNCH INITIAL ELEMENTS communications for visiting vehicles and lunar surface expeditions, and supplement the life support systems aboard Orion, FOR LUNAR OUTPOST NASA’s spacecraft that will deliver Artemis astronauts to the Gateway.

About one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, the Gateway will function as a way station, located tens of thousands of miles at its farthest distance from the lunar surface, in a near-rectilinear halo orbit. It will serve as a rendezvous point for Artemis astronauts traveling to lunar orbit aboard Orion prior to transit to low-lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon. From this vantage, NASA and its international and commercial partners will conduct unprecedented deep space science and technology investigations.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at An illustration of the Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element and Habitation and Logistics Outpost in orbit Kennedy will manage the SpaceX launch around the Moon. Credit: NASA. service. The HALO is being designed and built by Northrop Grumman Space NASA has selected Space Exploration NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Systems of Dulles, Virginia, and the PPE Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, The total cost to NASA is approximately is being built by Maxar Technologies of California, to provide launch services $331.8 million, including the launch Westminster, Colorado. NASA’s Johnson for the agency’s Power and Propulsion service and other mission-related costs. Space Center in Houston manages the Element (PPE) and Habitation and Gateway program for the agency. NASA’s Logistics Outpost (HALO), the foundational The PPE is a 60-kilowatt class solar Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is elements of the Gateway. As the first electric propulsion spacecraft that responsible for management of the PPE. long-term orbiting outpost around also will provide power, high-speed the Moon, the Gateway is critical to communications, attitude control, and Learn more about NASA’s Gateway supporting sustainable astronauts missions the capability to move the Gateway to program at https://nasa.gov/gateway. under the agency’s Artemis program. different lunar orbits, providing more access to the Moon’s surface than ever before. Learn more about NASA’s Artemis program After integration on Earth, the PPE and at https://www.nasa.gov/artemis. HALO are targeted to launch together The HALO is the pressurized living no earlier than May 2024 on a Falcon quarters where astronauts who visit the Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Gateway, often on their way to the Moon,

NASA selected 289 small businesses NASA PROVIDES $45M BOOST and 47 research institutions to receive Phase I funding this year. More than 30% of the awards will go to first- TO U.S. SMALL BUSINESSES time NASA SBIR/STTR recipients.

Through the program, NASA works Small businesses are vital to NASA’s the agency’s Small Business Innovation with U.S. small businesses and research mission, helping expand humanity’s Research (SBIR) and Small Business institutions to advance cutting-edge presence in space and improve life on Technology Transfer (STTR) program, a technologies. The agency provides up to Earth. NASA has selected 365 U.S. small total investment of more than $45 million. $125,000 for companies to establish the business proposals for initial funding from merit and feasibility of their innovations.

Phase I SBIR contracts are awarded to • Innoveering LLC, a Hispanic minority-owned, and veteran-owned small businesses and last for six months, American-owned small business and small businesses, as well as minority while Phase I STTR contracts are awarded first-time program awardee based in serving institutions (MSIs) and other to small businesses in partnership with a Ronkonkoma, New York, will use its types of research organizations. research institution and last for 13 months. SBIR award to develop a wind sensor Based on their progress during Phase to enable a flight path control system The program is enhancing its efforts I, companies may submit proposals to for high-altitude scientific balloon to further increase STTR participation subsequent SBIR/STTR opportunities operations. Outside of NASA, this by MSIs, including historically Black and receive additional funding. technology could aid in providing colleges and universities, by launching more accurate weather predictions. two pilot initiatives. Under a cooperative NASA selected proposals to receive agreement, NASA will work directly with funding based on their technical merit • Under an STTR award, Qubitekk of MSI STEM Research and Development and commercial potential. The selections Vista, California, will partner with the Consortium to increase its audience’s span the breadth of NASA missions to University of New Mexico, a Hispanic- participation in STTR. Additionally, the empower the agency’s work in human serving institution. Together, they will program will collaborate with NASA’s exploration, space technology, science, develop a cheaper and more compact Minority University Research and Education and aeronautics. Some examples include: hardware package that provides a Project to offer research planning grants reliable calibration tool for detectors and incentivize partnerships between • Syrnatec Inc., a woman-owned of quantum-sized information. This MSIs and small businesses. The grants small business and first-time NASA technology could be applied to secure will also let MSIs develop plans for SBIR awardee based in Middletown, satellite communication networks, proposing to an STTR solicitation subtopic. Connecticut, will develop radiation deep-space laser communications, tolerant, high-voltage, high-power cybersecurity, and computing. To view the NASA SBIR 2021 Phase diodes. This power management I selections, visit https://sbir.nasa. and distribution technology The small businesses and research gov/prg_selection/node/66868. could enable the next generation institutions selected are as varied as the of efficient high-power green technologies they will develop. Hailing To view the NASA STTR 2021 Phase technology in space and on Earth. from 38 states, Washington, DC, and I selections, visit https://sbir.nasa. Puerto Rico, they include women-owned, gov/prg_selection/node/66869.

NASA MEGA MOON ROCKET PASSES KEY TEST, READIES FOR LAUNCH

The largest rocket element NASA has ever NASA previously con- built, the core stage of NASA’s Space ducted a hot fire test of Launch System (SLS) rocket, fired its four the SLS core stage on RS-25 engines for 8 minutes and 19 January 16, 2020. The seconds on March 18 at NASA’s Stennis four RS-25 engines fired Space Center. The successful test, known together for the first time for as a hot fire, is a critical milestone ahead about one minute before of the agency’s Artemis I mission, which the test ended earlier than will send an uncrewed Orion space- planned. Following data craft on a test flight around the Moon analysis, NASA deter- and back to Earth, paving the way for mined a second, longer The core stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket future Artemis missions with astronauts. hot fire test would provide is seen in the B-2 Test Stand during a hot fire test on March 18, 2021, at valuable data to help ver- NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Credit: NASA TV. Engineers designed the eight-part Green ify the core stage design Run test campaign to gradually bring for flight, while posing eight minutes, just like it will during every the SLS core stage to life for the first minimal risk to the Artemis I core stage. Artemis launch to the Moon. The lon- time, culminating with the hot fire. The ger duration hot fire tested a variety of team will use data from the tests to During the second hot fire test, the stage operational conditions, including moving validate the core stage design for flight. fired the engines for a little more than the four engines in specific patterns to

direct thrust and powering the engines of water per minute to the stand’s flame The exploration of the Moon with NASA’s up to 109% power, throttling down and deflector, and monitored structural inter- Artemis program includes preparations to back up, as they will during flight. faces of both the hardware and the stand. send astronauts to Mars as part of Ameri- ca’s Moon to Mars exploration approach. Test teams at Stennis supervised a network SLS, Orion, and the ground systems at of 114 tanker trucks and six propellant Kennedy, along with the human landing For more on NASA’s SLS, vis- barges that provided liquid propellant system and the Gateway in orbit around it https://www.nasa.gov/sls. through the B-2 Test Stand to the core the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep stage. Test teams also delivered opera- space exploration. SLS is the only rocket For more on NASA’s SLS core stage tional electrical power, supplied more that can send Orion, astronauts, and Green Run test series, visit https:// than 1,135,623 liters (330,000 gallons) supplies to the Moon on a single mission. www.nasa.gov/greenrun.

NASA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN FORMALIZE GATEWAY PARTNERSHIP FOR ARTEMIS PROGRAM

NASA and the Government of Japan The Japan Aerospace Exploration Approximately one-sixth the size of the have finalized an agreement for the Agency’s (JAXA) planned contributions International Space Station, the Gateway lunar Gateway, an orbiting outpost that include I-Hab’s environmental control will serve as a rendezvous point for commercial and international partners and life support system, batteries, thermal astronauts traveling to lunar orbit aboard will build together. This agreement control, and imagery components, which NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space strengthens the broad effort by the will be integrated into the module by the Launch System rocket prior to transit to United States to engage international European Space Agency (ESA) prior to low-lunar orbit and the surface of the partners in sustainable lunar exploration launch. These capabilities are critical for Moon. From the Gateway, NASA and its as part of the Artemis program and sustained Gateway operations during partners will use this lunar vantage point to demonstrate the technologies crewed and uncrewed time periods. as a springboard for robotic and human needed for human missions to Mars. expeditions to the Moon, and on to Mars. Under an arrangement with Northrop Under this agreement, Japan will provide Grumman, Japan also will provide NASA astronauts will board a several capabilities for the Gateway’s batteries for the Gateway’s Habitation commercially developed lander for the International Habitation module (I-Hab), and Logistics Outpost (HALO), the final leg of the journey to the lunar surface, which will provide the heart of Gateway initial crew cabin for astronauts visiting and the agency has contracted with U.S. life support capabilities and additional the Gateway. Additionally, Japan is industry to develop the first two Gateway space where crew will live, work, and investigating enhancements to its HTV-X components, the Power and Propulsion conduct research during Artemis missions. cargo resupply spacecraft, which Element (PPE) and the HALO, as well could result in its as the logistics resupply for Gateway. use for Gateway logistics resupply. Learn more about NASA’s Gateway program at https://nasa.gov/gateway. The agreement also marks NASA’s intent Learn more about NASA’s to provide crew Artemis program at https:// opportunities for www.nasa.gov/artemis. Japanese astronauts to the Gateway, which will be determined following additional discussions, and documented in a Illustration of Gateway in lunar orbit. Credit: NASA. future arrangement.

THE VOLCANOES OF MARS By James R. Zimbelman, David A. Crown, Peter J. Mouginis-Mark, and Tracy K. P. Gregg

Elsevier, 2020, 260 pp., Paperback. $150.00. www.elsevier.com

The Volcanoes of Mars offers a clear, cohesive summary of Mars volcanology. It begins with an introduction to the geology and geography of the Red Planet and an overview of its volcanic history, and continues to discuss each distinct volcanic province, identifying the common and unique aspects of each region. Incorporating basic volcanological information and constraints on the regional geologic history derived from geologic mapping, the book also examines current constraints on the composition of the volcanic rocks as investigated by both orbiting spacecraft and rovers. In addition, it compares the features of martian volcanoes to those seen on other volcanic bodies. Concluding with prospects for new knowledge to be gained from future Mars missions, this book brings researchers in volcanology and the study of Mars up to date on the latest findings in the study of volcanoes on Mars, allowing readers to compare and contrast martian volcanoes to volcanoes studied on Earth and throughout the solar system.

FOUNDATIONS OF CONVECTION WITH DENSITY STRATIFICATION By Krzysztof A. Mizerski

Springer, 2021, 248 pp., Hardcover. $99.99. www.springer.com

This book continues the process of systematization of knowledge about convection. It provides a short compendium of knowledge on the linear and weakly nonlinear limits of the Boussinesq convection and a review of the theory on fully developed Boussinesq convection. The third chapter is devoted to a detailed derivation and a study of three aforementioned stages of stratified (anelastic) convection, with a full solution in the marginal stage provided for the first time. Detailed and systematic explanations are given. This book is intended mainly as a textbook for courses on hydrodynamics and convective flows, for the use of lecturers and students; however, it also serves as a practical reference for the entire scientific community.

Note: Product descriptions are taken from publishers’ websites. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

AN INTRODUCTION TO COMETS: Post-Rosetta Perspectives By Nicolas Thomas

Springer, 2020, 503 pp., Hardcover. $89.99. www.springer.com

Written by a leading expert on comets, this textbook is divided into seven main elements that allows advanced students to appreciate the interconnections between the different elements. Each chapter introduces basic physics and chemistry, then new specific measurements by Rosetta instruments at comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko are discussed. A concerted effort has been made to distinguish between established fact and conjecture, and deviations and inconsistencies are brought out and their significance explained. The author links previous observations of comets Tempel 1, Wild 2, Hartley 2, Halley, and others and closes with three shorter chapters on related objects, the loss of comets, and prospects for future exploration. This textbook includes over 275 graphics and figures, most of which are original. The text is designed to support MSc students and new PhD students in the field wanting to gain a solid overview of comets.

ENVISIONING EXOPLANETS: Searching for Life in the Galaxy By Michael Carroll

Smithsonian Books, 2020, 224 pp., Hardcover. $24.60. www.smithsonianbooks.com

Envisioning Exoplanets traces the journey of astronomers and researchers on their quest to explore the universe for a planet like Earth. Exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — were once dismissed as science fiction. Now, with more than 4,000 confirmed exoplanets, countless possibilities exist for what remains to be uncovered in the universe. This book follows the exhilarating progression of exoplanet research from its earliest stages operating on the fringes of scientific research to the newest developments of renowned agencies around the world searching for planets capable of hosting life. Featuring provocative questions about the universe and more than 200 remarkable illustrations from Michael Carroll, Ron Miller, and other key members of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, Envisioning Exoplanets is an intergalactic visual voyage.

ASTROBIOLOGY, DISCOVERY, AND SOCIETAL IMPACT By Stephen J. Dick

Cambridge University Press, 2020, 394 pp., Paperback. $34.99. www.cambridge.org

The search for life in the universe, once the stuff of science fiction, is now a robust worldwide research program with a well-defined roadmap probing both scientific and societal issues. This volume examines the humanistic aspects of astrobiology, systematically discussing the approaches, critical issues, and implications of discovering life beyond Earth. What do the concepts of life and intelligence, culture and civilization, technology and communication mean in a cosmic context? What are the theological and philosophical implications if we find life — and if we do not? The author argues that given recent scientific findings, the discovery of life in some form beyond Earth is likely, and so we need to study the possible impacts of such a discovery and formulate policies to deal with them. The remarkable and often surprising results are presented here in a form accessible to disciplines across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Note: Product descriptions are taken from publishers’ websites. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

PROJECT MALLAR: Technical Proposal Manned Modular Multi-Purpose Space Vehicle

By Conrad Lau

CG Publishing, 2020, 252 pp., Paperback. $29.95. www.cgpublishing.com

In the spring of 1961, President John Kennedy challenged his country to place humans on the Moon and return them to Earth by the end of the decade. It seemed an audacious proposal to outside observers, but also to the heads of the two-year-old National Aeronautics and Space Administration. There were people in the aerospace community outside of NASA who were sure that a manned mission to the Moon was possible within ten years, and they had known this since at least 1958, when NASA didn’t even exist. Enthusiastic advocates included the German rocket scientists working for the Army under Wernher von Braun, a team of military engineers working for the U.S. Air Force under General Bernard Schriever, and a team of engineers working under Conrad Lau at the Vought Aircraft Astronautics Division, whose efforts remained largely unknown. Between the spring of 1958 and Christmas 1959, Lau and his team worked out the most effective way to get to the Moon using the advanced rockets being proposed by von Braun’s team. Following a visit by Congressman Olin Teague, Vought’s manager John Clark sent Lau’s report to Abe Silverstein, head of manned space flight at NASA. Less than a month later, Silverstein ordered his advanced design leader, Robert Piland, to essentially work from Lau’s ideas to create a modular spacecraft system for Apollo. It would be two years later that NASA would then adopt the method by Lau to leave the main spacecraft in lunar orbit to save fuel. Only ten copies of this report were originally distributed — until now.

MANUEL D’OBSERVATION LUNAIRE, 2È ÉDITION (LUNAR OBSERVATION MANUAL, 2ND EDITION)

By Gérard Coute and Philippe Heully

2020, 214 pp., Spiralbound. 25.00€. heully.eklablog.com

This is the second edition of the Lunar Observation Manual. This new edition, with several pages added, is now spiral bound so that the book remains open, making it easier to use. The book is organized into four parts: instruction on identifying locations on the lunar surface, instruction on using a lunar atlas, instruction on drawing what is observed, and instruction on using powerful research tools. The text is in French.

Note: Product descriptions are taken from publishers’ websites. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

HOW TO ASTRONAUT: An Insider’s Guide to Leaving Planet Earth

By Terry Virts

Workman Publishing, 2020, 320 pp., Hardcover. $27.95. www.workman.com

Ride shotgun on a trip to space with astronaut Terry Virts. A born storyteller with a gift for the surprising turn of phrase and eye for the perfect you-are-there details, he captures all the highs, lows, humor, and wonder of an experience few will ever know firsthand. This book features stories covering survival training, space shuttle emergencies, bad bosses, the art of putting on a spacesuit, time travel, and much more.

FOR ALL HUMANKIND: The Untold Stories of How the Moon Landing Inspired the World

By Tanya Harrison and Danny Bednar

Mango Publishing, 2020, 200 pp., Hardcover. $19.95. www.mango.bz

The plaque they left behind reads, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” But was the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission really a global endeavor? How did people outside the United States view these “rocket men”? Against the political backdrop of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, was it, indeed, “For all mankind”? Dr. Tanya Harrison and Dr. Danny Bednar talked to individuals from a variety of locations outside the United States to see how this event touched the lives of people across the world. These previously untold stories reveal the impact of the Moon landings around the globe, and what having a “man on the Moon” meant to the international community. In this book, readers will find interviews with eight non-Americans to get their perspectives, be inspired by their memories of the event, and learn more about one of the most historic events in human history.

MARS 36 POCKET ATLAS

Edited by Henrik Hargitai

2021, 84 pp., Paperback. $19.95 www.etsy.com/listing/955444239/mars-36-pocket-atlas-pre-order-2nd

The geographic pocket atlas Mars 36 is complete with a transparent outline of your country or state, which you can freely move to any place on Mars. All maps are manually edited for this book, all from the most accurate scientific resources. It includes manually made albedo maps, and calculated climate maps and diagrams that are published in this atlas for the first time. There are 60 pages of detailed maps plus thematic and global maps.

Note: Product descriptions are taken from publishers’ websites. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

NASA SPACE SHUTTLE: 40th Anniversary

By Piers Bizony

Motorbooks, 2021, 192 pp., Hardcover. $50.00. www.quartoknows.com

Officially known as the Space Transportation System (STS), the Space Shuttle program operated from 1981 to 2011. During that time, five Shuttle systems took part in 135 missions under the operation of NASA. This approach — namely reusable spacecraft — revolutionized space exploration. NASA Space Shuttle: 40th Anniversary traces the STS’s 30-year operational history. Essays by former NASA chief historian Roger Launius are accompanied by a collection of incredible Shuttle photography and imagery mined from the depths of NASA’s archives by aerospace historian Piers Bizony, and all of it is presented in large-format color. Readers will witness the pre-1981 evolution, the missions, astronauts, ground personnel and infrastructure, and amazing accomplishments of the Shuttle program and its spacecraft: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. From the launch site at Cape Kennedy, Florida, to mission control in Houston, Texas, to the landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, all aspects of Shuttle operation are covered, including key roles in efforts such as the Hubble Telescope and International Space Station, as well as the tragedies of Challenger and Columbia disasters. Every carefully chosen image in NASA Space Shuttle: 40th Anniversary tells an aspect of the Shuttle story. The resulting book is not only a unique view of a key chapter of NASA history — it’s a compelling collection of stunning NASA photography and illustrations.

GEOLOGICAL TIME JIGSAW PUZZLE

Produced by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild

1000-piece puzzle, 30 x 90 cm finished size. $19.95. philosophersguild.com/products/geologic-time-puzzle

Since the beginning of time, there has always been a hankering for “the good old days.” If you are too young to recall J. rhenaniae of the Devonian era (eight-foot ocean scorpions), this beautiful Geological Time jigsaw puzzle has a timeline with layers of fossils and facts to help you put it all together. This colorful 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle has a reduced-glare matte finish, and each includes its own mini poster with puzzle art inside.

PLANET EXPLORER BOOK SET

By various authors

Lerner Publications, 2021, eight titles, 24 pp. each, Hardcover. $213.20. www.lernerbooks.com

The Lightning Bolt Books Planet Explorer collection introduces readers to our solar system’s eight planets. From Jupiter’s moons to Neptune’s winds, these books reveal key planetary information and the technology scientists use to study them. Page Plus QR codes lead to downloadable 3D printer models from NASA. For grades 1 to 3.

Note: Product descriptions are taken from publishers’ websites. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

50 SPACE MISSIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

By John A. Read

Formac Publishing, 2020, 88 pp., Hardcover. $19.95. www.formac.ca

Since the first space mission in 1957, there have been many pivotal missions that have made new discoveries and pushed the boundaries of our knowledge. Revisit 50 milestone missions including Voyager’s Grand Tour, Apollo 8 and the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space), the first weather satellite, the first communication satellite that brought live television to the world, and even spy satellites. This collection includes missions from Europe, Russia, China, India, the U.S., Canada, and more. For ages 6 to 10.

100 FACTS: Solar System By Ian Graham

Miles Kelly, 2020, 48 pp., Paperback. $9.95. www.mileskelly.net

What is a meteor? Which planet could float in water? Discover everything you need to know about our solar system in this extraordinary fact book. Flip through 100 fascinating facts covering everything from comets and asteroids to the Sun’s gravity, then test your knowledge with fun quizzes. Each page is packed with activities, projects, and mind-blowing facts for a truly engaging experience. With stunning photographs and beautiful illustrations, this fun-filled book is sure to challenge young readers and prepare them for academic success. For ages 7 and up.

REMOTE-CONTROL MACHINES: Space Explorers Produced by Thames & Kosmos

$99.99. www.thamesandkosmos.com

With this 256-piece engineering kit, you can build a remote-controlled model of a robotic rover resembling the ones used to explore Mars. The remote can control up to three motors, which move the rover back and forth, turn the wheels to steer the rover, and control the robotic arm to pick up specimens like small rocks. The set includes instructions to build not only the robot rover, but nine additional space-themed models as well, including a lunar rover, rocket-launcher car, space shuttle with opening cargo bay doors, robotic space shuttle payload arm, space droid, walking bot, space probe, cross-wing starship, and spaceship controller. Kids will be inspired to learn STEM skills through fun, hands-on construction projects that bridge two captivating interest areas: robots and outer space. A full-color, 80-page step-by-step illustrated manual helps kids assemble the models and teaches them about real-world examples of the robots, vehicles, and devices they are creating. It includes technical features of the Mars Curiosity rover and the history of Mars exploration, robotics in space probes, deep-space exploration, and the robots in popular space-related science fiction. For ages 8 and up.

Note: Product descriptions are taken from publishers’ websites. LPI is not responsible for factual content.

2021 Upcoming Events

May

Heliophysics 2050 Workshop May 3–5 Virtual www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/helio2050/

Distributed Volcanism and Distributed Volcanic Hazards M a y 11–15 Flagstaff, AZ www.agu.org/Chapmans-Distributed-Volcanism

Applications of Statistical Methods and Machine Learning in the Space Sciences May 17–21 Virtual spacescience.org/workshops/mlconference2021.php

52nd Annual Meeting of the AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy May 17–21 Virtual aas.org/meetings/dda52

2021 In Situ Science and Instrumentation Workshop for the Exploration of Europa and Ocean Worlds

May 20 Virtual https://tinyurl.com/europainsitu

NASA Planetary Science Summer School May 24–June 20 Pasadena, California, or Virtual (TBD) go.nasa.gov/missiondesignschools

Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2021 May 24–June 6 Yokohama City, Japan/Virtual www.jpgu.org/meeting_e2021/

June

Arecibo Observatory Options Workshop June 4–28 Virtual arecibo.hub.ki

25th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) June 7–8 Virtual www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/meetings/

2021 Annual Meeting of Planetary Geologic Mappers June 14–15 Virtual www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/pgm2021/

Workshop on Terrestrial Analogs for Planetary Exploration June 16–18 Virtual www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/terrestrialanalogs2021/

5th Planetary Data Workshop and Planetary Science Informatics & Data Analytics June 28–July 2 Virtual www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/planetdata2021/

July

Pluto System and Arrokoth Workshops July 12–16 Virtual http://bit.ly/Pluto_2021

LunGradCon 2021 July 15–16 Virtual http://impact.colorado.edu/lungradcon/index.html

2021 Sagan Summer Workshop: Circumstellar Disks and Young Planets July 19–23 Virtual nexsci.caltech.edu/workshop/2021/

NASA Exploration Science Forum (NESF) and European Lunar Symposium (ELS) 2021

July 20–23 Virtual https://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/nesfels2021/

September

Planetary Science: The Young Solar System September 6–12 Quy Nhon, Vietnam www.icisequynhon.com/conferences/2020/planetary_science/

Sub-Saharan Africa Astronomy Summer School September 6–17 Entebbe, Uganda https://wwwmpa.mpa-garching.mpg.de/conf/ssaass2021/

Europlanet Science Congress 2021 September 13–24 Virtual www.epsc2021.eu

Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy with Extremely Large Telescopes September 20–24 Oxford, UK elt2020.web.ox.ac.uk/

Martian Geological Enigmas: From the Late Noachian Epoch to the Present Day October 4–6 Houston, Texas www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/martianenigma2021/

Gaps, Rings, Spirals, and Vortices: Structure Formation in Planet-Forming Disks October 4–29 Munich, Germany www.munich-iapp.de/planet-forming-disks21

PLATO Mission Conference 2021: Exploring Exoplanets in the Habitable Zone of Solar-Like Stars October 11–15 Virtual http://platomissionconference2021.iaa.es

Brines Across the Solar System: Modern Brines October 25–28 Virtual www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/modernbrines/

December

AGU 2021 Fall Meeting (Hybrid) December 13–17 New Orleans, Louisiana www.agu.org/Fall-Meeting