Friday, February 13, 2026

New and exciting activities in the
McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

Recent News From McDonnell Center Fellows

PUEO's Antarctic flight advances neutrino research

The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) has successfully completed its inaugural flight, launching from the NASA Long Duration Balloon Facility on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica on December 19, 2025.

Washington University in St. Louis played a played a central role in both the development and recovery phases of the mission. Key contributors include Brian Rauch, Lindsey Lisalda, and Richard Bose.

New Femtosecond Laser

A new femtosecond laser has been installed in Kun Wang's Neptune MC-ICP-MS lab in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences. Funded by MCSS through Grossman family support, the instrument will enable the development of in-situ strontium isotope analysis techniques for lunar Apollo samples. Pictured left to right: Mike Krawczynski, Helene Craig, Alexander Meyer, Xuanyu Liu, Kun Wang, Ruan Hattingh, Stephanie Zhang, Zhihua Xiong

McDonnell Center Fellows in the News

Europa's Quiet Seafloor
Paul Byrne | Planetary Radio

Recent Publications by McDonnell Center Fellows

Prieto-Ballesteros, O., McKinnon, W. B., et al. (2026). Geology and surface properties of the Galilean Moons. Space Science Reviews, 222(1). 

Lopez, C. G., & Masteller, C. C. (2026). Tectonics as a regulator of shoreline retreat and rocky coast evolution across timescales. AGU Advances, 7(1). 

De Jonge, B., Zhang, H., Errando, M., Gokus, A., & Rabinowitz, P. L. (2026). Polarization Dynamics of X-Ray Synchrotron Emission from a Multi-zone Blazar Jet. The Astrophysical Journal, 997(2), 360. 

Akaike, Y., Binns, W. R., Israel, M. H., Krawczynski, H., Rauch, B., Zober, W., et al. (2025). Direct measurement of the all-particle spectrum up to the PeV region with CALET on the International Space Station. Proceedings of Science, 501, 004. 

Akaike, Y., Binns, W. R., Israel, M. H., Krawczynski, H., Rauch, B. F., Zober, W., et al. (2025a). Precise measurement of the electron plus positron spectrum with CALET on the International Space Station. Proceedings of Science, 501, 005. 

Kobayashi, K., Binns, W. R., Israel, M. H., Krawczynski, H. S., Rauch, B. F., Zober, W. V., et al. (2025a). CALET on-orbit operations and data calibration for 10 years observation on the International Space Station. Proceedings of Science, 501, 058. 

Kobayashi, K., Binns, W. R., Israel, M. H., Krawczynski, H. S., Rauch, B. F., Zober, W. V., et al. (2025). Extended measurement of the proton spectrum with CALET on the International Space Station. Proceedings of Science, 501, 059. 

Krizmanic, J., Bose, R., Braun, D., Labrador, W., Lisalda, L., Osborn, N., Pastrana, I., Radomski, D., Rauch, B., Simburger, G., Zober, W., et al. (2025). The Silicon Strip Detector Subsystem for the Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder for the International Space Station (TIGERISS). Proceedings of Science, 501, 060. 

Labrador, A., Zober, W., Abarr, Q., Binns, W., Bose, R., Israel, M., Lisalda, L., Murphy, R., Osborn, N., Rauch, B., Walsh, N.E., Ward, J.E., et al. (2025). Time-Dependent Measurements of Absolute Spectra for Elements up to Fe by SuperTIGER as a Probe of Solar Modulation, Atmospheric and Geomagnetic Rigidity Effects. Proceedings of Science, 501, 062. 

Labrador, W., Rauch, B. F., Zober, W., Bose, R., Braun, D., Lisalda, L., Osborn, N., Pastrana, I., Radomski, D., Simburger, G., et al. (2025). Geant4 Simulations of Geometry Factor and Interaction and Energy Losses for TIGERISS. Proceedings of Science, 501, 063. 

Maestro, P., Binns, W. R., Israel, M. H., Krawczynski, H. S., Rauch, B. F., Zober, W. V., & Et. (2025). Energy spectra and flux ratios of BCNO cosmic-ray nuclei measured by CALET up to multi-TeV energies. Proceedings of Science, 501, 077.

Maestro, P., Binns, W., Israel, M., Krawczynski, H., Rauch, B., Zober, W., et al. (2025a). CALET’s sensitivity to electron cosmic-ray spectral and anisotropy signatures of the Vela SNR. Proceedings of Science, 501, 099. 

Maestro, P., Binns, W., Israel, M., Krawczynski, H., Rauch, B., Zober, W., et al. (2025). Updated Limits on Anisotropy in Electron+Positron Cosmic Rays from CALET Data. Proceedings of Science, 501, 100. 

Saurabh, Nowak, M.A., et al. (2025). Probing jet base emission of M87* with the 2021 Event Horizon Telescope observations. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 706, A27. 

Osborn, N., Rauch, B., Zober, W. V., Abarr, Q., Binns, R., Braun, D. L., Buckley, J. H., Dowkontt, P., Israel, M., Labrador, W., Lisalda, L., Murphy, R., Bose, R. G., Olevitch, M., Simburger, G. E., Walsh, N. E., Ward, J. E., West, A. T. , et al. (2025). Status of Ultra-Heavy Galactic Cosmic Ray Analysis for the Two SuperTIGER Antarctic Flights. Proceedings of Science, 501, 108. 

Osborn, N., Rauch, B., Zober, W. V., Abarr, Q., Binns, R., Bose, R. G., Braun, D. L., Buckley, J. H., Dowkontt, P., Israel, M., Labrador, W., Lisalda, L., Murphy, R., Olevitch, M., Simburger, G. E., Walsh, N. E., Ward, J. E., West, A. T., et al. (2025). Ultra-Heavy Galactic Cosmic Ray Propagation and Atmospheric Corrections for SuperTIGER. Proceedings of Science, 501, 109. 

Picquenot, A., Binns, W., Israel, M., Krawczynski, H., Rauch, B., Zober, W., Ricciarini, S., Sakai, K., Sakamoto, T., Sasaki, M., Shimizu, Y., Shiomi, A., Spillantini, P., Stolzi, F., Sugita, S., Sulaj, A., Takita, M., Tamura, T., Terasawa, T., . . . Yoshida, K. (2025). A deep learning method for event recognition in CALET data. Proceedings of Science, 501, 113. 

Allen, H., Bose, R. G., Braun, D. L., Labrador, W., Lisalda, L., Osborn, N., Pastrana, I. M., Radomski, D., Rauch, B. F., Simburger, G. E., Zober, W. V., et al. (2025). The TIGERISS Galactic Cosmic Ray Detector. Proceedings of Science, 501, 118. 

Maestro, P., Binns, W. R., Binns, M. H., Krawczynski, H. S., Rauch, B. F., Zober, W. V., et al. (2025). Measurement of Cr and Ti fluxes and sub-iron/iron flux ratios with CALET on the International Space Station. Proceedings of Science, 501, 136. 

Labrador, W., Rauch, B., Zober, W. V., Bose, R. G., Braun, D. L., Lisalda, L., Osborn, N., Pastrana, I. M., Radomski, D., Simburger, G. E., et al. (2025). Scientific Goals of the TIGERISS Mission. Proceedings of Science, 501, 164. 

Chen, W., Buckley, J. H., & Sudvarg, M. (2025). Instrument Response Functions of the Antarctic Demonstrator for the Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (ADAPT). Proceedings of Science, 501, 606. 

Htet, Y., Sudvarg, M., Buckley, J., Bal, B., Bose, R., Braun, D., Hoffman, J., Hughes, Z., Rauch, B., Simburger, G., Zober, W., et al. (2025). Performance Modeling and Improvements on the GRB Source Localization Streaming Pipeline Aboard the Antarctic Demonstrator for the Advanced Particle-Astrophysics Telescope (ADAPT). Proceedings of Science, 501, 679. 

Sudvarg, M., Bal, B., Buckley, J., Bose, R., Braun, D., Hoffman, J., Hughes, Z., Rauch, B., Simburger, G., Zober, W., et al. (2025). FPGA-Based Data Processing using High-Level Synthesis on the Antarctic Demonstrator for the Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (ADAPT). Proceedings of Science, 501, 852. 

Hooper, D., Sokolenko, A., et al. (2026). Searching for synchrotron emission from the geminga TeV halo using the planck satellite. The European Physical Journal C, 86(2). 

Coleman, A. R., Zober, W. V., Binns, W. R., Israel, M. H., Krawczynski, H. S., et al. (2025). Effects of the May 2024 Solar Storm on the Earth’s Radiation Belts Observed by CALET on the International Space Station. Proceedings of Science, 501, 1293. 

Designing New Optics to Investigate Galactic Positron Generation

Astrophysics & Space Sciences Seminar 
Dustin Swarm
University of Iowa
TODAY, Friday, February 13
9:00am, Compton 241

Earth Data Challenge

EEPS Brown Bag
EEPS & GRI are hosting this team-based program. Open to undergrads, grads, and postdocs in any field.
TODAY, Friday, February 13
12:00am, Rudolph 301

Probability in Quantum Mechanics: From Stern-Gerlach, to Antenna Polarizations, to Quantum Qubits

Saturday Science Lecture
Joe Zehnle
Boeing
Saturday, February 14
10:00am, Crow 201

Mistakes on the way to a good idea

Physics Feenberg Lecture
Helen Quinn
Stanford University
Wednesday, February 18
3:00pm, Compton 340

Geophysical exploration of the subglacial landscape

EEPS Colloquium
Emma "Mickey" MacKie
University of Florida
Thursday, February 19
11:30am, Rudolph 301

Stellar Bumper Cars! Collisional Dynamics in Galactic Nuclei

Astrophysics & Space Sciences Seminar 
Sanaea Cooper Rose
Northwestern University
Friday, February 20
9:00am, Compton 241

AI and the Smart Telescope: How Both May Change Amateur Astronomy

St. Louis Astronomical Society February Meeting
Jesus Ponce de Leon 
St. Louis Astronomical Society
Friday, February 20
7:30pm, Rudolph 301

Surprises in the Math of Bouncing and Rolling

Saturday Science Lecture
Renato Feres
WashU
Saturday, February 21
10:00am, Crow 201

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Interim Director: William McKinnon
Associate Director: Michael Nowak
Assistant to the Director: Vickie Gee
Communications Specialist: Alison Verbeck

Compiled and edited by Alison Verbeck. Please send any contributions to alison@wustl.edu.

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