New and exciting activities in the
McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences
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Recent News from MacCenter Fellows
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Moon ‘swirls’ could be magnetized by unseen magmas
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Lunar swirls are light-colored, sinuous features on the Moon’s surface, bright enough to be visible from a backyard telescope. Some people think they look like the brushstrokes in an abstract painting. But these are not mere artistic flourishes: NASA images show that the tendrils from some lunar swirls extend for hundreds of miles.
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Lunar swirls have defied easy explanation, but recent modeling and spacecraft data shed light on the twisty mystery. The data shows that rocks in the swirls are magnetized, and these rocks deflect or redirect solar wind particles that constantly bombard the Moon. But how did the rocks in lunar swirls get magnetized? The Moon does not have a magnetic field.
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“Impacts could cause these types of magnetic anomalies,” said Michael Krawczynski. He notes that meteorites regularly deliver iron-rich material to areas on the Moon’s surface. “But there are some swirls where we’re just not sure how an impact could create that shape and that size of thing.”
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Surprising phosphate finding in asteroid sample
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The spacecraft from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission traveled to near-Earth asteroid Bennu and collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface. OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, delivered the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.
In an early analysis of this sample, published June 26 in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, the OSIRIS-REx
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sample analysis team — including Washington University in St. Louis co-authors Kun Wang and Piers Koefoed — found that Bennu contains the elemental signature of the original ingredients that formed our solar system.
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Tomás Collado, a rising senior studying mechanical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been named an Astronaut Scholar, one of the nation’s most prestigious STEM fellowships.
At WashU, Collado has engaged in many space-related academic and co-curricular activities. Collado helped a team design a hypothetical mission to Neptune’s moon Triton for his course in planetary mission design, and he serves as leader of the Recovery and Propulsion subteam for WU Rocketry. In addition, Collado works as an assistant in the Crow Observatory.
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Photos from the Second Summer Research Experience Luncheon
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The second summer undergraduate research experience took place on Tuesday in Compton Hall with lunch followed by science-themed music and movie trivia, once again created by Ryan Ogliore. The winning team was able to properly identify 5 1/2 of the artists, songs, and movies edging out the second place team with a tie-breaker "Volcano" word in a Jimmy Buffet song. Good job to all the teams!
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St. Louis Astronomical Society July Meeting
Ashley Davies
Jet Proplusion Laboratory
Friday, July 19
7:30pm, McDonnell 162
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2024 NASA Exploration Science Forum
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Focus on questions fundamental to understanding the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids, the moons of Mars, and the environments of these bodies; a particular emphasis will be placed on the Moon.
The Knight Center at Washington University
July 23-25, 2024
General Registration will close on July 11.
Sponsored by NASA and MCSS
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NASA Exploration Science Forum
Public Lecture
Robin Canup
Southwest Research Institute
Tuesday, July 23
7:30pm, Graham Chapel
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Compiled and edited by Alison Verbeck. Please send any contributions to alison@wustl.edu.
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