Friday, July 18, 2025

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

Recent News from McDonnell Center Fellows

Scott VanBommel Awarded NASA Grant

Scott VanBommel, a Research Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and a fellow of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, has recently been awarded a grant aimed at advancing Mars research. The project, titled "Enhancing the analytical capabilities and science return of Curiosity at Mount Sharp through the application of spectral deconvolution and modeling methods," has secured funding through NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Participating Scientist Program.

New Horizons visited Pluto 10 years ago. We’re still learning from it

Planetary scientist Kelsi Singer was an undergraduate in 2006 when a spunky spacecraft launched with an ambitious goal: to fly by Pluto. It would take nearly a decade for the New Horizons probe to zoom past its target in the far reaches of the solar system.

Now Singer, who completed her PhD under Bill McKinnon and conducted a postdoc with Brad Jolliff, is deputy principal investigator for the New Horizons mission. She and other scientists are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the spacecraft’s historic encounter with the beloved dwarf planet. New Horizons got within 12,500 kilometers of Pluto’s surface. Images and other data gathered during the flyby have transformed researchers’ understanding of the icy world.

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

We wrapped up the summer on a high note with a final lunch yesterday for the summer undergraduate research fellows and their mentors. We enjoyed delicious food from Pasta House, and Mike Nowak, our associate director, led an insightful discussion on applying to graduate school and exploring career options post-graduation.

McDonnell Center Fellows in the News

Roman Space Telescope will use a century-old idea from Einstein to probe the nature of mysterious dark matter
Tansu Daylan | Space.com

These Glistening Glass Beads on the Moon Likely Came From Ancient Lunar Volcanoes
Ryan Ogliore | Discover

Recent Publications by McDonnell Center Fellows

Kita, N. T., Amari, S., et al. (2024). Disequilibrium oxygen isotope distribution among aqueously altered minerals in Ryugu asteroid returned samples. Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 59(8), 2097–2116. 

Cowsik, R., & Huth, D. (2025). The Correspondence between Leaky-box and Diffusion Models of Cosmic-Ray Propagation. The Astrophysical Journal, 987(1), 64. 

Bigaran, Innes; Dev, P. S. Bhupal; et al. (2025). Tau tridents at accelerator neutrino facilities. Physical Review. D, 111, 113004.

Fujiwara, T., Errando, M., Zhang, A., et al. (2025). The Moon as a Cosmic-Ray Spectrometer: Prospects for MeV Gamma-Ray Observations. Astrophysical Journal, 987, 177.

Eensoo, E., Fike, D. A., et al. (2025). In situ measurement of sulfur isotope ratios in sulfide samples with LA-ICP-MS/MS using N2O and He reaction gas. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry.

Liodakis, I., Krawczynski, H., et al. (2025). Determining the origin of the X-ray emission in blazars through multiwavelength polarization. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 

Liang, Y., Krawczynski, M. J., Carpenter, P. K., et al. (2025). Temperature dependence of uranium and thorium partitioning in igneous zircons. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta., 402, 62-75.

Schenk, Paul; McKinnon, William; et al. The Topography of Ganymede: geology, global characteristics, and future exploration. (2025). In Cambridge University Press eBooks (pp. 126–146). 

Qu, Q. H., Wang, A., et al. (2025). Electrical breakdown products of SO2 in CO2 and N2 mixtures and the implication to the mysterious UV absorber in Venus’s atmosphere. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 667, 119535. 

Aléon, J., Amari, S., et al. (2024). Hydrogen in magnetite from asteroid Ryugu. Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 59(8), 2058–2072. 

Torrano, Z. A., Amari, S., et al. (2023). Neodymium‐142 deficits and samarium neutron stratigraphy of C‐type asteroid (162173) Ryugu. Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 59(8), 1966–1982. 

Maksym, W. P., Krawczynski, H., et al. (2025). A two-week IXPE monitoring campaign on MRK 421. The Astrophysical Journal, 986(2), 230. 

MCSS 50th Anniversary Symposium Recordings

Some of the presentations given at the MCSS 50th Anniversary Symposium have now been made available as recordings. Please note that not all talks were recorded or are otherwise accessible. New recordings have been made available since my last post.

The Search for Interstellar Objects of Technological Origin

St. Louis Astronomical Society
July Meeting
Abraham (Avi) Loeb, Harvard University
Tonight, Friday, July 18
7:30pm, McDonnell 162

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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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