Friday, September 18, 2026

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

Recent News From McDonnell Center Fellows

Rare meteorite links asteroids Bennu and Ryugu to a common ancient parent body

MCSS Fellows in the News

The closest planet to our sun is shrinking. Here’s what that means
Paul Byrne | CNN

Recent Publications by McDonnell Center Fellows

Byrne, P. K., et al. (2026). What the solar system can teach us about rocky exoplanets. Space Science Reviews, 222(6), 72. 

Groger, J., Hu, K., & Krawczynski, H. (2026). X-Ray Polarization Signatures from Comptonization by Magnetic Reconnection Plasmoids. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1008(2), L37. 

Gapp, C., Daylan, T., et al. (2026). The SPACE Program. II. No Discernible Spectral Features in the Transmission Spectrum of the Sub-Neptune HD 191939 b Observed with HST/WFC3. The Astronomical Journal, 172(4), 202. 

Cappiello, C. V., Dev, P. S. B., et al. (2026). New supernova constraints on vector-mediated neutrinophilic dark sector. Physics Letters B, 881, 140923. 

Acharyya, A., Buckley, J. H., Errando, M., Hughes, Z., Rabinowitz, P. L., et al. (2026). A Multiwavelength Study of a Long-duration Very-high-energy Flare from BL Lacertae with VERITAS. The Astrophysical Journal, 1008(2), 176. 

Huang, B., Zu, C., et al. (2026). Elucidating the intersystem crossing of the Nitrogen-Vacancy Center up to megabar pressures. Physical Review Letters, 137(9), 093801. 

Babu, K. S., Dev, P. S. B., & Thapa, A. (2026). Large neutrino-dark matter interactions: from effective field theory to ultraviolet completions. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2026(9). 

Ni, L., Sobotka, L. G., et al. (2026b). Identification of ¹⁷Na Ground State and Mirror Symmetry Violation with ¹⁷C. Physical Review Letters, 137(10). 

Spectral radiative transfer post-processing of GRMHD simulations of black hole accretion

Astrophysics & Space Sciences Seminar
Christopher Naegle
Johns Hopkins University
TODAY, Friday, September 18
9:00am, Compton 241

Is There Anyone Out There?

St. Louis Astronomical Society
Monthly Meeting
Vivian White
The Astro Society
TODAY, Friday, September 18
7:30pm, McDonnell 162

International Observe the Moon Night

An annual celebration of lunar observation, science, and exploration
Telescope viewing
Light snacks & drinks provided
Saturday, September 19
8:00-11:00pm, Crow Observatory

Quantum Geometry Nonlinearity Near a Singularity

Physics Colloquium
Suyang Xu
Harvard University
Wednesday, September 23
3:00pm, Compton 340

Laserprobe Rb-Sr geochronology of lunar samples: From method development to applications

EEPS Colloquium
Bidong Zhang
Rice University
Thursday, September 24
11:30am, Rudolph 301

High-Energy Neutrinos in the Multi-Messenger Era: From Cosmic Accelerators to Fundamental Physics 

Physics Theory Seminar
Mainak Mukhopadhyay
University of Chicago & Fermilab
Thursday, September 24
3:00pm, Compton 241

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Interim Director: William McKinnon
Associate Director: Michael Nowak
Assistants to the Director: Vickie Gee and Beth Sparks
Communications Specialist: Alison Verbeck

Compiled and edited by Alison Verbeck. Have news to share? Please send it along!

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