Friday, August 28, 2026

The MCSS Messenger

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

Recent News From McDonnell Center Fellows

Pristine sulfur preserves a snapshot of ancient Mars

Research led by VanBommel on Curiosity’s discovery of pure sulfur on Mars appeared as the cover story of the Aug. 20 issue of Science.

MCSS fellow Scott VanBommel led a team studying Curiosity’s unexpected discovery of pure sulfur on Mars. The research, which offers new clues about environmental conditions on Mars roughly 3 billion years ago, was published in the Aug. 20 issue of Science, and was featured as the issue’s cover story.

The study was co-led by VanBommel and Jeff Berger of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and included EEPS staff scientist Abigail Knight and EEPS postdoctoral researcher John Christian.

Design an Experiment for the International Space Station

WashU Satellite is organizing the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program at WashU. The program gives undergraduates the opportunity to design a microgravity experiment and write a formal proposal. WashiU will select three finalists, and the winning experiment is guaranteed to fly to the ISS, where astronauts will perform it in orbit.

Faculty mentors needed: Each student team will have a faculty mentor who meets with the team every week or two to provide guidance on their experimental design and proposal.
Interested in mentoring? Contact Jeff Gillis to learn more.

Faculty: Please share this opportunity with students.

Students: Fill out the interest form by September 1.

Questions? Contact Aavik Wadivkar or Dr. Jeff Gillis.

Interest Form

Meteoritical Society Meeting

Megan Broussard recently presented research on samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, The Potassium Isotopic Composition of Bennu, at the 88th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting in Frankfurt, Germany.

A slide presented at the Meteoritical Society meeting

Roman Telescope Outreach at the St. Louis Science Center

On August 27, members of the AstroMusers research group hosted a Roman Space Telescope outreach table at the St. Louis Science Center’s lunar eclipse viewing event. They provided information about the mission ahead of its launch, scheduled for August 30.

Display table of the Science Center event

Members of the AstroMusers group, Asaf Kaya, Ashvik Chilakala, Jacqueline Vazquez, Nathan Whitsett, and Bryce Wedig

Recent Publications by McDonnell Center Fellows

Masteller, C. C. (2026). The influence of Impact‐Energy‐Dependent erosional efficiency on Bedrock River sediment dynamics and the effective flood. Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface, 131(8).

Goltz, A. E., & Krawczynski, M. (2026). Lower crustal magmatic processes and andesite genesis at Shiveluch Volcano. Volcanica, 9(2), 455–479.

Rudolph, D., Sobotka, L. G., et al. (2026). High-spin states in Cu 60 and implications for states in the mirror nucleus Ga 60. Physical Review C, 114(2).

Wang, Z., Fike, D. A., et al. (2026). Chemosymbiotic trophic strategy in an Ediacaran tubular animal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(35), e2526201123.

Chattopadhyay, D. S., Dev, P. B., & Porto, Y. (2026). Ruling Out Spiky WIMP Dark Matter using Indirect Searches. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2026(08), 010.

Upcoming Events

Roman Telescope Launch Party, Sunday, August 30, 6:15am

Aesthetics and Physics Embodied in the Japanese Bow

Physics Colloquium
John Neu
University of California Berkeley
Wednesday, September 2
2:00pm, Compton 340

View Event

The life cycle of rock glaciers

EEPS Colloquium
Robert Anderson
University of Colorado Boulder
Thursday, September 3
11:30am, Rudolph 301

View Event

Can rock glaciers replace glacier water resources?

EEPS Colloquium
Suzanne Anderson
University of Colorado Boulder
Friday, September 4
12:00pm, Rudolph 301

View Event

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McDonnell Center Contacts

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

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

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