Code S Weekly Highlights

October 19, 2017

From Code SS

  • Significant Announcements Highlights
  • N/A
  • Key Meetings/ Event and Attendees
  • A talk given by David Blake on an overview and update on the MapX (Mapping X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer) instrument development project, which was just funded through a ROSES MATISSE award.MapX is intended to provide elemental imaging at ≤100 micron spatial resolution of 2.5 X 2.5 centimeter areas, yielding elemental chemistry at or below the scale length where many relict physical, chemical, and biological features can be imaged and interpreted in ancient rocks.
  • Richard Quinn and Craig Everroad have been asked by the HQ Planetary Protection Officer to contribute to a Joint Workshop on Induced Special Regions of Mars, hosted byUniversities Space Research Association is honored to host this meeting at their headquarters in Columbia, Maryland.
  • Steve Howell (SS) organized and attended the “Know Thy Star, Know Thy Planet”meeting held last week in Pasadena. Sponsored by the NASA Exoplanet Archive, the meeting was attended by 170 astronomers from around the world. The meeting focus was on understanding the stellar astrophysics and fundamental properties of stars that host exoplanets. One big outcome of the meeting was the need to observe and fully understand the binary fraction of host stars so that their radii, mean density, and formation mechanism can be assessed.
  • Craig Everroad has been asked to be interviewed by Science freelance reporteron the current understanding on how certain microbes thrive in space, why others die off quickly, what makes some evolve faster, and what general observations can be made about these often unexpected outcomes.The reporter wants to produce a short 600-word explainer piece (most likely forscienceline.org) introducing some of the new, unusual developments in the discipline's understanding of how microbes (from pathogens, to the human microbiome, to fungi and etc.) respond to things like cosmic radiation and zero-gravity.
  • Several Scientists in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division attended the AAS conference inPasadena, CA10/16-18 and presented abstracts relevant to the meetingevent theme entitled "Know They Star-Know Thy Planet ".
  • Several Scientists in the Space Science and Astrobiology Division attended the AAS 49th DPS conference inUtah10/16-18 and presented abstracts relevant to the meeting.
  • Upcoming SS Seminars and Major Event

Date / Speaker / Affiliation / POC / Location
10/19/17 / Andrew Mattioda / Space and Planetary Scientist NASA Ames / Mojgan M.H-Harati / N245/282
10/19/17 / Dr. Martyn Dade-Robertson / Newcastle University / Lynn Rothschild / N245/272
10/24/17 / David Blake / Nasa AMES / Chris Dateo / N239/335
11/2/17 / Adam Arkin, Ph.D / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Lyn, Bartlett / N239/B39
11/9/17 / Jeff Cuzzi / Principal Investigator, Planetary Systems Branch / Mojgan M.H-Harati / N200/201
  • Upcoming FINESSE Project Participating Events
  • LEAG meeting, Columbia, MD, Oct 2017.
  • Back to the Moon Workshop, Columbia, MD, Oct 2017.
  • Syracuse Lava Project experiment run, October 2017
  • Division of Planetary Sciences, Oct 2017, Provo, Utah
  • American Geophysical Union, Dec 2017, New Orleans, LA
  • First-Ever Women in Planetary Science Conference to be held inToronto. 2018.
  • New Publications
  • Pascal Lee,SETI Instituehad an article just published by Journal of Geophysical Research : Planets entitled "Solar Wind Sputtering Rates of Small Bodies and Ion MassSpectrometry Detection of Secondary Ions". Solar wind interactions with the surfaces of asteroids and small moons eject atoms andmolecules from the uppermost several nanometers of regolith grains through a process called sputtering.A small fraction of the sputtered species, called secondary ions, leave the surface in an ionized state, andthese are diagnostic of the surface composition.
  • Collaborations
  • Steve Howell, Nic Scott, and Rachel Matson, and Emmett Quigley (SS) will depart next week for Hawaii. They are part ofteam of astronomers that will be commissioning a new exoplanet instrument on the 8-m Gemini-North telescope. Built in-house, the new instrument provides the highest resolution astronomical images available today on any single telescope, even those in space. Science with the instrument is focused on exoplanet host stars, binary stars, and imaging near-earth asteroids.
  • High Level Visits
  • N/A