EPSS Colloquium - winter-2025

Jan. 7, 2025
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Slichter Hall # 3853

Presented By:

• Bonnie Buratti - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was the first successful test of the kinetic impact strategy to deflect an asteroid. Physical characterization of the effects of the impact on the Didymos-Dimorphos binary system are an important next step. The European Space Agency’s Hera mission is currently on its way to study the physical and dynamical effects of the DART impact. This talk will describe how a combination of photometric modeling and ground-based observations can answer such questions as: What is the extent and nature of the impact site?  How does the subsurface composition, texture, and albedo differ from that of the surface? Can the combined results from the two missions place limits on the effects of space weathering?

Jan. 21, 2025
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
3853 Slichter Hall

Presented By:

• Prof. Pierre Haenecour - University of Arizona

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Carbonaceous asteroids offer insight into the primordial materials that formed planets within the protoplanetary disk. They contain organic matter and tiny dust particles known as presolar grains, which originate from the envelopes of aging stars and the remnants of stellar explosions, including novae and supernovae before the birth of our Solar System. These stardust grains are crucial for understanding the building blocks of our Solar System. The recent sample return from asteroid (101955) Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission provides a new opportunity to examine the distribution and abundance of presolar grains in carbonaceous asteroids. In my talk, I will present the preliminary laboratory analysis of the Bennu samples.

Jan. 28, 2025
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Slichter Hall # 3853

Presented By:

• Prof. Martin Connors - Athabasca University

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Space weather includes many effects, but those on technological systems at ground level are most pronouncedly associated with magnetic induction. Electric fields induced by changing magnetic fields are often in undesired places and at problematic frequencies, thus usually having a negative effect on large ground infrastructure such as electric distribution networks. Their effects build up in large systems but are small locally, making them hard to measure. Historically, the field of magnetotellurics (MT) has measured these fields along with magnetic fields, allowing Earth structure to be inferred. In MT, satisfactory results are often obtained with simplifications such as vertically incident waves and associated neglect of any vertical magnetic component. For space weather purposes it is possible that “source effects” violating these assumptions are important. Recent work on this will be described, along with examination of the May 2024 “Gannon” storm, including with electric field and power network measurements.