News
What lies beneath: Mars’ subsurface ice could be a key to sustaining future habitats on other planets
PURDUE NEWS — To survive on other planets, water is, of course, critical. We need it to drink, sustain crops and even create rocket fuel. But on spaceflights, checked luggage is exorbitantly expensive. Anything heavy, especially liquids like water, is bulky and costly to haul by rocket, even to our closest interplanetary neighbors. The best plan, then, is to find water at the spacecraft’s destination. Purdue University planetary scientist Ali Bramson’s research is laying the foundation for future extraterrestrial exploration. She is focused on finding ice deposits beneath the barren surfaces of the moon and Mars, providing a buried resource important for future human habitats and even space travel itself. Subsurface ice also is a compelling target for astrobiology, climatology and geology research.
Hurricane forecast points to a dangerous 2024 Atlantic season, with La Niña and a persistently warm ocean teaming up to power fierce storms
THE CONVERSATION — If the National Hurricane Center’s early forecast is right, the North Atlantic could see 17 to 25 named storms, eight to 13 hurricanes, and four to seven major hurricanes by the end of November. That’s the highest number of named storms in any NOAA preseason forecast. Jhordanne Jones, NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow with Purdue EAPS, wrote about these predictions in The Conversation.
Satellites and space junk burning up in the atmosphere is a new kind of pollution
CBC — Scientists doing high-altitude sampling of material deposited when meteorites burn up in the atmosphere are seeing a shift in the material they've been collecting. In a recent study in the journal PNAS, scientists found that increasingly the particles contain material that could have only come from vaporized space junk, such as the upper stages of rocket boosters and re-entering satellites. Daniel Cziczo, an atmospheric scientist at Purdue University, said they're now trying to find out what kind of impact this in material in the stratosphere may have on things like the ozone layer and global warming. He is interviewed on Quirks and Quarks radio by CBC.
Are volcanic depressions on the Moon a fountain of youth?
Some volcanic areas on the Moon have a youthful appearance. These areas are known as Irregular Mare Patches, (pronounced MAHR-ay), or IMPs, and are considered youthful-looking in that, by appearance alone, look as though they were formed over a billion years after the Moon is thought to have stopped having volcanic eruptions. It’s a puzzle that lunar scientists have tried to resolve since their discovery and has major implications for the Moon’s evolution. Researchers at Purdue University recently published their findings on the composition of these IMPs and how they have managed to hide the proverbial fine lines and wrinkles. Hunter Vannier, PhD Candidate at Purdue University, is the lead author of the study published in AGU’s JGR Planets.
2024 NFS Graduate Research Fellowship Program announces awardees and honorable mentions
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the 2024 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) which included 20 awardees and 12 honorable mentions from Purdue University. Of the pool of innovators, the Purdue University College of Science students stood out with ten awardee offers and two honorable mentions including these Purdue EAPS students: Katie Wilson, Addison Curtis, Haleigh Brown, Mariana Blanco-Rojas, and Sara Cuevas-Quiñones.
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