Baylor Planetary Research Group

Huge congratulations to our graduating senior, Allie North! Allie was a Goldwater scholarship recipient and received the Dwornik award for the best undergraduate poster at LPSC. Allie was tapped for a Fulbright research award, and she will work at DLR for the next year. Sic em!

Our own Allie North was involved with this program last summer. If you are an undergraduate student interested in NASA, space rocks, and/or the Solar System, consider applying to this prestigious internship at the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

We see you, Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Sigma! You’ve got our vote for best #BaylorHomecoming float. 🐻 🚀 🌖

Here’s some neat ongoing work from our research group! news.web.baylor.edu/news/story/202…

We are excited to announce a successful Ph.D defense! Dr. Nicholas Wagner (@astrowags) wrote a dissertation on Martian geophysics, covering the planet’s internal thermal history, volcanism, tectonics, outgassing, climate change, and measurement requirements for future missions.

🚨New paper! 🚨 Our PhD student Nick Wagner has published an analysis of Mars surface displacement in response to seasonal growth of the polar ice caps. Someday in the distant future, we will monitor the inventory of polar ice with a network of geodetic stations thanks to Nick.

Our PhD student Alyssa Mills (@alyssacmills96) is in Rome this week, attending the NASA Europa Clipper Gravity/Radio Science joint meeting. Alyssa has been invited to help the team work out how to measure gravitational signals from Europa's ocean. Sic 'em, Alyssa!

How old is America? As far as Pluto is concerned, America is almost one year old. It takes 90,560 Earth days for Pluto to orbit the Sun. Friday will be exactly 90,560 days after July 4th, 1776, which will make our country one Pluto-year old!

#SicEm, Dr. James! 🪐🏆 The Baylor geophysicist has been honored by @NASA with a prestigious Early Career Award for planetary science: news.web.baylor.edu/news/story/202…

Congratulations to our own Allie North, who has been selected for the prestigious LPI summer intern program! Allie will spend the summer with scientists at LPI and at NASA Johnson Space Center formulating a research project related to the planet Venus.

Are you in Waco for the #Eclipse2024? Ever wanted to hear from a man who’s walked on the Moon and space scientists, and wanting to find things to do while waiting for totality? Come to the events listed below, and for the astronaut talk-9:30 at Hurd. eclipseovertexas2024.com

We are hosting three public (free) science events next week! Even if we get clouds on Monday, you'll hear from the only scientist to walk on the Moon, another scientist who is sending a robot there in 2027, a plasma physicist, an ISRU expert, and a Space Force surgeon general.

Finally, Peter James will present a new technique for quantifying uncertainty in models of stress and tectonic strain on other planets. (8/8)

Postdoctoral researcher Don Hood is presenting about the topographic signatures of overlapping craters. Since the shape of the antecedent crater is well known, this approach is the first step toward inferring what the Moon looked like before it accumulated its craters. (7/8)

Baylor researchers will be presenting new science at the Lunar and Planetary Science conference this week! Here are some research highlights #LPSC24 (1/8)