Yeah, I'm published! (sorta...)

Well, I've got two abstracts in for LPSC this year. First, a look at micrometeorite annealing on outer planet ice satellites. This may evolve into a thesis, if things turn out. Second is my class project from Mark Robinson's Lunar Geology class last semester, a sample return mission to Lichtenberg Crater on the moon. We're the only ones in the session actually proposing a new mission, so it should be interesting...

Proteus gets plastered

I've been doing a project for Greely's planetary geology class on micrometeorite bombardment of outer planet satellites. This is a challenge because the micrometeorite dust particles are gravitational focused (same principle as a spacecraft doing a gravity assist) and speed up quite a bit, depositing kinetic energy, and crystallizing the surface amorphous ice. The results that I'm getting indicate that the closer in the sat is, the more it gets plastered by these dust particles. Proteus is very close in, so it get alot of impacts. Curiously, the spectra of Proteus shows very little water ice. This may mean the plastering has removed the surface ice, plasticizing the surface. Fun stuff!

I Like Triton

I like Triton. About the size of Earth's own moon, Triton was once a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), peer of Pluto, Charon, and Eris. Then, one fine sidereal day, something happened to cause Neptune to capture Triton. We know that it was captured, and not formed with Neptune, because its orbit is retrograde relative to the planet's direction of rotation. How that capture happen is still a bit unclear, but most likely Triton was in a double-planet system (like Pluto-Charon) that flew too close to Neptune; one partner ran off free, and Triton got stuck in the ice-giant's pull (Nature article, more papers). Triton has been visited once, by the Voyager 2 spacecraft on its way out of the solar system. NASA has considered going back with a mission called "Triton Explorer" (powerpoint fact sheet). I hope they do; Triton is a world of mystery, right on our doorstep...