Before they walked on the moon, they walked in Meteor Crater.
This geologic formation, about 30 miles east of Flagstaff, was pivotal to the United States’ efforts to learn about the Moon; the astronauts who first set foot on the Moon all trained and prepared at Meteor Crater. Today, scientists and students from NAU and other institutions go to the crater, which is the best-preserved meteor crater on the planet, to study the interactions between other celestial bodies… Read more
Graduate Heshani Pieris: Faculty mentoring helped astronomy student from Sri Lanka find a place in her field
Dec. 6, 2018
Since she was 12 years old, Heshani Pieris has stared into the sky, wondering what the different planetary bodies were made of, whether life existed elsewhere and how the planets, stars, sun, comets and asteroids interacted with each other. She didn’t just want answers to her questions, though; she wanted to find the answers herself through telescopes, Mars rovers and data.
Thus, when… Read more
NASA reveals more information on first interstellar object – Xinhua | English.news.cn
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California have found new information about the size and reflectivity of `Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered within our solar system last year.
“We estimated the size and reflectivity of `Oumuamua as a comet-like body, and suggested a science-based explanation for the various observations,” David Trilling, lead author on the new study and a professor of astronomy at Northern Arizona University, told Xinhua on Friday.
`Oumuamua, which… Read more
News | NASA Learns More About Interstellar Visitor ‘Oumuamua
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In November… Read more
NASA telescope’s ‘non-detection’ of first interstellar object in solar system leads NAU team to conclusions about mystery object’s size, reflectivity
Nov. 14, 2018
In November 2017, a team of scientists pointed NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope toward a comet-like object known as ’Oumuamua—the first interstellar body ever found in our solar system—but the object proved too faint for the infrared telescope to detect.
Though initially disappointing, this non-detection of ’Oumuamua eventually provided new information about… Read more
NAU student contributing to NASA’s search for life on Mars by blowing up space rocks with robot lasers
Nov. 8, 2018
Nuclear-powered laser beams; Martian rocks vaporized to dust; clouds of plasma emitting light waves captured by space robots—to most, this sounds like the makings of a science-fiction novel. To Northern Arizona University doctoral student Sarah Lamm, this is just another day at work. As a member of NASA’s Curiosity mission team and a student of astronomy and planetary science, searching… Read more