Division News

Lou Allamandola awarded Oort Professorship for 2013 by Leiden Observatory

Every year, Leiden Observatory selects a distinguished astronomer to be the Oort Professor in memory of Professor Jan Oort, the distinguished Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University who played a pioneering role in many aspects of modern astronomy.

NASA Researchers Strike Scientific Gold With Meteorite

Scientists found treasure when they studied a meteorite that was recovered April 22, 2012 at Sutter's Mill, the gold discovery site that led to the 1849 California Gold Rush.

First results from CheMin Mineralogical Instrument on the Curiosity Rover to be presented at the AGU meeting in San Francisco

Dr. David Blake of the Exobiology Branch will be presenting an invited paper entitled "First results from the CheMin, DAN and SAM instruments on Mars Science Laboratory" at the American Geophysical Meeting in San Francisco on Monday, December 3, 2012.

Ames Science Missions

Mars Science Laboratory

Dr. David Blake is the Principal Investigator of CheMin, a mineralogical instrument that is included in the analytical laboratory of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. MSL will launch in 2011 and operate on the surface of Mars for two years. A principal goal of MSL is to identify and characterize present or past habitable environments on Mars.