Planetary Systems Branch (Code SST)

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Spaceward Bound Visits the UAE

NASA's Spaceward Bound Goes to the Deserts of the United Arab Emirates

By: Keith Cowing

"Whether or not you remember the winter of 2011 as unusually cold or snowy, an adventurous team of experts will remember its intense heat, as they searched for microbial life between sand dunes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA) Seminar regarding LCROSS

On January 31, 2011 Jennifer Heldmann and Brian Day of NASA Ames delivered an online NASA / NSTA (National Science Teacher's Association) Web Seminar titled "NASA's LCROSS Mission: Science Results and Hands-On Classroom Activities from the LCROSS Science Team".

Prestigous Rossi Prize Awarded to the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope Collaboration

The Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope Collaboration team has been honored with the awarding of the Rossi Prize. This is the most prestigious award of the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society. The Rossi Prize is awarded annually in honor of Bruno Rossi for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work. Jeff Scargle (SST) is a member of the Fermi LAT collaboration.

Paper accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal - Co-Author: Dr. Mark Marley

A paper with Mark Marley as co-author entitled "Self-Consistent Model Atmospheres and the Cooling of the Solar System’s Giant Planets" was recently accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal. This paper is notable because it represents the completion of a project initiated by eminent SST scientist Jim Pollack before his death in 1994. At that time Pollack wanted to revisit a classic 1970's era paper on the cooling of giant planets by Grossman and Graboske using modern physics, in particular by doing a better job of treating the atmospheric boundary condition.