News
NASA’s Mars rover probes ancient shorelines for signs of life
SCIENCE — NASA’s rover, which is collecting rock samples to eventually send to Earth, has explored a ring of rocks just inside the rim of Jezero crater, which is thought to have been filled with water billions of years ago. An initial analysis suggests the rocks are composed of rounded grains of carbonate, a mineral that precipitates out of water. It’s a promising sign that the rocks were once beachfront property, says Briony Horgan, a planetary scientist at Purdue University who leads the rover’s science campaign. “You can imagine the waves crashing up against the shores of an ancient paleolake,” she says.
Burial Depths of Lava Flows on the Moon
Professor Ali Bramson, of Purdue EAPS, created this storymaps website to explore the burial depths of lava flows on the Moon. Check out the study of lunar radar datasets and their ability to decipher locations of "cryptomaria".
1 Month out from total solar eclipse
FOX59 — We are officially 1 month out from the total solar eclipse, in which the path of totality will expand through parts of Indiana. But what is the path of totality? And why is the solar eclipse so special? Fox59 talks to Ali Bramson, assistant professor and planetary scientist with Purdue University, to learn more about what makes this event rare and exciting!
Ingenuity Spots the Shadow of Its Damaged Rotor Blade
JPL — The Remote Microscopic Imager (RMI) camera aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took these zoomed-in images of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and one of its rotor blades on Feb. 24, 2024, the 1,072nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. During operations Friday, Feb. 23, Roger Wiens', of Purdue EAPS, team uplinked the sequence and worked with photo mosaic seen here. The team includes Stephanie Connell, EAPS grad student, and Noah Martin, future EAPS grad student and AAE BS working with Wiens at LANL.
Staff Excellence: Business Management
PURDUE NEWS — As the front line of financial guidance on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, Business Management staff make it their mission to properly manage the university’s $2.5 billion budget and keep its academic departments, schools and administrative units running as efficiently as possible. “We are the catchall,” says Alicia Carroll, senior business manager for the departments of Mathematics; Statistics; and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. “If someone doesn’t know something, they’re coming to us."
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