Laboratory for Space Sciences @ Wash U Physics

Jeff talks about SSERVI and water on the Moon — a great interview!

A very nice story about our SSERVI research, led by Jeff Gillis-Davis, written by Eli Chen at NPR. We’re very excited for this work!

Thanks to Lionel for creating our new logo:

Big News! Jeff Gillis-Davis will lead a Solar System Exploration and Research Virtual Institute to study water and space-weathering processes on the Moon and other bodies in the Solar System. We’re all very excited about this new research direction, and all the amazing collaborations that will come from it. We also have the best name: “ICE Five-O”.

It’s been a very exciting week around here! The news roundup…

Scientists think there may be meteorites in this Missouri pasture. The hunt is on.

Researchers comb Warren County ranch in search of ping pong ball-sized meteorite.

It was the bluish glow seen and heard across the area. So what exactly was it? Your questions answered, here.

Unfortunately I think this is a piece of industrial slag.

Fantastic fireball over St. Louis last night. I think this will be our new lab logo:

New results from an old spacecraft, revealing fascinating complexities at the boundary between the heliosphere and interstellar space. This is work from my PhD advisor and colleagues. These boundaries between our local space environment and the larger Galaxy have always interested me.

We’re very excited to welcome Jeff Gillis-Davis to our research group! Jeff will add new dimensions to our study of the formation and evolution of the Solar System.

We’ve just returned from the Presolar Grain Workshop, held at U. Chicago this year. It was a fantastic weekend — I learned a lot, developed some exciting new ideas for research projects, and made new friends. A highlight was our dinner *inside* the Field Museum, a tour of the U Chicago CHILI lab, and seeing some great meteorites up close (including a ~200 kg pallasite and a beautiful lunar meteorite).

Rocks from Space by O. Richard Norton is one of my favorite books, a well-written introduction to meteorites. Nate Conway wrote a very nice summary which I have posted here.