Planetary Sciences Community Meetings Calendar
Organized by LPI/USRA *
September 2013
2-5 |
Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs: Mind the Gap,
Hatfield, UK
The aim of this meeting is to bring the exoplanet and brown dwarf communities together to explore common science questions, share exciting results, and foster collaboration to overcome shared challenges. |
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6 |
Conditions of Basalt Genesis in Mars from Basalts in Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum, Compared with the Martian Meteorites (Justin Filiberto, Southern Illinois University),
Lecture Hall
Until recently, the SNC meteorites represented the only source of information about martian igneous chemistry. This changed with the Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Science Laboratory, which have analyzed basalts on the surface of Mars in Gusev Crater, Meridiani Planum, and Gale Crater. Compared to the Martian meteorite basalts, the analyzed surface basalts are thought to be much older (~3.65 vs. 1.0-0.17 Ga) and have distinctly different chemistries. Because of the differences in basalt chemistry, we can constrain how the Martian mantle may have changed through time |
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8-13 | European Planetary Science Conference (EPSC 2013), London, United Kingdom | |
9-12 |
LSST @ Europe: The Path to Science,
Cambridge, United Kingdom
The meeting will provide an opportunity to review the current status of the LSST, and the key science programmes which are underpinning its development. The conference will include presentations identifying current science challenges where a combination of LSST and major new European facilities and expertise will result in major leaps in understanding. These topics will range from studies of our Solar System and the Milky Way, to the Universe at the largest scales. |
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9-12 |
The 11th Hellenic Astronomical Conference,
Athens, Greece
The Hellenic Astronomical Conference, organized by the Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.), is the major scientific event of the greek astronomical community. The Conference, which takes place every two years in a different part of Greece, typically brings together over 100 scientists with research interests in Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Space Physics. |
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9-21 |
The 2013 VLTI School: High Angular Resolution for Stellar Astrophysics,
Bercelonnette, France
The aim of the school is to offer Ph.D. students, post-doctoral and permanent researchers an introduction to the technique of long-baseline optical/infrared interferometry and data reduction in astrophysics, namely, stellar physics including the hot topics of stellar activity, evolution, hydrodynamics, planet-hosting stars, determination of fundamental parameters, circumstellar envelopes, young stellar objects, as well as the role of binaries. |
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13 |
Time-Lapse Photography of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: What the Coldest and Driest Place on Earth tells us about the Potential for Liquid Water on the Surface of Present-Day Mars. (James Dickson, Brown University),
Lecture Hall
This talk will give an overview of our current understanding of the role of ice and liquid water on and near the surface of Mars in its most recent history. This will provide the context for a discussion of fluvial processes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the coldest and driest terrain on Earth where water can still flow across the surface and support ecosystems. Long-duration, high-frequency, high-resolution time-lapse photography, synchronized with meteorological measurements, allows us to determine how small changes in atmospheric conditions result in significant changes in surface albedo and morphology that are observable from orbit. When Antarctica and Late Amazonian Mars are viewed together, it appears that the regions of contemporary Mars most conducive to liquid water and the regions of Earth least conducive to liquid water behave in much the same way. |
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16-18 |
Uranus Beyond Voyager 2: From Recent Advances to Future Missions,
Meudon, France
The purpose of the meeting will be to review our current knowledge of Uranus from past measurements, to highlight recent advances and ongoing studies on this planetary environment, and summarize the important unsolved scientific questions together with the key measurements required to address them. The meeting will culminate in discussing the status of future international mission concepts in Europe and in the United States to explore the Uranus System, including updates on feasibility studies and available technologies, together with next Earth-based observing campaigns. |
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18 |
Reduction of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides: Mechanisms and Environmental Impact (Tanya Peretyazhko, Rice University),
Lecture Hall
Iron (Fe), one of the most common elements on Earth, is frequently found in Fe(III) and Fe(II) oxidation states. Reduction from Fe(III) to Fe(II) has key impact on fate of various contaminants. In soils, sediments and subsurface materials Fe mainly exists in the oxidized form as insoluble Fe(III) (hydr)oxides but under anoxic conditions the reduced Fe(II) is present. The reduction of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides in the near-surface environment in driven by the activity of iron-reducing bacteria. These bacteria can reduce Fe(III) either by direct contact with the oxide surface or by indirect mechanisms not involving contacts. Depending on the conditions ferrous iron, Fe(II), produced by microbial reduction of Fe(III) is present in various forms including dissolved, adsorbed and secondary Fe(II) phases (e.g., vivianite, siderite, magnetite, green rust). Ferrous iron has been shown to provide an effective means for remediation a variety of pollutants including nitrite, nitrate, chromium, selenite, uranium, vanadate, pertechnetate, mercury and nitrobenzene from aqueous solution. In this presentation I’ll discuss mechanisms of microbial indirect reduction of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides. Our studies revealed production of Fe(II) that formed vivianite of complex morphology. I’ll further discuss the role that adsorbed and structural Fe(II) plays in reduction of contaminants such as pertechnetate and mercury. |
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20 |
Hunting Intraterrestrials in the Deep Subsurface: Earth’s Last Great Biosphere Frontier (Heath Mills, UHCL),
Lecture Hall
Life on planet Earth was viewed very differently during the days of the Apollo missions. As the mission’s namesake would suggest, life was thought to be linked to the sun. However, shortly after the sun set on the Apollo program, this binding connection between life and light was shattered. Researchers aboard a deep-sea submersible in the late 1970’s rewrote our understanding of life on Earth by exposing vast amounts of biological diversity at the bottom of the cold, dark ocean. As many researchers aim to continue looking outward for life, a community of intraterrestrial explorers focus inward, to examine the limits of life in the deep ocean and the marine subsurface. These environments can be as alien as many of the environments being considered for astrobiological analysis. Over the last decade, descriptions of the subseafloor microbial biosphere suggest that it is one of the largest biomes on the planet in spite of low concentrations of carbon and energy, reduced fluid flow, and isolation on the order geologic time-scales. My lab group has been able to identify not only the presence of microbial populations within the subsurface, but also metabolically active lineages capable of altering the surrounding strata and porewater chemistry. Recent efforts have extended our search beyond sediments to crustal materials. Characterizations of active populations within different forms of basalt represent a significant advancement in our understanding of the subsurface biosphere as previous estimates of biomass were limited to sediments alone. In addition, we have been able to isolate and characterize fungal populations from some of the most energy-limited environments on Earth and thus expanding subsurface diversity into the third domain of life. Moving forward, I would like to explore the opportunities to use our tools and techniques developed for nucleic acid-based characterizations of subsurface populations to build collaborations at JSC to foster new understandings of both life on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere. It is our belief that exploration of the deep marine subsurface can unlock many answers about the habitability of Earth while providing clues to possibility for life elsewhere. |
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21 |
Bob Lin Memorial Symposium,
Berkeley, California
The Robert P. Lin Graduate Fellowship will be used to support outstanding graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley who pursue research related to space sciences, including, but not limited to, students with training in Physics, Astronomy or Engineering. |
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23-24 |
Origin of the Moon,
London, United Kingdom
Despite widespread acceptance of the giant impact hypothesis for lunar origin, our understanding continues to be challenged by remarkable new geochemical data, improved simulations and theory, and spacecraft exploration. This will be a timely consideration of our current understanding, how this relates to our Earth and planetary systems and an opportunity to identify the directions of future research. |
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23-26 |
Polarimetry of Planetary Systems,
Florence, Italy
The purpose of the meeting will be to review our current knowledge of Uranus from past measurements, to highlight recent advances and ongoing studies on this planetary environment, and summarize the important unsolved scientific questions together with the key measurements required to address them. The meeting will culminate in discussing the status of future international mission concepts in Europe and in the United States to explore the Uranus System, including updates on feasibility studies and available technologies, together with next Earth-based observing campaigns. |
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23-27 |
Improving the Performances of Current Optical Interferometers and Future Designs,
Haute-Provence Observatory, France
This workshop is partly dedicated to the technologies that could improve the performances of interferometers: optimized telescope array geometries, solutions with and without delay-lines, fringe tracking optimizations, and « Adaptive Optics » for diluted telescopes, progress in the field of optical fibers and integrated optics, focal recombiner, etc. Experiment reports, new optical designs to improve the sensitivity and the quality of interferometer observables (accuracy on the visibilities, and closure phases), and any new theoretical ideas are particularly welcome. Presentations on new telemetry techniques for very accurate delay-line positioning, in particular for astrometry, are encouraged. Progress in the field of nulling interferometry are also welcome. We plan to discuss the best optical design for a post-VLTI facility. In this context, several talks on astrophysical goals achievable with such an interferometer will be selected. |
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24-28 | Second International Congress of Astrobiology in Columbia, Medellin, Columbia | |
25-26 |
Origin of the Moon — Challenges and Prospects,
Chicheley, United Kingdom
Our understanding of the origin of Earth’s moon is challenged by recent isotopic data, simulations of physical processes for giant impacts and evolution of the resulting disk, and new spacecraft studies. This meeting follows on from a Royal Society meeting in London on the same topic by focusing on the unsolved problems and assessing the prospects for future directions of research. |
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25 |
Geological Impact Crater Chronology (David Page, Oxford University),
Lecture Hall
Impact crater chronology is a dating technique unique in geochronology – that surfaces can be dated visually is a powerful tool, quite unlike anything in terrestrial geology (try dating a random, unfossiliferous geological formation on Earth by visual means, and see how far you get!). Yet this chronology usually lacks stratigraphical constraint (in both horizontal and vertical dimensions), and can be more an exercise in physics than the geology of the surfaces that it seeks to date. Stratigraphically-controlled impact crater counts reveal that there is a great deal more information to be had from this chronology when we look with geological eyes, no more so than when dealing with the volatile-rich surfaces that are the focus of much contemporary planetary scientific inquiry. |
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27 |
Probing the Pre-Noachian of Mars (J.R. Skok, Louisiana State University),
Hess Room
On a geologically active, single plate planet like Mars, the earliest crust would be well preserved at depth but obscured by later processes. Impact craters provide one of the few, and only globally significant, windows into this deep crust. High-resolution spectral analysis of crater central peaks allows an investigation into the composition of this ancient crust and a way to test and refine models for planetary formation and crustal evolution. Spectral investigation suggests an ancient crust dominated by highly differentiated olivine and pyroxene cumulates. We consider this result in context with previous understanding of planetary formation and the probability of an early mantle overturn. This ancient cumulate crust would have important implications for early planetary habitability and the surface environment. |
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29-Oct 4 |
Sudbury Field Camp,
Sudbury, Canada
The Short Course and Field School at the Sudbury Impact Structure is a week long classroom and field training program based in Sudbury, Ontario. The goal of the program will be to introduce students to impact cratering processes and observe, in the field, the attributes of an immense basin-size impact structure. |
October 2013
3-4 |
Workshop on Golden Spike Lunar Human Expeditions: Opportunities for Intensive Lunar Scientific Exploration *,
Houston, Texas
Commercial spaceflight is rapidly beginning to impact capabilities for scientific research in numerous ways, including commercial suborbital spaceflight, commercial robotic lunar missions, and commercial near-Earth asteroid (NEA) exploration. In late 2012, the Golden Spike Company, consisting of space professionals and numerous veteran NASA engineers and executives, announced plans to mount a series of commercial human lunar expeditions in the 2020s, primarily for space and science agencies in countries around the world. The goals of this workshop are to provide a detailed overview of Golden Spike expedition capabilities to the worldwide lunar science community, and to seek feedback and input on science and exploration priorities and associated landing sites, surface experiment packages, and sample return requirements. The meeting will also explore desired future capabilities for more advanced Golden Spike missions, and the synergistic roles of Golden Spike human expeditions and robotic exploration missions. |
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6-11 | 45th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS 2013), Denver, Colorado | |
7-11 |
Astrophysical Turbulence: From Galaxies to Planets,
Dresden, Germany
In astrophysics and cosmology, fluid flow occurs on a large range of scales and under very different conditions, from the dense interior of stars and planets to the highly rarefied intergalactic medium. These flows share the fact that they are generally turbulent, i.e. highly disordered both in space and time. Turbulence is one of the key processes for the structure and evolution of a large variety of geo- and astrophysical systems. The universality of astrophysical turbulence interlinks the physics of the interior of planets or stars with proto-planetary or galactic disks, as well as the intergalactic gas outside of galaxies. For example, angular momentum transport by turbulence is a central question that must beanswered to understand how galaxies or stars form, how proto-planetary disks evolve, how metals are mixed in the interstellar and intergalactic medium, or how differential rotation is established in stars and planets. Magnetic field amplification through turbulent dynamo processes is ubiquitous in planets, stars, and galaxies. The onset of instabilities due to dust particles or newly formed planets in proto-planetary disks controls the properties of the evolving structures. We can observe a variety of interactions between stars, planets and galaxies with their environment leading to the exchange of energy and (angular-) momentum. This compilation highlights the enormous potential and perspective of a combined workshop/school to discuss and deepen our knowledge in this very rapidly moving field of research. |
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7-11 |
ESO/NUVA/IAG Workshop on Challenges in UV Astronomy,
Garching, Germany
The network for UV astronomy (NUVA) has been organizing interdisciplinary meetings every three years where scientists and instrumentalists working in the UV can obtain updated information on the current status of the field. The third meeting of the NUVA will come at a crucial time in UV astronomy. The ESA/NASA programs that created the community are reaching completion and future missions, apart from WSO-UV, are small-class, some operating from balloons. The purpose of this ESO/NUVA/IAG workshop is to bring together the international community interested in UV astronomy to discuss the present and future of the field and in particular to examine and broaden the scientific case of CUBES, the joint ESO-Brazil high-resolution UV spectrograph. Invited talks and reviews will cover the topics of UV astronomy of the solar system, exoplanets, abundances of stars at various stages of evolution, resolved stellar populations in the galaxy and beyond, the star-formation history of the universe, and the properties of the diffuse interstellar and intergalactic medium near and far. |
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7-11 |
Third Workshop on Robotic Autonomous Observatories,
Torremolinos, Spain
The main focus of the workshop will be on the new and existing astronomical facilities whose goal is to observe a wide variety of astrophysical targets with no (or very little) human interaction. The workshop will become an international forum for researchers to summarise the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis given to the technical and observational results and public outreach (including Citizen Science) and educational applications achieved within the last five years as well as the future strategies foreseen. |
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12 |
Io Workshop 2013,
Boulder, Colorado
We warmly welcome talks for the 2013 Io Workshop to discuss the newest discoveries concerning Io. Topics include observations and modeling of surface geology and evolution, volcanic plumes and sources, the atmosphere and it’s surface coupling and plasma science. |
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14-16 | Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group *, Laurel, Maryland | |
14-18 |
Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2013 (CAP 2013),
Warsaw, Poland
CAP2013 will consider challenges in communication of astronomy and space exploration, as well as the influence of these activities on science outreach and education. The meeting will include unconference and workshops sessions as well as interactive planetarium shows and special events. |
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14-18 |
Fourth Moscow international Solar System Symposium (4M-S3),
Moscow, Russia
Starting in 2010, the Space Research Institute has held annual international symposia on solar system exploration. Main topics of these symposia include a wide range of problems related to formation and evolution of the solar system; planetary systems of other stars; exploration of solar system planets, their moons, and small bodies; study of the Sun, interplanetary environment, exobiology problems. Experimental planetary studies and preparation for space missions are also considered at these symposia. The fourth Moscow international Solar System Symposium (4M-S3) will covers many problems of solar system science with the central topic “Moon and Mars Exploration.” This topic relates to scientific problems of several projects, which are under development in Russia: “Luna-Glob”, “Luna-Resource,” and “ExoMars,” a project that is developed under cooperation between Roscosmos and ESA. |
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15-18 |
The (F)IR Universe Three Years Later — The Contributions by Herschel,
Noordwijk, The Netherlands
The overall objective of the meeting will be to present and take stock of what has been learned to date based on Herschel observations. The symposium will feature invited and contributed talks, and poster sessions. More information and the formal first announcement will be issued about a year ahead of the meeting date. |
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16-18 |
Hayabusa 2013: Symposium of Solar System Materials,
Sagamihara, Japan
Since the return of samples from Itokawa by Hayabusa in 2010, the preliminary examinations followed by studies selected in the 1st International Announcement of Oppotunity (A/O) have been performed. Now is the right time to review these results as a whole. Furthermore, multiple asteroid sample return missions are in progress, implying that science of returned samples is becoming one of the key components of planetary science. Now is the right time to set a perspective on the driving force that returned samples will give to the future of solar system science. It in these spirits that the workshop"HAYABUSA 2013: Symposium of Solar System Materials" is designed. |
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18 |
Looking inside moons using gravity, topography and tides (Francis Nimmo, University of California, Santa Cruz),
Lecture Hall
The satellites of the outer solar system show great present-day diversity and have experienced wildly different histories. How did these differences arise? In this talk I will use spacecraft observations of gravity, topography and tides to investigate the cases of Enceladus and Titan, moons of Saturn with very different characteristics. |
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20-25 | Planet Mars 4, Les Houches, France | |
21-23 |
Solar System Formation and Observation Conference (SFO),
Bern, Switzerland
The conference is divided in five sessions, covering the topics of planetary interaction with the space plasma, investigating planet atmospheres and exospheres and planetary surfaces. Invited review speakers (see webpage and poster) will open each session. By abstract submission participants can contribute to the program with oral or poster presentations. Abstracts about simulations, observations, investigations, instrumentation and data analysis are welcome. |
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21-24 |
Venus Express VIRTIS and VMC Data Workshop,
Madrid, Spain
The overall goal of the workshop is to introduce users to the Planetary Science Archive on which data from ESA planetary missions are archived. This workshop will focus on the VIRTIS and VMC instruments of the Venus Express orbiter. |
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27-29 |
Workshop on Planetesimal Formation and Differentiation *,
Washington, DC
Evidence from meteorites and, increasingly, from asteroids indicates that some early-forming bodies had sufficient heat to melt and differentiate into a core and mantle. Partial or complete melting can allow core formation and silicate differentiation, and can also remove volatiles. Other small bodies are apparently primitive (i.e., undifferentiated). We are now at a point where targeted interdisciplinary work can create a leap in our understanding. What bulk compositions and time frames of accretion would have allowed differentiation? Where in the solar system did these bodies originate? What can we observe of differentiated bodies in the asteroid belt today? Can we link asteroid observations to meteorites from differentiated parent bodies? What was the history and large-scale structure of meteorite parent bodies? These questions bear on the critical transition from a protoplanetary disk to a solar system with rocky planets, on the habitability of those planets, and on resources in our solar system today for future space exploration. Progress in understanding these processes will depend upon communication among the fields of meteorite and asteroid/icy body observations including space missions, theory, and modeling. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers on all these subjects as they pertain to differentiation, asteroid observations, and meteorite compositions. |
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27-30 | 2013 GSA Annual Meeting and Exposition, Denver, Colorado | |
30-31 | International Space Exploration Symposium in Japan: Space Exploration for Humanity and the Future, Tokyo, Japan | |
30 |
Mimas: Strong forced longitudinal librations and constraints to its internal structure with Cassini ISS observations. (Radwan Tajeddine, IMCCE-Paris Observatory),
Lecture Hall
The origin and the evolution of Saturn's satellites are being debated. For a long time, it has been thought that they were formed in Saturn's sub-nebula 4.5 billion years ago, when another model has recently appeared, forming the small and mid sized moons in the rings. At the same moment, another result concerning Saturn's dissipation factor Q appeared implying a fast expansion of the moons, except for Mimas, which is having a secular acceleration, starting a new debate about the Saturn's system dynamics. We used Cassini ISS NAC images to constrain, by photogrammetry, Mimas’ internal structure and origin. A topographic map of 260 surface chosen points has been built. A photogrammetric reconstruction method has been applied using colinearity equations to compute 3-D positions of control points, with a mean uncertainty of about 580 metres. A tri-axial shape of Mimas was built with these points, confirming that this satellite is not in the state of hydrostatic equilibrium. The control point network was also used to measure indirectly the amplitudes of the longitudinal physical librations of Mimas, confirming all the computed theoretical values, except the internal structure depending one, which almost doubles the theoretically predicted amplitude, resulting in a value of (B-A)/C = 0.091. A further analysis shows that Mimas' core was formed in the rings near the Roche limit and moved away keeping its initial shape until today causing the observed strong libration amplitude. |
November 2013
4-8 | Second Kepler Science Conference, Moffett Field, California | |
5-7 |
Optical Characterization of Atmospheric Aerosols Workshop,
Smolenice, Slovak Republic
The main goal of the workshop is to present an opportunity for scientist in different fields to meet and form efficient collaborations in the research of atmospheric aerosols. |
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11-14 | Second Exobiology Workshop, Frejus, France | |
11-15 |
First COSPAR Symposium: Planetary Systems of Our Sun and Other Stars, and the Future of Space Astronomy,
Bangkok, Thailand
This first Symposium will address the theme “Planetary Systems of our Sun and other Stars, and the Future of Space Astronomy”. It is open to participants from all regions, but scientists, young professionals and students in the Asian region are particularly encouraged to participate. The Symposium will feature plenary lectures as well as parallel and poster sessions. |
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13-15 |
International Workshop on LunarCubes (LCW),
Mountain View, California
Flexure Engineering is creating the LunarCubes Working Group and LunarCube workshops to promote the creation of a standard to facilitate the development of low cost, rapid development payloads that could be easily added to the many lunar opportunities that will exist in the coming decades. |
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15 |
Getting Under Europa’s Skin (Britney Schmidt, Georgia Tech),
Lecture Hall
Europa is one of the most enticing targets in the search for life beyond Earth,. With an icy outer shell hiding a global ocean, Europa exists in a dynamic environment, where immense tides from Jupiter potentially power an active deeper interior. Intense irradiation and impacts bathe the top of the ice shell. These processes are sources of energy that could sustain a biosphere. Why is all of this important? It’s simple: the search for extant life is more complicated than the search for water or an oxygen atmosphere. Earth’s biosphere is strongly coupled to activity—plate tectonics, weathering, glaciation; geologic processes are crucial to this living planet. In the past few decades the debate about habitability of Europa has been focused strongly on the thickness of its ice shell. However an arguably more critical question is: how does the ice shell really work? Galileo data indicated that Europa has undergone recent resurfacing, and implied that near-surface water was likely involved. New analysis of Europa's enigmatic "chaos terrains" indicates that chaos features may be actively forming today in the presence of a great deal of liquid water--above large liquid water bodies within 3km of Europa's surface. The detection of shallow subsurface "lakes" implies that rapid ice shell recycling could create a conveyor belt between the ice and ocean. Exchange between Europa's surface and subsurface could allow ocean material to one day be detected by spacecraft and will be mediated by melting, accretion, and redistribution at the base of the ice shell, processes not well understood even on Earth. And while microbial life within ice and below glaciers has been studied for decades, one of the most relevant terrestrial analog environments, the ice-ocean interface beneath ice shelves, has remained largely uncharacterized…until now. In this presentation, we will explore environments on Europa and their analogs on Earth. While we wait for the opportunity to send a new mission to Europa, looking to our own cosmic backyard, Antarctica, allows us to better understand Europa’s habitability and to develop techniques to explore this ice covered world not so unlike our own. |
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19-21 | 11th Meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG 11), Washington, DC | |
19-21 |
Young Researchers Exobiology Conference (EJC'13),
Paris, France
It will bring together and support exchanges between young researchers, astrophysicists, chemists, biologists, geologists and historians of science together to show their latest work. All topics related to astrobiology will be discussed, the first exoplanets living organisms, divided into three themes: (1) Astrobiology and Space Exploration, (2) Primitive Earth and the first traces of life, and (3) Prebiotic chemistry and early life. |
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20-22 | Asteroid Initiative Idea Synthesis Workshop (RESCHEDULED) *, Houston, Texas | |
22 |
Hydrogen Isotopes in Lunar Volcanic Glasses implications of their Terrestrial heritage. (Alberto E. Saal, Brown University),
Lecture Hall
Since the Apollo mission 1969-1972 until 2008 the Moon was believed to be bone dry, consistent with the model for its formation by a giant impact ~ 4.5 billion years ago. All the Hydrogen was believed to be lost from the molten material that finally accreted to form the Moon. Since 2008 there has been clear evidences for the presence of H (most likely as OH-) in the lunar interior. Using the volatile contents and Hydrogen isotopes in lunar lavas, and comparing them with those of melts from Earth's upper mantle, we concluded that inside the Moon there are reservoirs with equivalent amount of H to the Earth's depleted upper mantle, and the H of the Moon-Earth system originated from primitive meteorites (chondrites), rather than comets. The simplest explanation is that the H was in Earth at the time of the giant impact and it was not significantly lost during the formation of the Moon; the H arrived very early during the main stages of accretion of the Terrestrial planets (consistent with dynamic models of planetary formation). Our data suggest that the H budget and isotopic composition for Earth did not change much since the formation of the Moon. |
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28-30 |
International Astrobiology Workshop,
Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan
“Astrobiology” has been created as a new interdisciplinary academic field that integrates astronomy, solar system science, geochemistry, microbiology, and other disciplines. One of the most profound themes of modern science is to judge if “terrestrial” biology can be “universal” outside the Earth and even outside the Solar System just like physics and chemistry both of which are applicable at anywhere in this Universe. It is expected to derive great contributions for astrobiology from space science, such as space astronomy, Solar System exploration, and planetary science including space environment experiments. Now, a number of international refereed journals in the astrobiology field have been publishes while NASA has established virtual institutes to invest research grants in this field the most effectively. In Japan, there have been also recent publications of both professional and public books in astrobiology and new organizations to support this research area have been founded. This workshop is the 6th of the Japan Astrobiology Network (JABN) annual workshop series founded since 2008. It aims to promote interdisciplinary interactions among astrobiology researchers and advancement of this field in Japan. At this time, we will hold this workshop as a 3-days-long international workshop with English as the working language, for the first time of this series; thus we encourage inviting both astrobiology experts from overseas as well as young researchers in Japan. In addition, there will be public lectures in the last day of the event. |
December 2013
4 |
Microstructural Constraints on Complex Thermal Histories of Refractory Inclusions from CO3 Chondrites: A FIB/TEM Study. (Jangmi Han, University of New Mexico),
Lecture Hall
I will present new micro to nano-scale textural and mineralogical observations obtained using a variety of microbeam techniques (field emission scanning electron microscope, electron microprobe, and focused ion beam/transmission electron microscope) from refractory inclusions (calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions and amoeboid olivine aggregates) in CO3 chondrites. The microstructural observations from ALH A77307 CO3.0 chondrite provide additional constraints on the formational and subsequent thermal histories of refractory inclusions in the context of the early solar nebula. In addition, new SEM and TEM observations from Kainsaz CO3.2 chondrite have the potential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of metamorphic and metasomatic effects on refractory inclusions on the parent body |
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8-12 |
Exoplanets and Disks: Their Formation and Diversity,
Keauhou Kona, Hawaii
Major topics include (1) Direct imaging of disks/exoplanets; (2) Spectroscopy of disks/exoplanets; (3) Various approaches toward earth-like planet detection; (4) Theory for planet formation; (5) Theory and simulation of exoplanet atmospheres; (6) Dust formation and evolution in disks; (7) Current/future instrumentation for direct observations. |
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9-13 | AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California | |
9-13 |
ASTROBIO 2013: An International Workshop on Astrobiology,
Santiago, Chile
Topics include (1) Life on Earth: Origin of Life, Evolution, Climate Change; (2) Extremophiles in Local Environments: Antarctica, Atacama, and the Deep Ocean; (3) Exploration of the Solar System: Life searches on Mars, Europa, Titan, and elsewhere; (4) Beyond our Solar System: Search and Study of Extrasolar Planets, Biomarkers; (5) Molecules of life: first observations with ALMA, astrochemistry; (6) Stellar Habitable Zones and Galactic Habitable Zone, Artificial life, Communication; (7) Future Perspectives on Astrobiology: the role of JWST, E-ELT and GMT |
January 2014
5-9 | 223rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Washington, DC | |
8-9 | Small Bodies Assessment Group Meeting, Washington, DC | |
10 | Ionising Processes in Atmospheric Environments of Planets, Brown Dwarfs, and M-Dwarfs, London, United Kingdom | |
10 |
Spectroscopic Classification and Investigation of Terrain Units of Saturn's Icy Moons (Francesca Scipioni - Italian Space Agency),
Lecture Hall
In my PhD work, I have focused on the study of Saturn's icy satellites Dione and Rhea using data acquired in the infrared spectral range by the Cassini/VIMS imaging spectrometer. The surfaces of the main Saturnian icy moons are composed primarily by water ice, with a minor percentage of non-water-ice material whose composition is still debated and whose distribution is not uniform across the satellites’ surface. The differences in contaminants’ composition, water-ice abundance and regolith grain size are revealed by variations in spectral profiles, which are bounded both to exogenic (micrometeoroids and particles coming from rings or interplanetary dust) and endogenic (cry-volcanism, tectonic activity) processes. The only way to discern between them and, in turn, to understand how each satellite evolved, is to investigate the distribution of contaminants and water-ice on the moons’ surfaces. In order to identify different terrain units on the two satellites’ surface we applied the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classification technique to Dione’s and Rhea’s hyperspectral images acquired by VIMS in the infrared range. On a relatively limited portion of the surface of Dione and Rhea we first identified nine and eight spectral endmembers respectively, corresponding to as many terrain units, which mostly distinguish for water ice abundance and ice grain size. We then used these endmembers in SAM to achieve a comprehensive classification of the entire surface. The analysis of the infrared spectra returned by VIMS shows that different regions of Dione and Rhea have variations in water ice bands depths, in average ice grain size, and in the concentration of contaminants, such as CO2 and hydrocarbons, which are clearly connected to morphological and geological structures. Generally, the spectral units that classify optically dark terrains are those showing suppressed water ice bands, a finer ice grain size and a higher concentration of carbon dioxide. Conversely, spectral units labeling brighter regions have deeper water ice absorption bands, higher albedo and a smaller concentration of contaminants. Finally, we performed a comparison between Rhea and Dione, to highlight different magnitudes of space weathering effects in the icy satellites as a function of the distance. |
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13-14 | Outer Planets Analysis Group (OPAG) Meeting, Tucson, Arizona | |
13-16 |
Fifth International Workshop on the Mars Atmosphere: Modelling and Observations,
Oxford, United Kingdom
The scope of the workshop is to bring together experts in observations and modelling of the present and past Mars climate systems and discuss the nature of the atmospheric circulation and the photochemistry (up to the exobase), the dust cycle, the water cycle (vapor, clouds and frost) and the carbon dioxide cycle (polar caps). |
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19-22 | Science with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), Rottach-Egern, Germany | |
20-24 |
18th International Conference on Microlensing,
Santa Barbara, California
Topics will include: Microlensing Discoveries; Microlensing Results in the Wider Context, including planet frequency, free-floating planets, implications for planetary formation/evolution, galactic structure and stellar mass function; Observing Microlensing Phenomenon, including the status & developments of ground-based survey and follow-up teams, strategies, instrumentation, space-based missions and future opportunities; and Lensing Theory, Modeling and Computation. |
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24 |
The Big Picture for the Geologic History of Venus - Where Things Stand and Future Exploration (Robert Herrick, University of Alaska Fairbanks),
Lecture Hall
2014 marks 25 years since NASA last launched a mission to the planet Venus. Analysis of the geologic history of the planet has progressed since the initial post-Magellan flurry, and a couple of relatively mature world views of the planet's geologic history have developed. I will discuss a handful of key observations that constrain the big picture, and I will evaluate how compatible each observation is with the existing world views. I will argue that we cannot rule out either viewpoint with existing data, and I will discuss what new data would be most effective for distinguishing between existing hypotheses. |
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31 |
Provenance of Lunar Meteorites from Samples and Spectroscopy (Peter Isaacson, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology),
Lecture Hall
The returned Apollo and Luna sample collections present an incomplete view of lunar geology because of their restricted geographic coverage. Lunar meteorites are thus an important resource for lunar science, as they provide a more global sampling of the lunar crust than that available from the Apollo and Luna samples. In particular, they likely provide samples of the farside feldspathic highlands, which are not represented in the returned sample collections. However, the lunar meteorites are of limited utility due to their uncertain provenance and geologic context. In this talk, I will present results from laboratory studies of feldspathic lunar meteorite samples and from global remote sensing studies of the lunar surface. By combining these approaches, we place new constraints on the provenance of these samples. While this approach does not identify specific “source craters”, it provides regional-scale geologic context for these important samples. |
February 2014
3-4 | Vesta in the Light of Dawn: First Exploration of a Protoplanet in the Asteroid Belt *, Houston, Texas | |
3-6 | Exoplanet Observations with the E-ELT, Garching, Germany | |
5-7 |
Workshop on the Habitability of Icy Worlds *,
Pasadena, California
The primary objective of this workshop will be to focus on the astrobiological potential of icy worlds in the outer solar system — including Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus, Titan, and beyond — with discussion on future research directions and spacecraft missions that can best assess that potential. The agenda for the workshop will be organized around the unique planetary environments of the outer solar system. Presentations on research involving terrestrial analogs are also encouraged. The format of the workshop will be 2.5 to 3 days of presentations and discussion divided into thematic sessions that cover topics including (but not necessarily limited to) habitability in extreme environments; the Galilean satellites; the saturnian satellites; the icy worlds of Uranus and Neptune; the Kuiper belt and beyond; the Cassini solstice mission; the Europa Clipper study; the ESA JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE); and the future of outer solar system exploration. |
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9-14 |
AGU Chapman Conference on Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Solar System,
Yosemite National Park, California
This cross-discipline AGU Chapman conference, will examine the details of the ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling processes using results from both measurements and modeling. Topics that will be discussed include the ionosphere as a source of magnetospheric plasma, the effects of the low energy ionospheric plasma on the stability of the more energetic plasmas in the magnetosphere, the role of currents and electric/magnetic fields in coupling the two regions, the unified global modeling of the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and the coupling of the ionosphere and magnetosphere at other planets and moons throughout the solar system. |
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9-14 |
Exoclimes III: The Diversity of Planetary Atmospheres,
Davos, Switzerland
Planetary atmospheres are complex and evolving entities, as mankind is rapidly coming to realize while attempting to understand, forecast, and mitigate human-induced climate change. In the solar system, our neighbors Venus and Mars provide striking examples of two endpoints of planetary evolution: runaway greenhouse and loss of atmosphere to space. The variety of extrasolar planets brings a wider angle to the issue: from scorching “hot Jupiters” to ocean worlds, exo-atmospheres explore many configurations unknown in the solar system, such as iron clouds, silicate rains, extreme plate tectonics, and steam volcanos. Exoplanetary atmospheres have recently become accessible to observations, starting with hot gas giants, and gradually moving toward more Earth-like planets. This meeting will bring together Earth, solar system, and exoplanet specialists to discuss recent results and the way ahead. |
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17-18 | First FISICA Workshop: Science Goals of a Sub-Arcsecond Far-Infrared Space Observatory, Rome, Italy | |
18-19 |
Science and Challenges of Lunar Sample Return Workshop,
Noordwijk, The Netherlands
The Moon is an important exploration destination for ESA and is considered to be the next destination for humans beyond Low Earth Orbit. European access to the lunar surface is most likely to be made through cooperation with international partners and opportunities for international cooperation in the broad area of lunar exploration are being investigated. Sample return missions are an important element in the future cooperative exploration scenarios under discussion, as a next step after surface missions. They are a means of building international partnerships, developing and demonstrating technologies and capabilities, and performing detailed analyses to answer fundamental scientific questions and address exploration enabling knowledge gaps through analyses which cannot be performed in situ. Such missions may be required to access extreme environments, perform complex surface operations, and handle uniquely demanding sample requirements. Such activities can result in major advances in planetary sciences, astrobiology and the future of exploration. A Lunar Polar Sample Return mission, envisaged in the early 2020s by Roscosmos, has been identified by ESA as an important cooperative mission opportunity, and as a logical follow-on from a possible European participation to the Luna-Resurs Lander mission planned by Roscosmos before the end of this decade. In addition a human tended deep space capability, as initiated with the Orion vehicle currently developed by NASA in cooperation with ESA, can be of benefit to a sample return mission and may lead to a future integration of robotic and human exploration. In preparation for these missions it is important to review our current knowledge and understanding of the Moon, establish the scientific and technical goals that should be targeted and the associated challenges that lie ahead. This workshop will explore the possible benefits and scientific return from Lunar Sample Return missions and investigate the implications for future mission systems. |
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28 |
The Early Magmatic and Tectonic History of the Moon as Revealed by GRAIL (Jeff Andrews-Hanna, Colorado School of Mines),
Lecture Hall
The geological record of the earliest history of the Moon is poorly preserved as a result of the heavy impact bombardment of the surface prior to 3.7 Ga. However, the signatures of early lunar evolution are preserved in the subsurface. Recent data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission is providing a view of the lunar subsurface at unprecedented resolution. Linear gravity anomalies reveal a population of ancient igneous intrusions that likely formed during an early period of thermal expansion of the Moon, providing an important constraint on lunar formation. Later intrusive activity was dominated by the formation of circular or arcuate dikes within the ring structures surrounding the major impact basins. In the absence of ring dikes, the gravitational signatures of tectonic offsets across the rings reveal the nature of the basin ring tectonics. The largest magmatic-tectonic structure revealed by GRAIL is a quasi-rectangular set of linear density anomalies ~2500 km in diameter, encompassing the Procellarum region on the lunar nearside. The gravitational signatures of the Procellarum border structures are consistent with volcanically flooded rift valleys, formed by extension driven by the gradual cooling and contraction of the Procellarum KREEP terrain. These and other observations from GRAIL are shedding new light on the early history of Earth's nearest neighbor. |
March 2014
1-8 |
IEEE Aerospace Conference,
Big Sky, Montana
The international IEEE Aerospace Conference, with AIAA and PHM Society as technical cosponsors, is organized to promote interdisciplinary understanding of aerospace systems, their underlying science and technology, and their applications to government and commercial endeavors. |
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4-5 |
SELENE Symposium 2014: International Symposium of Lunar Science and Exploration Using Data from Multi-Instruments,
Tokyo, Japan
Significant progress in lunar science and technology has been made in the last decade by orbiter missions including our SELENE (Kaguya). It is time to start new analyses, for instance using data from multi-instruments and/or lunar samples. For this purpose, we held an international symposium of lunar science, the SELENE SYMPOSIUM 2013, at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Sagamihara, Japan, last January. The symposium was very fruitful with more than 90 participants from 7 countries. Here, we are pleased to announce the 2nd symposium, the SELENE SYMPOSIUM 2014, in Japan again. The meeting will be held at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Mitaka City, Tokyo. All scientists and engineers around the world who are interested in lunar science are invited to come together for beneficial discussions on the new views of the origin and evolution of the Moon. Presentation topics will be widely opened. |
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7 |
A New Volatility Scale for the Earth-Moon System and the Status of Water in the Moon (Francis Albarède, Ecole Nationale Supérieure, France),
Lecture Hall
The notion of a dry Moon has recently been challenged by the discovery of high water contents in lunar apatites and in melt inclusions within olivine crystals from two pyroclastic glasses. However, these water contents were determined on lithologies that are rare on the lunar surface. We measured the Zn content, a highly volatile element, of mineral and rock fragments in lunar soils collected during Apollo missions, which average over the surface of the Moon. We show here that the Moon is significantly more depleted in Zn than the Earth. Combining Zn with existing K and Rb data on similar rocks allows us to anchor a new volatility scale based on the bond energy of non-siderophile elements in their condensed phases. Extrapolating the volatility curve to H shows that the bulk of the lunar interior must be dry (≤1 ppm). This contrasts with the water content of the mantle sources of pyroclastic glasses, inferred to contain up to ~40 ppm water based on H2O/Ce ratios. These observations are best reconciled if pyroclastic glasses derive from localized water-rich heterogeneities in a dominantly dry lunar interior. |
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16 |
International Workshop on Scientific Opportunities in Cislunar Space (SOCS),
Houston, Texas
Cislunar space, from low Earth orbit to the Lunar far side halo orbit (LL2), is a uniquely accessible environment for planetary scientists and explorers providing physical analogs for many extreme conditions from Mercury to Pluto. Cislunar space provides two primary environments for in situ and prepared experimentation: Long duration cryogenic environments down to 25 Kelvin with natural or manmade volatile ices and hard vacuum deep space partials, and plasma and radiation environments. The SOCS workshops and challenges will focus on developing the technologies and techniques to illuminate the chemistry and physics of deep space targets such as the ice giants, icy moons, or the partials and plasmas around near Earth objects (NEOs). |
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16 | SHARAD/MARSIS Data Users' Workshop, The Woodlands, Texas | |
17-20 | Science with the Hubble Space Telescope IV: Looking to the Future, Rome, Italy | |
17-21 | 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (#LPSC2014) *, The Woodlands, Texas | |
17-21 |
Search for Life Beyond the Solar System — Exoplanets, Biomarkers and Instruments,
Tucson, Arizona
The goal of the conference is to bring together the interdisciplinary community required to address this multi-faceted challenge: experts on exoplanet observations, early and extreme life on earth, atmospheric biomarkers, and planet-finding telescopes. |
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18-21 | International Workshop on Scientific Use, Digitization and Preserving Astronomical Photographic Records, Prague, Czech Republic | |
20-22 | Meeting of the Astronomical Society of India 2014, Mohali, India | |
26-28 | First ExoMars 2018 Landing Site Selection Workshop, Madrid, Spain |
April 2014
1-3 |
International Cometary Workshop,
Toulouse, France
The workshop will cover topics ranging from the dynamical and chemical evolution of the solar nebula during formation, to the techniques for measuring the composition of comets. Invited speakers include some of the community leaders in cometary science, measurements and technology development. We will discuss the role that Rosetta measurements will play in understanding the origin of Solar System bodies, and what future missions to comets are being planned. |
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4 |
Properties of the Lunar Regolith Revealed by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer (Benjamin Greenhagen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory),
Hess Room
The Diviner Lunar Radiometer, onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, is the first multispectral thermal instrument to globally map the surface of the Moon. Diviner’s unprecedented and growing dataset is revealing the extreme nature of the lunar thermal environment, thermophysical properties, and surface composition. In this talk I will address each of these three topics, with emphasis on my contributions to the surface compositional and thermophysical investigations. Additionally, I will describe the legacy of Diviner for future opportunities to explore other airless solar system bodies using thermal emission techniques. |
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8-10 |
Titan Through Time Workshop 3,
Laurel, Maryland
We are pleased to announce a third workshop on "Titan Through Time" in 2014 at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD, following the success of the previous workshops in 2010 and 2012 at nearby Goddard Space Flight Center. The third meeting will have a similar format, with a 2 1/2 day science program comprised of themed sessions, and featuring a mixture of invited reviews, and contributed talks and posters. As in previous years, we welcome scientific reports and attendance from the widest possible cross-section of the scientific community, including both those studying Titan directly, but also those whose research interests have intersections with Titan science in areas such as laboratory chemistry and spectroscopy; modeling of planetary atmospheres, surfaces and interiors; terrestrial analogs and comparative planetology; and the formation and evolution of the solar system. |
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8-11 |
4th International Workshop on on Lunar and Planetary Compact and Cryogenic Science and Technology Applications (LSA 4),
Cocoa Beach, Florida
LSA 4 will be a crossroads for scientist, engineers, and entrepreneurs who are building and flying lunar missions now. After 30 years of neglect, the Moon is becoming a very active and crowded place. Russia, China, and the U.S. all plan to have active lander/rover missions on the lunar surface in 2017-2018. In addition, there will be many secondary payloads and LunarCube missions to the surface of the Moon and throughout Cislunar space with rides provided by smaller national and private programs such as the Google Lunar X Prize teams. In response, LSA 4 will bring together the best, the brightest and the most passionate to deliver progress updates, the latest discoveries and newest opportunities, technical presentations and discussions on lander rover technologies; ISRU, especially cryogenic volatiles deposits; and cryogenic planetary science and processes. The latest results from LRO, LCROSS, and LADEE will be presented, and Astrobotic, MoonExpress, Luna, and Resource Prospector will provide updates on the progress of their missions. LSA 4 is the anchor event for a week of activities in and around the Kennedy Space Center including the 43rd Space Congress sponsored by Canaveral Council of Technical Societies (CCTS), Yuri's Night and a banquet co-sponsored by the Missile, Space and Range Pioneers, a member of CCTS. |
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11 |
Planetary Volcanism: Environmental Effects on Eruption Style (Karl Mitchell, Jet Propulsion Laboratory),
Lecture Hall
Volcanism is a common occurrence on planetary bodies, including asteroids as well as rocky and icy planets and moons, and on some worlds is both the dominant mode of heat transport to planetary surfaces and the main resurfacing mechanism. Dr Mitchell will discuss the dynamics of volcanic eruptions, how planetary environments modulate the expression of volcanism, and how volcanic features can be used to give insights into the planetary interior. |
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22-24 | Humans to Mars Summit, Washington, DC | |
25 |
Constraints on the Formation Age and Evolution of the Moon from 142Nd-143Nd Systematics of Apollo 12 Basalts (Claire McLeod, University of Houston),
Lecture Hall
The Moon likely formed as a result of a giant impact between proto-Earth and another large body. The timing of this event and the subsequent lunar differentiation timescales are actively debated. New high-precision Nd isotope data for Apollo mare basalts are used to evaluate the Low-Ti, High-Ti and KREEP mantle source reservoirs within the context of lunar formation and evolution. The resulting models are assessed using both reported 146Sm half-lives (68 and 103 Myr). The linear relationship defined by 142Nd-143Nd systematics does not represent multi-component mixing and is interpreted as an isochron recording a mantle closure age for the Sm-Nd system in the Moon. Using a chondritic source model with present day μ142Nd of -7.3, the mare basalt mantle source reservoirs closed at 4.45+10-09 Ga (t½ 146Sm = 68 Myr) or 4.39+16-14 Ga (t½ 146Sm = 103 Myr). In a superchondritic, 2-stage evolution model with present day μ142Nd of 0, mantle source closure ages are constrained to 4.41+10-08 (t½ 146Sm = 68 Myr) or 4.34+15-14 Ga (t½ 146Sm = 103 Myr). The lunar mantle source reservoir closure ages <4.5 Ga may be reconciled in 3 potential scenarios. First, the Moon formed ca. 4.55 to 4.47 Ga and small amounts of residual melts were sustained within a crystallizing lunar magma ocean (LMO) for up to c. 200 Myr from tidal heating or asymmetric LMO evolution. Second, the LMO crystallized rapidly after early Moon formation. The later Sm-Nd mantle closure age represents resetting of isotope systematics. This may have resulted from a global wide remelting event. Third, the Moon formed later than currently favored models indicate, such that the lunar mantle closure age is near or at the time of lunar formation. While current Earth-Moon formation constraints cannot exclusively advocate or dismiss any of these models, the fact that U-Pb ages and Hf isotopes for Jack Hills zircons from Australia are best explained by an Earth that re-equilibrated at 4.4 Ga or earlier following the Moon-forming impact, does not favor a later forming Moon. If magma oceans crystallize in a few million years as currently advocated, then a global resetting, possibly by a large impact at 4.40 to 4.34 Ga, such as that which formed the South Pole Aitken Basin, best explains the late mantle closure age for the coupled Sm-Nd isotope systematics presented here. |
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27-May 2 | European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria | |
28-29 | Interplanetary Small Satellite Conference, Pasadena, California | |
28-May 1 | 45th Annual Meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA 2014), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |
28-May 1 | Habitable Worlds Across Time and Space, Baltimore, Maryland | |
28-May 3 | 21st Young Scientists' Conference on Astronomy and Space Physics, Kiev, Ukraine |
May 2014
5-9 | 13th International Conference on Space Operations (SpaceOps 2014), Pasadena, California | |
13 |
EnVision: M4 Venus Orbiter Workshop,
London, England
A meeting is to be held at Imperial College London on Tuesday 13 May 2014 in support of EnVision, an ESA Medium-class proposed Venus orbiter, in preparation for the anticipated M4 call. All are welcome; please confirm your interest by email to [email protected]. If you would like to put forward an idea for discussion, for example for science investigations to carry out with this mission, please also submit a short abstract (150-300 words) by the end of February. |
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13-14 | Mars Exploration Analysis Group (MEPAG) Meeting, Washington, DC | |
13-15 | The Formation of the Solar System Conference, Bonn, Germany | |
14-16 | First Landing Site Workshop for the 2020 Mars Rover Mission, Washington, DC | |
17-21 | 51st Annual Meeting of the Clay Minerals Society, College Station, Texas | |
19-21 | Venus Exploration Targets Workshop (#venus2014) *, Houston, Texas | |
20-22 | Biosignatures Across Space and Time, Bergen, Norway | |
26-31 |
Accretion and Early Differentiation of the Earth and Terrestrial Planets (ACCRETE),
Nice, France
This will be a small workshop with up to 120 participants, including a significant number of students and young scientists. The topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, chemistry of small bodies in the early solar system; planetary accretion; core-mantle differentiation; delivery of volatile elements, including water; nature and timing of the "late veneer"; consequences of giant impacts; etc. The workshop will be held at La Maison du Seminaire, which is located on the sea front in downtown Nice. |
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27-28 | 3rd Interplanetary CubeSat Workshop (iCubeSat 2014), Pasadena, California | |
28-30 |
Workshop on Planetary Volcanism POSTPONED
(#planetlava) *,
Houston, Texas
Over the last few years we have had a revolution in our understanding of the surface of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon through a variety of robust orbital, landed in situ, and rover missions. Recent imagery has identified for perhaps the first time the existence of lavatubes, skylights, and pit craters on the surfaces of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon. Skylights, tubes, and pits are unique in that they are relevant to all aspects of the space initiative — exploration, potential habitability, resources, human ops, and habitation. Furthermore, the role of volatiles has been a major breakthrough in mare volcanism. The goal of this workshop is to summarize what we know as well as what we need to know about the origin, evolution, structure, and astrobiological significance of planetary volcanism — specifically as it relates to the newly discovered lavatubes, skylights, and pit craters. This is critical to understanding the role of mantle processes in shaping the planetary surface, as well as similarities and differences in evolutionary pathways that shaped the terrestrial planets. We hope to gain insights into future mission concepts and to stimulate cross-discipline interactions. |
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30 |
Elastic Models of Magma Reservoir Mechanics: A Key Tool for Investigating Planetary Volcanism (Eric Grosfils, Pomona College),
Lecture Hall
Understanding how shallow reservoirs store and redirect magma is critical for deciphering the relationship between surface and subsurface volcanic activity on the terrestrial planets. In this talk I will demonstrate how elastic models provide useful insight into the mechanics of magma reservoir inflation and rupture, and hence into related and commonly observed volcanic phenomena such as edifice growth, circumferential intrusion, radial dyke swarm emplacement and caldera formation. Based on finite element model results, the interplay between volcanic elements – including magma reservoir geometry, host rock environment, mechanical layering, and edifice loading – dictates the overpressure required for rupture, the location and orientation of initial fracturing and intrusion, and the associated surface uplift. Model results are either insensitive to, or can readily incorporate, material and parameter variations characterizing different planetary environments, and they also compare favorably with predictions derived from rheologically complex, time-dependent formulations for a surprisingly diverse array of volcanic scenarios. These characteristics indicate that elastic models are a powerful and useful tool for exploring many fundamental questions in planetary volcanology. |
June 2014
1-5 | Second Annual Meeting of the AAS Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD 2014), Boston, Massachusetts | |
3-5 |
International Symposium on Lunar and Planetary Science,
Macau, China
This international Symposium aims for the international academic exchange on the topics of processing, analysis, research, and application of lunar and planetary exploration data, especially related to Chang’e-3, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and other missions. |
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3-5 | Mars — Connecting Planetary Scientists in Europe (MPSE 2014), Warsaw, Poland | |
8-14 | Goldschmidt 2014, Sacramento, California | |
9-12 | Fifth Meeting of the Space Resources Roundtable and the Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium, Golden, Colorado | |
10-14 |
International Venus Workshop,
Catania, Sicily, Italy
Following previous Venus conferences organised by the Venus Express team in 2007 and 2008 (La Thuile) and 2010 (Aussois), this fourth conference invites talks on all aspects of Venus science, whether related to Venus Express or not. The conference will include invited and contributed talks, and an opportunity to display posters. The scientific programme will be arranged thematically with topics including atmospheric dynamics; atmospheric structure; atmospheric chemistry & clouds; thermosphere, ionosphere & escape processes; surface & interior; supporting laboratory investigations; and planetary evolution. Interdisciplinary talks, and comparative planetology talks highlighting parallels with other planets in our solar system or beyond, are particularly encouraged. To emphasize the central role of volcanism in shaping the history of Venus and its climate, the conference will be held at the foot of Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily in the town of Catania. A half-day field trip to the summit of Etna is foreseen during the conference. |
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15-19 |
11th International GeoRaman Conference *,
St. Louis, Missouri
The 11th International GeoRaman conference in St. Louis will focus on two major aspects of laser Raman spectroscopy: (1) The most advanced technologies and instrumentation, from laboratories to a wide variety of field applications, e.g., industrial and security monitoring, geo-fields, deep ocean, and on other planets; (2) The newest applications in studying inorganic, organic, and bio-genetic materials in Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, Archaeology and Archaeometry, Gemmology, and Astrobiology. |
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16-20 | 11th International Planetary Probe Workshop (#IPPW11) *, Pasadena, California | |
16-20 |
48th ESLAB Symposium: New Insights into Volcanism Across the Solar System,
Noordwijk, The Netherlands
The aim of the 2014 ESLAB symposium is to review the different mechanisms, sources and surface expressions of volcanism, both effusive and explosive. Special, but not exclusive, emphasis will be put on moons and Mercury, target bodies of future ESA missions (BepiColombo to Mercury and the Jupiter icy moon explorer mission, JUICE). |
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16-20 | Annual Planetary Science Summer School, Session 1, Pasadena, California | |
23-26 | Science Results from Pan-STARRS1, Baltimore, Maryland | |
24-27 | 6th Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing: Evolution in Remote Sensing (WHISPERS), Lausanne, Switzerland | |
27 |
Deformation on Enceladus: Implications for Ice Shell Properties (Amanda Nahm, University of Idaho),
Lecture Hall
Despite its small size, the icy surface of Enceladus shows evidence for geologic and tectonic diversity that rivals its larger outer planet satellite companions. In this talk, I will present the wide array of tectonic structures observed on the surface, discuss the possible formation mechanisms, and the implications of the diverse tectonics for the geologic history of Enceladus. I will then focus on one structure in particular, revealed by topography to be a large (~200 km long) normal fault. Using forward mechanical modeling of fault-related topography, I determine important fault characteristics at depth. I then apply flexure modeling to estimate the elastic thickness of the ice shell at the time of fault formation. I will conclude with estimates of the local heat flux at the time of fault formation and what this implies about the tectonic history and ice shell properties of Enceladus. |
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30-Jul 4 |
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (ACM),
Helsinki, Finland
The Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (ACM) meeting is the premier international gathering of scientists who study small bodies. The 2014 ACM meeting will be the twelfth in the series. |
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30-Jul 4 | The Outer Regions of Extrasolar Planetary Systems, Geneva, Switzerland | |
30-Aug 8 | ISIMA 2014: Gravitational Dynamics, Toronto, Canada |
July 2014
4-11 | 6th International Summer School on Radar/SAR Systems, Bonn, Germany | |
6-11 | CoRoT3-KASC7: The Space Photometry Revolution, Toulouse, France | |
6-11 |
Origins 2014,
Nara, Japan
This conference will provide an opportunity with chemists, biologists, geologists, astronomers, planetary scientists, and those from other research fields to meet and discuss on mutual research interests for addressing questions of the origin and evolution of life on this planet and elsewhere in the Universe. |
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7-11 | 6th Alfven Conference: Plasma Interactions with Solar System Objects, Anticipating Rosetta, MAVEN, and Mars Orbiter Mission, London, United Kingdom | |
7-11 | Complex Planetary Systems, Namur, Belgium | |
7-11 |
Nuclei in the Cosmos,
Debrecen, Hungary
Bi-annual conference of cosmochemists, nuclear physicists, astrophysicists; accompanied with a one week school for students. |
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9-11 | The Universe in the Light of Akari and Synergy with Future Large Space Telescopes, Oxford, United Kingdom | |
11 |
The MSL Rover Curiosity: What We’re Doing, and Quick View of How We Do It (Allan Treiman, Lunar and Planetary Institute),
Lecture Hall
The MSL rover Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6, 2013, just over a Mars year ago, on the floor of Gale Crater. Since then, Curiosity has traversed many kilometers and made significant scientific discoveries on its path toward Mt. Sharp, the central mound of Gale Crater. Allan Treiman, a co-I on the CheMin instrument on Curiosity, will give a summary of what Curiosity has been doing, its ultimate goals, and some of the human processes behind its daily planning. |
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14-18 | Annual Planetary Science Summer School, Session 2, Pasadena, California | |
14-18 |
Eighth International Mars Conference
(#8thMars) *,
Pasadena, California
Reschedule of conference originally planned for July 2013. |
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20 |
5th Annual Lunar and Small Bodies Graduate Conference (LunGradCon 2014),
Moffett Field, California
LunGradCon 2014 will address the following research topics of the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute: Dust/Regolith and Plasma; Geology and Geophysics; Volatiles/Exospheres; Missions and Human Exploration. LunGradCon 2014 will also present opportunities for social networking among LGC participants and senior scientists and engineers from NASA ARC and the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. |
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21-23 | NASA Exploration Science Forum (ESF), Moffett Field, California | |
21-25 | 2014 Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshop: Imaging Planets and Disks, Pasadena, California | |
21-25 |
Eighth International Conference on Aeolian Research (ICAR VIII),
Lanzhou, China
The International Conferences for Aeolian Research (ICAR conferences) are sponsored by the International Society for Aeolian Research (ISAR). They attract aeolian geomorphologists, geologists, physical scientists, soil scientists, climatologists, ecologists and erosion specialists from around the world to discuss the latest challenges and discoveries of aeolian research. |
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23-24 | Outer Planets Analysis Group (OPAG) Meeting, Bethesda, Maryland | |
25 |
Impact Basins and the Moon: Understanding Very Large Crater Formation (Ross Potter, Lunar and Planetary Institute),
Lecture Hall
Impact basins are the largest type of impact structure in the Solar System, but also the rarest and least understood. The Moon's surface shows evidence of at least 40-50 of these basins (impact structures greater than 300 km in diameter), some of which are fairly well-preserved. Here, numerical modeling is used to investigate the formation and structure of these basins. The modeling constrains impact conditions for two of the largest basins, South Pole-Aitken and Orientale, highlights similarities between basin and smaller-scale crater formation, and demonstrates the great importance of target temperature on the basin formation process. |
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28-30 |
Workshop on the Study of the Ice Giant Planets
(#Icegiant) *,
Laurel, Maryland
The goal of this 2.5-day workshop is to raise awareness of the uniqueness/importance of ice giants in our solar system and others and lay out key science goals and a potential suite of investigations for New Frontiers-Flagship mission concepts. We will review the current state of knowledge of all aspects of the ice giant planetary systems (planets, satellites, rings, etc.), and how it relates to our knowledge of the gas giants, planetary formation models, and the study of exoplanets, incorporating outcomes of the 2013 Paris Uranus meeting. We will initiate a major effort to prioritize the science goals of future Uranus and Neptune missions and review studied architectures for these mission concepts. Contributed talks/posters are welcome, particularly those that focus on the state of knowledge and mission studies. Abstract submission will open in early May 2014. |
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28-Aug 1 | 11th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Sapporo, Japan | |
28-Aug 1 |
Characterizing Planetary Systems Across the HR Diagram,
Cambridge, England
The meeting will focus on the full lifetime of planetary systems, from pre- to post-main sequence host star stages, and the connections that can be made by viewing these evolutionary stages as parts of a whole. In this way, the program aims to provide an integrative approach rather than focusing on each stellar stage separately. |
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29-31 | 11th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), Washington, DC |
August 2014
2-10 | 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Moscow, Russia | |
4 | Europa Pre-Proposal Conference, Virtual meeting | |
4-8 | Cosmic Dust VII, Osaka, Japan | |
4-8 | Saturn in the 21st Century, Madison, Wisconsin | |
6-8 |
5th Planetary Crater Consortium Meeting,
Flagstaff, Arizona
The Planetary Crater Consortium (PCC) formed in 2010 from the merger of the Mars Crater Consortium (MCC), Lunar Crater Consortium (LCC), and Outer Solar System Crater Consortium (OSSCC). The PCC is open to planetary scientists interested in any aspect of impact cratering on solar system bodies (planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and/or comets), including observational, theoretical, experimental, and numerical modeling studies. |
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8 |
Effusive Volcanism on Mercury (Paul Byrne, Lunar and Planetary Institute),
Lecture Hall
In its flybys of Mercury in 1974–75, the Mariner 10 spacecraft identified smooth plains deposits across the ~45% of the planet it observed, raising the prospect that effusive volcanism had occurred on the innermost planet. The provenance of these deposits remained uncertain, however, until the three flybys of the MESSENGER spacecraft in 2008–09, during which almost the entire surface of Mercury was imaged. MESSENGER showed the smooth plains to be widespread and the majority to be volcanic in nature. The latter inference was based on superposition relations indicative of the sequential embayment of impact basins and ejecta, regional-scale spectral homogeneity but color variation, partially buried impact structures, and deposit thicknesses of hundreds to thousands of meters. Observations made after MESSENGER was inserted into orbit about Mercury in 2011 indicate that smooth plains occupy some 27% of the planetary surface. In this talk, I will review some of the most salient aspects of Mercury’s effusive volcanic character, including expansive northern plains, ghost craters, and lava channels, as well as its chemical composition, emplacement history, and what this volcanism can tell us of the planet’s thermal evolution. |
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11-14 | 1st LSST Observing Cadences Workshop, Phoenix, Arizona | |
11-15 | Annual Planetary Science Summer School, Session 3, Pasadena, California | |
13-15 |
Planetary Rings Workshop,
Boulder, Colorado
This workshop will be open to all interested parties and any observational of theoretical research on the properties, dynamics, origin or evolution of any planetary ring system is appropriate. This meeting will highlight the latest Cassini results. We plan on predominantly oral talks, but posters will be considered. Ample time will be allowed for discussion. Previous workshops were held in Ithaca (2011), Paris (2008) and Whitefish, MT (2006). Planned program includes an opening reception Tuesday evening, a workshop dinner on Wednesday, and working lunch on Friday. The meeting will end Friday evening. |
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18-22 | 19th International Sedimentological Congress of the International Association of Sedimentologists, Geneva, Switzerland | |
20-21 |
Solar Wind Interaction with Pluto Workshop,
Boulder, Colorado
In preparation for New Horizons flyby of Pluto on July 15, 2015, a workshop on the solar wind interaction with Pluto’s atmosphere will be hosted by the Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets group at LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics), Boulder, CO, Wednesday and Thursday August 20-21, 2014, in the SPSC building on East Campus. The workshop will focus on current ideas and models of the upstream solar wind conditions, the interaction of the surrounding plasma with Pluto’s escaping atmosphere, and perturbations of the solar wind propagating downstream. The workshop will include presentations on plans for observations that will be made by and datasets collected by the New Horizons Alice (UVS), REX (Radio Science), SWAP (KeV plasma), PEPSSI (MeV particles), and SDC (dust counter) instruments. |
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24-28 |
Small Bodies Dynamics 2014 (SBD14),
Ubatuba, Brazil
The SBD meeting intends to provide a new space for in-depth and stimulating discussions and talks on all aspects of minor bodies dynamics. Topics covered by this meeting will involve the dynamical evolution of asteroids, TNOs, satellites, rings, dust, and space probes. The SBD meeting will feature invited talks on a range of topics, contributed talks, and posters. |
September 2014
5-9 |
7th GEOSCIED Conference,
Hyderabad, India
The main objective of the conference is to bring together leading academicians, scientists, researchers, graduate students and others whose mandate/interest is to promote geoscience education at the school-, college- and university-levels and among the general public. |
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7 |
Workshop on Using Radar Imagery for Meteorite Fall Detection and Recovery,
Casablanca, Morocco
Weather radar imagery is a proven new means of locating fresh meteorite falls. In the United States, weather radars have assisted in the recovery of the Sutter's Mill and Battle Mountain meteorite falls, as well as two more falls in Alabama and California within the past two years. This presents an opportunity, because weather radars are operated by national weather bureaus worldwide, and usually make their radar imagery available to the public. It should be possible for researchers around the world to use their local weather radar networks to locate meteorite falls. This workshop has the goal of teaching researchers how to analyze weather radar imagery in their own country for real-time meteorite fall information, thereby greatly increasing the recovery rate for new large meteorite falls. |
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7-12 | European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC 2014), Cascais, Portugal | |
8-10 | Planet Formation and Evolution 2014, Kiel, Germany | |
8-11 | Electrification in Dusty Atmospheres Inside and Outside the Solar System, Pitlochry, United Kingdom | |
8-12 | First Astrobiology School at the Observatorio Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | |
8-12 | Living Together: Planets, Stellar Binaries and Stars with Planets, Litomysl, Czech Republic | |
8-12 | Thirty Years of Beta Pic and Debris Disk Studies, Paris, France | |
8-13 | 77th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society *, Casablanca, Morocco | |
10-12 |
Planet Formation and Evolution 2014,
Kiel, Germany
The aim of this workshop is to intensify the interaction between the research communities in the fields of planet formation, exoplanets, and the solar system. |
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12-14 |
45th Annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium,
Knoxville, Tennessee
During the past forty years of spacecraft exploration of the solar system, geomorphology has become an extraterrestrial science. Spacecraft missions to other planetary bodies continue to provide surface data at unprecedented resolutions, which in some cases are higher than the resolution of data for Earth. Several countries have recent, ongoing, or planned missions to investigate the surface of the moon. Cameras in orbit around Mars are providing images at a variety of wavelengths with coverage over significant proportions of the planet at resolutions down to meters per pixel. The MESSENGER mission in orbit at Mercury is returning data of novel tectonic and volcanic morphologies. And in the outer solar system, instruments on the Cassini spacecraft are showing that, despite their exotic materials, Titan and other Saturnian satellites have Earth-like surface morphologies. Myriad other missions to other terrestrial planetary bodies are also planned or ongoing. By providing for substantial investigation of and trenchant comparison among the landforms of geologic bodies in our solar system, these data represent a new era in geomorphology. The 2014 Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium (BGS) will support new scientific collaborations between and discoveries by the terrestrial and planetary geomorphology communities through presentation of planetary geomorphologic features and their terrestrial analogs. Investigations using spacecraft data, terrestrial field work, numerical modeling, and experimental results will be presented. The symposium will feature invited oral presentations highlighting comparisons between terrestrial and extraterrestrial processes and landscapes. Poster contributions are also welcome. |
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15-19 |
Towards Other Earths II: The Star-Planet Connection,
Porto, Portugal
This conference aims at reviewing the state of the art of star-planet connection, with some focus on the detection and characterization of Earth like planets orbiting other stars. We propose to debate how the field of extrasolar planets will evolve in respect to this and how it will face the challenges of the upcoming years. |
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18-21 | International Meteor Conference 2014, Giron, France | |
19 |
The Role of Fault Growth and Connectivity on Fluid and Volatile Transport in the Crust (Danielle Wyrick, Southwest Research Institute),
Lecture Hall
Crustal deformation such as faulting, fracturing, and folding has long been recognized as a major control on fluid and gas transport within earth’s crust, creating fast flow pathways for the migration of groundwater and potential contaminants in some cases, while becoming barriers and traps for oil and gas in others. Understanding how faults and fractures grow, link, and evolve is critical to understanding fault network connectivity pathways for fluid and volatile migration. However, the role of heterogeneity in the crust – which varies both laterally and within stratigraphic layers – in the growth and linkage of fracture networks is not well understood. Additionally, the role of pressurized fluids in creating and/or reactivating existing fractures, such as magmatic intrusion and hydraulic fracturing, is even less well characterized. This talk will focus on numerical models, laboratory experiments, and field investigations performed to characterized fault and fracture connectivity, with application to contaminant transport, magma intrusion, and hydraulic fracturing. These techniques, such as displacement versus length and fault connectivity analyses, have application to several solar system bodies, ranging from volcanic-tectonic interactions on Mars and Venus to geysering at Enceladus and Europa. |
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20-21 |
SpaceUp Toulouse,
Toulouse, France
SpaceUp is a space unconference, where participants decide the topics, schedule, and structure of the event. Everyone who attends SpaceUp is encouraged to give a talk, moderate a panel, or start a discussion. Sessions are proposed and scheduled on the day they’re given, which means the usual “hallway conversations” turn into full-fledged topics. |
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20-23 | International Conference of Young Astronomers, Torun, Poland | |
22-25 | Exoplanets with JWST–MIRI, Heidelberg, Germany | |
23-27 | National Conference of Astronomers of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia | |
24-26 | Joint Workshop on High Pressure, Planetary, and Plasma Physics, Rostock, Germany | |
24-Oct 2 |
Summer Course on Exoplanets,
La Palma, Spain
The aim of the course is to give participants a thorough multidisciplinary introduction into the field of exoplanets, their detection, types, characterization, and to explore the possibility of life on exoplanets. In addition, more general planetary subjects like formation of planetary systems, habitability of planets, and physical processes in planetary atmospheres will be covered. |
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29-Oct 3 | 65th International Astronautical Congress, Toronto, Canada | |
29-Oct 3 | Dynamical Astronomy in Latin-America, Santiago, Chile |