Founded to reach the moon, we’re already on our way to the next frontier. Built for liftoff, America’s Space University celebrates UCF Space Week Nov. 3-7.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Boldly Forge the Future of Space

As SpaceU, UCF is pushing the boundaries of exploration once again by launching a groundbreaking new doctoral program in the planetary and space sciences. Now, aspiring researchers can apply to the inaugural cohort of the program, which launches Fall 2026 and is offered through the College of Sciences’ Department of Physics.

Apply to the planetary and space sciences doctoral program by the Dec. 1, 2025, priority deadline.

“It’s relatively unusual to have a separate Ph.D. program in planetary and space sciences like this,” says Yan Fernandez, professor of physics and director of the new doctoral program. “It’s an exciting step forward. We have a large number of faculty working on planetary science and there are very few universities with that kind of knowledge in one place.”

The new doctoral program is interdisciplinary in its approach, bringing in elements from astrobiology, astronomy, data analysis, geology, physics and more. The program originated as a planetary sciences track as part of a doctoral degree in physics and was approved by the Board of Governors in Florida as the first and only planetary and space sciences doctoral program in the state.

“As SpaceU, we are aiming to be the premier engineering and technology university in the state and a destination for space-focused learning in the world,” says Addie Dove, professor and chair of the Department of Physics. “We want to ensure the programs we offer reflect the university’s strategic approach as well as what’s necessary to succeed in today’s workforce.”

What Students Can Expect from the Program

The new degree will position graduates for employment opportunities that are projected to grow in Florida and nationwide. Program graduates will have the knowledge and skills necessary for roles in governmental agencies such as NASA, the private space industry, academia and research institutions. Graduates will be prepared to work as scientists within fields that include astronomy, atmospheric physics, space science and geoscience.

“This program is not just for physics students, but also for students who have studied geology, engineering, data science or  many other STEM fields,” Dove says. “We have a number of faculty who built hardware that has gone or will travel into space and there’s an opportunity for students with more of an engineering background to pursue this doctorate.”

“Having a strong foundation in scientific thinking is important, whether individuals are building hardware going to other planetary surfaces, working on next generation telescopes, or considering problems that have not even been imagined yet,” she continues.

The program broadens the areas of study to include not only physics but also astrochemistry, astrogeology, astrobiology, and scientific instrument development. Fernandez also emphasizes the importance of big data and machine learning in planetary science.

“There’s a need for a program like this because we are awash in data,” Fernandez says. “Students who understand these aspects of big data, efficient programming and working in problems in planetary science can contribute in many ways to innovative research and to cutting-edge science.”

Fueling the Future of Space

Dove notes that the students who have pursued the initial planetary sciences track in the physics doctorate program have successfully worked on space-related research.

“There are many possibilities available through the program’s large network,” she says. “Many of our students obtain internships or fellowships over the course of their studies, and we create high impact experiences within our classes. Our graduates have become postdocs and have worked on spacecraft missions. Some have continued into academia, some have worked for NASA and we have also seen students go on to work for companies that develop hardware and technology to send to space.”

Dove shares that it is important to be responsive to the changing needs of industry, while providing opportunities for students to work in the collaborative ways that researchers often work in planetary science and all of STEM.

“We wanted to ensure that the program reflected the values of our department, college and university and embraced our shared passion to boldly push the frontiers of knowledge,” Dove says.

Note to Prospective Students: Enrollment is currently open for admission in the Fall 2026, with a priority deadline of Dec. 1, 2025. You may apply after the early deadline, and can reach out to faculty with research areas of interest. Be sure to apply to the planetary and space sciences doctoral program and not the track. Contact planets@ucf.edu for more information.

It’s on its way to study the origins of our universe and the history of galaxies, and to search for the ingredients of life in our galaxy. The infrared space telescope will spend about two years orbiting Earth from 404 miles overhead, collecting data on more than 450 million galaxies. The telescope also will survey more than 100 million stars in our galaxy.

Lots of space afficianados are excited about the mission, including ɫ���� Physics Professor Yan Fernandez ɫ����’s Planetary Sciences group.

Because of Fernandez’s strengths in space technologies, comets and asteroids, he and his research group at UCF were tapped to collect data from the SPHEREx mission, driving innovation and exploration across space.

Researchers and educators at America’s Space University are recognized leaders in space science. The university was founded to help fuel talent for the nearby space industry, and that same relentless spirit powers UCF’s commitment today to boldly forge the future of space. That includes Fernandez’s team’s involvement in SPHEREx, which has the ability to identify an amazing array of colors and wavelengths.

“Essentially, we’re getting infrared-color info about every object that the telescope detects. In fact, we’re getting about 100 colors — there are about 100 specific wavelengths that the telescope will be measuring,” says Fernandez.

It covers some of the same wavelengths as the infrared James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) but is much smaller; the primary mirror is only 8 inches wide.

“Every source we detect will have an infrared spectrum that has about 100 data points,” says Fernandez. “And using infrared wavelengths is very advantageous over visible wavelengths alone, in that it can get you much more detailed compositional and physical info about lots of astrophysical objects.”

Despite the diminutive size of the primary mirror, it covers a much bigger field-of-view, allowing it to map literally the entire sky – something JWST could never do. The data that the mission will collect will be spectral images, i.e. spectral data cubes, where two of the dimensions of the cube show you spatial information and the third dimension displays wavelength.

“Serendipitously, the telescope will also give us infrared spectra of about 80,000 asteroids, and about 200 comets. These will be really useful since SPHEREx’s wavelength coverage is not so easy to replicate from ground-based telescopes,” says Fernandez. “We are potentially going to have tremendous statistics to play with in terms of understanding compositional and physical diversity among asteroids and comets.”

The mission’s main objectives involve large-scale structure of the Universe at early times in its history, galaxy formation/birth at various epochs of the Universe, and the composition of young ‘solar systems’ with planets that are being formed right now.

“Personally my main research interest is in the comets, although there are several classes or asteroids that are not too far removed from comets, so I hope to study some of those also,” says Fernandez.

In addition to delivering the most detailed infrared map of the cosmos to date, the telescope will also search for essential life-building molecules, including water and carbon dioxide, hidden within the vast interstellar clouds of gas and dust in our galaxy.

“Scientifically, it’s a rare event,” says Professor of Physics Yan Fernandez. “Philosophically, it’s a bonding opportunity.”

This is why there will be telescopes, protective glasses, TV displays and tables set up at UCF’s most visible outdoor gathering spot. Fernandez will be watching and bonding, too, but a thousand miles from campus. He and about a dozen others from UCF’s robust space research community are traveling to remote areas of Texas, Indiana and Mexico. Fernandez and his wife, Professor of Technical Communication Sonia Stephens, will tuck themselves into the southeast corner of Oklahoma, where he can do the type of experiential research that’s rarely attainable.

“We learned a few lessons from the eclipse in 2017,” Fernandez says.

We’ve come to him with questions about eclipses, but let’s start there, with a lesson learned.

What did you learn seven years ago?
An eclipse like that hadn’t happened in this part of North America in decades. That’s what makes the April 8 event unique — you’d normally wait almost a lifetime for an eclipse of such magnitude. In 2017 my wife and I traveled to Nebraska to watch from the path of totality, but thousands of people had done the same thing. When the sky started to cloud up, we were lucky enough to avoid the worst traffic and drive to a better spot to actually see totality. But afterward we were caught in traffic jams. This time we’ll be in a rural area where we can move around easier. That’s a tip for anyone — watch the forecast and move if necessary.

In your words, what exactly is a solar eclipse versus a lunar eclipse?
A solar eclipse is a really precise alignment of the sun, moon and Earth. It’s so perfect that the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth, casting a dramatic shadow on us. With a lunar eclipse, Earth passes directly between the sun and moon, with Earth casting a shadow on the moon.

You’re traveling to the “path of totality.” Explain that.
It’s the geographical line on Earth where the sun is completely blotted out behind the moon. If you’re on that line — on an arc from northwest Mexico to northern Indiana and into New England — you experience the weird darkness of a total solar eclipse. Orlando is off the path, so the sun will only be partially blocked by the moon. That’s a partial solar eclipse.

How will this eclipse compare to the 2017 eclipse in Orlando?
The moon blocked about 80% of the sun in 2017. This time the sun will be about 60% blocked. One of the advantages of being in Orlando for a partial eclipse is that you can see it for more than an hour. In the path of totality, you only see the sun totally eclipsed for about four minutes — although totality for even a short time is far more amazing than 99% partiality.

As an astronomer, you’ve seen a lot of phenomena. Why is a solar eclipse special?
To me, it’s the most awe-inspiring sight you can see. When I was a kid, our family would sail on Chesapeake Bay at night and look at the stars against the dark sky. I remember looking for Halley’s Comet through a telescope in 1986 — a once-in-a-lifetime event. And then as a researcher, I spent time studying asteroids from the top of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island. All of those are fun and interesting, but nothing compares to a total solar eclipse.

If someone says, “Maybe I’ll watch, maybe I won’t,” what do you say?
Why wouldn’t you? It’s the easiest way to see an astronomical spectacle. All you have to do is go outside with protective glasses and look up. Unless it’s cloudy, as long as you have the right protection there’s no way not to see it. You don’t need optical aids, like a telescope. Ultimately, I think all of us should look up at the sky more often — whether there’s an eclipse or not.

Why do you want people to look at the sky more often?
The eclipse is special, but there are a lot of interesting things to see on a regular basis. Bright planets. Peculiar clouds. The International Space Station flies over us all the time. People travel to Central Florida from around the world to watch rocket launches that we can watch without going anywhere. Curiosity about the world and the worlds around us is always a good thing.

Have you wondered what solar eclipses must have been like without scientists forecasting them in advance?
It would have been horrifying to see the sun disappear. There were probably a lot of people with eye damage. It doesn’t take long to look at sun and burn the retina.

You’ve mentioned protective eyewear. What do you recommend?
Sunglasses aren’t enough protection. It’s the infrared, not just the visible light, that can damage the eyes. Use special eclipse glasses. Be careful of counterfeiters. A pair for 50 cents might not do the job, but you don’t need to spend $30 either.

For those of us staying in Florida, what’s one more piece of advice?
Do not go toward Miami — that’s the wrong direction. If you travel at all, go northwest. Most importantly, don’t drive into a rain cell. That’s the only way to see nothing at all.

How long will we need to wait for the next solar eclipse?
From Orlando, the next partial solar eclipse will be visible in January 2028, but it won’t be as deep as the one on April 8. For this much sun blockage, we’ll have to wait until January 2038 — that one will be in progress close to sunrise. The big one in Orlando, where we’re in the path of totality, will be in August 2045.

Like you said, get outside and look up on April 8.
And watch it with other people. Watch with friends. Watch with your spouse. Watch with kids. It’s why we invite everyone to watch from the Reflecting Pond. Moments like this are more memorable when you experience them with others.

Some ɫ����’s space experts will be on hand to help participants catch the best lunar views from campus. The event will be held 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, weather permitting. That is before the night sky is the darkest, but you can still see the moon, says UCF College of Sciences Assistant Professor of Physics Adrienne “Addie” Dove.

Dove and Professor of Physics Yan Fernandez will be in attendance sharing insight on their research related to the moon, including NASA’s Lunar-VISE mission, which will be exploring a region of the moon to identify minerals and chemical resources.

UCF Libraries and a few student organizations will have booths and activities for attendees to learn more about astronomy and physics — from meteorites to water rockets and exploring moon craters. Attendees can also learn about the moon as they collect stamps for a lunar passport at each of the space stations, staffed by UCF planetary scientists, science librarian and members of the university’s Astronomy Society.

Help UCF continue to provide stellar experiences for students and the Central Florida community by .

Sponsored by UCF’s , Observe the Moon Knight is just one of many events hosted by Robinson Observatory and the student-run Astronomy Society.

UCF is known as SpaceU since it was founded in 1963 to develop science and talent in support of space research. The university continues its strong tradition of “reaching for the stars” — from producing its own simulated Martian soil to more than a dozen projects aimed at getting people back on the moon safely, many of which directly support NASA’s Artemis program. In fact, nearly 30% of Kennedy Space Center employes graduated from UCF. More than a dozen UCF researchers have asteroids named after them, and UCF has a planet named in its honor.

Honoring UCF’s long-standing history of work with space industry carries into UCF athletic programs with themed Space Games that first launched with football in 2016. On Oct. 18, the No. 2 UCF men’s soccer plays its Space Game against Coastal Carolina. Women’s soccer and volleyball have also played Space Games this year.

On Nov. 11, UCF football will play its seventh annual Space Game, with Oklahoma State as this year’s opponent. UCF’s 50-yard line at the FBC Mortgage Stadium lines up on the exact latitude as Launch Complex 39A, NASA’s most historic launch pad, located about 35 miles east of the university.

The unmanned spacecraft was tasked with rendezvousing with asteroid Bennu to retrieve a sample from its surface and return it to Earth — a first-of-its-kind mission for the United States.

That’s expected to happen on Sept. 24, when OSIRIS-REx will jettison a sample capsule containing loose rocks and soil from Bennu that — if all goes according to plan — will deploy parachutes and touch down in the Utah Test and Training Range.

on Sept. 24 around 10:55 a.m. EST.

A lot has happened between the launch in September 2016 and the upcoming release of the sample capsule. After reaching Bennu in December 2018, the spacecraft spent nearly two years orbiting the asteroid while mapping and studying its rugged surface.

That detailed mapping was a crucial step, allowing members of the OSIRIS-REx team back on our home planet to study images and spectral observations of Bennu to find the best location to sample without endangering the spacecraft.

Among the members of the OSIRIS-REx team are three UCF scientists: Humberto Campins, a Pegasus Professor of physics and international asteroid expert; Associate Professor of Physics Yan Fernandez, who researches comets and asteroids; and Associate Professor of Physics Kerri Donaldson Hanna, a planetary geologist.

They helped select the sampling site on Bennu and have continued to interpret scientific data from the spacecraft to understand the asteroid’s composition.

“We were surprised in many ways,” Campins says. “All the information that we had before we went to Bennu suggested that once we got there, we should have nice flat areas that were mostly sand or pebbles that the spacecraft could come down safely and sample without any risk of hitting a rock. When we got there what we found was that most of the surface was rocky.”

After careful planning, on Oct. 20, 2020, OSIRIS-REx executed a complicated touch-and-go maneuver during which a robotic arm unfurled, touched the surface of the asteroid and collected roughly 250 grams of the long-sought sample of rocks and dust.

The plan went flawlessly, and OSIRIS-REx departed Bennu in May 2021 on its 2.5-year journey back toward Earth.

“I feel incredibly lucky to have been one of the first people in the world to see the spacecraft observations of asteroid Bennu and then one of the first to see and work with the sample,” Hanna says. “Studies of this sample will tell us about how asteroid Bennu formed from its parent body and evolved into what we see today and will provide us key details on how the Earth’s atmosphere and weather alters meteorites before we collect them and study them on Earth.”

Fernandez says he’s excited for the return of a sample from Bennu.

“Having a sample from a primitive asteroid, and from a location we were able to study well ahead of time — so we know the geologic context of the sample — is really important for testing our ideas about solar system formation and evolution,” he says.

NASA tested a replica of the sample capsule landing in August. When the actual capsule is released from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, it will enter Earth’s atmosphere at more than 27,000 mph before deploying parachutes to slow its descent.

That sample recovery will be the culmination of OSIRIS-REx’s seven-year mission — and the beginning of a new one. OSIRIS-REx will be redirected to the asteroid Apophis with a new mission name: OSIRIS-APEX. It’s expected to reach Apophis in 2029.

The work will inform research into the origins of the solar system, as these bodies contain materials from the dawn of its formation.

Centaurs and Jupiter-family comets are small icy bodies that exist primarily in the outer regions of the solar system. While both are composed of a mixture of rock, dust and volatile substances, Jupiter-family comets are known for their cometary activity, such as comae and tails, while centaurs are often considered dormant. However, about 10% of known centaurs do display cometary-like activity.

“Centaurs and Jupiter-family comets have material in their nuclei interiors that we think is pretty pristine in the sense that their upper layers are really insulating, so the solar heating that’s incident on their surfaces doesn’t penetrate very deep,” says Charles Schambeau ’18PhD, an assistant scientist with UCF’s and the project’s principal investigator. “And so, if we can try to understand their interiors more, we will have a connection to that early, four-and-a-half billion-year-old set of conditions when they formed.”

The four-year, $500,000 NASA-funded project will use the Gemini Observatory’s twin 8.1-meter telescopes located in Chile and Hawaii to make observations of approximately 60 distantly active small icy bodies.

Schambeau and project co-investigator UCF Professor Yan Fernandez have been leading a data collection effort of these objects since 2016, which is resulting in the largest and most comprehensive set of high-quality data on these types of objects to date. Receiving the new NASA award will enable the continuation of their program at least until 2026, Schambeau says.

The project team also includes collaborator Marco Micheli, a researcher with the European Space Agency.

Investigating Icy Bodies

The researchers will specifically investigate how the super volatiles carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) are stored in the icy bodies, which remains a fundamental knowledge gap in the understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system, Schambeau says.

If CO and CO₂ are found to be frozen as bulk ices in Centaur nuclei interiors, then it means they were formed in a much colder environment than if CO and CO₂ are found to be trapped inside of a porous form of ice known as amorphous water ice. For instance, if they are found to be frozen as bulk ice, the objects could have formed much farther from the Sun.

“The current state of super volatiles in these objects really gives a good constraint on the temperature under which these objects formed, and that gives us vital constraints that can be later used in solar system formation models,” Schambeau says.

The project so far has been amassing a large amount of imaging data on each individual object.

“One major goal of the project is to monitor each object’s comet-like activity behaviors over the course of an entire orbit around the Sun, which for centaurs can at times take decades,” he says. “We’re really in this for the long haul.”

Student Researchers

The large amount of data collected over a long time period has resulted in the project enlisting UCF undergraduate students to help develop software to streamline the data’s processing.

Recent UCF physics graduates Tina Beck ’23 and Seamus Walker ’23 have been working on the project since the fall of 2021 by helping with the data’s processing pipeline.

Both became interested in the work after they had been students in Schambeau’s astronomy class as undergraduates.

“I had a NASA internship during the summer of 2020 working with the preparations for the James Webb Space Telescope where I was exposed to an abundance of information regarding instrumentation, observation taking and data processing,” Beck says. “My interest in these subjects only grew as a result, leading me to pursue a better understanding of how we get from images to knowledge.”

“Upon hearing more about Dr. Schambeau’s research, I knew working with him would allow me to explore observational astronomy more deeply,” she says. “My interests in centaurs and cometary evolution developed as a direct result of working with him.”

Walker says working on the project has been a wonderful experience.

“This project has helped me grow during the course of my education at UCF, and I’ve learned so much because of it,” Walker says. “Working with specific objects becomes personal, and you get invested in looking at the data and figuring out more about each one.”

Beck and Walker’s work has focused on helping develop a software suite that converts raw images from telescopic observations into science-quality data ready for analysis, as well as beginning to characterize some of the objects they are studying.

“When you get these raw observations, there’s a lot of noise in them,” Walker says. “For example, high-energy particles might have hit your detector leaving you with streaks in the image. Our code helps to remove those artifacts and boost the signal we have for the objects that we’re interested in studying.”

Beck says the work has been fascinating and is the highlight of her undergraduate education at UCF.

“Centaurs are a body that as a community we do not fully understand, but they possess information that can help us unlock a better understanding of cometary evolution and thereby solar system evolution,” she says. “I thoroughly enjoy learning from Dr. Schambeau and the rest of the team.”

Future Observations

The team’s research using the Gemini Observatory is paving the way to incorporate future observations they will have from the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, which is scheduled to begin operations in mid 2025.

Rubin’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)  will provide almost nightly imaging data for many of the centaurs included in our program, Schambeau says.

“With the current Gemini Observations, the team has dedicated observations made of each specific icy body about twice a year, so the windfall of new data from the LSST is something the team is preparing for,” he says.

Researcher Credentials

Schambeau began the large and long-term observing campaign of centaurs and Jupiter-family comets as part of a NASA fellowship he received while a physics doctoral student in UCF’s Department of Physics. He received his doctorate in physics with a concentration in planetary sciences from UCF in 2018 and subsequently joined the Florida Space Institute where he continued the work as part ɫ����’s . The funding for the new work is through NASA’s Shared Services Center.

Fernandez received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of Maryland, College Park. He spent 3-years (1999-2002) as a Scientific Researcher and 3-years (2002-2005) as a SIRTF/Spitzer Fellow in University of Hawai’i before joining UCF in 2005, where he is a professor in UCF’s Department of Physics, part ɫ����’s .

This morning, the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data were released during a televised broadcast from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The telescope, which was launched Christmas Day last year, has been more than two decades in the making. Scientists from around the world will be using its advanced instrumentation to find new galaxies, explore the formation of stars, and give us unprecedented data about the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems, including our own.

“It’s super exciting,” Harrington Pinto says. “I know the delay wasn’t great, but it allowed me the opportunity to be part of a team that’s actually going to use data from the JWST to do research. We expect data this month, so … it is just an amazing opportunity for me as a graduate student to be able to work on this.”

More than 1,100 proposals from 44 countries vied for time on the telescope during its first year of operations. A total of 286 proposals were selected which account for 6,031 hours. Altogether UCF scientists and alum will be spending more than 100 hours using the telescope in 2022-2023.

Here’s a sampling of some of the projects UCF is working on.

If it Walks Like an Asteroid, but Quacks Like a Comet…

Harrington Pinto is part of the team that will be looking at objects known as Centaurs that live beyond Jupiter. These objects appear to be asteroids, but act a bit like comets, presenting quite a mystery. Adam McKay from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and American University is leading the team that includes UCF Professor of Physics Yan Fernandez and Florida Space Institute (FSI) assistant scientist Charles Schambeau. Toward the end of this month, they will be looking at Centaur 39P/Oterma and later this year they will use additional time to look at other centaurs.

“My role is helping to make sure we know where to tell JWST to point so that we’re actually ‘looking’ at the right object,” Schambeau says. “Many of our targets haven’t been seen for many years. We need to verify that their orbits can be well characterized so we can be sure the telescope finds them quickly and we can get our data.”

Schambeau has been leading a ground-based observation program for the past two years at the Gemini Observatory’s twin 8-meter telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. The telescopes have been searching for these moving Centaurs to narrow down the space for the JWST, and to help put the JWST observations into better context.

These objects matter because they don’t act as expected, Fernandez says. He, Harrington Pinto, and Schambeau will be helping analyze the data from the telescope, and they are looking for certain gases vaporizing off the Centaurs. By comparing the gas signatures of the centaurs with those of known comets in the inner solar system, they hope to understand why these centaurs are acting so much like comets. The gases they are most interested in are carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide along with water. The relative amounts of these gases can help answer key questions about the structure and composition of comets and about how the planets in our solar system first formed.

Studying comets and Centaurs is really all about studying our solar system’s origins, and JWST will make a huge difference in our efforts, Fernandez says. The telescope is so much larger and more sensitive than anything we have now, that our team’s work would not be possible otherwise, he said.

For Harrington Pinto the project is essential to successfully completing her Ph.D. dissertation and graduating by December 2022. Her goal — to continue to conduct research and unravel new scientific mysteries.

“Science is a philosophy of learning,” she says. “It’s not just about solving problems. It’s acquiring knowledge from our exploration that can help us here on Earth. People don’t realize that a lot of the technology we develop for space, can help us solve problems here on Earth too.”

DiSCo Party Beyond Neptune

Noemi Pinilla Alonso, a planetary scientist at UCF-based FSI leads a team of researchers who will be exploring 59 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). The observing windows for these TNOs will open early in the fall and extend up to July 2023. These objects found past Neptune are believed to include some of the most primitive and unprocessed material in the solar system and preserve evidence of the how the solar system first formed. The TNOs have been studied with ground-based telescopes for years, but the available technology is at its limits.

The Near Infrared Spectrograph on the telescope will be able to provide high-quality data, even in its low resolving power mode, that will surpass the quality of the data available from Earth by a magnitude of 10, according to postdoctoral scholar Ana Carolina De Souza Feliciano, who is writing code that will analyze the data. The goal of the project is to assess the relative ratio of water ice, complex organics, silicates, and volatiles on the surface of a large sample of TNOs.

“This information is vital to improving models of the formation of our solar system and other planetary systems and relates to disciplines such as astrochemistry, cosmochemistry, and astrobiology, being relevant to our understanding of the origin of water and life on Earth and possibly elsewhere,” De Souza Feliciano says. “It is super exciting because for the first time ever we will have the chance to see the signatures of components that wouldn’t be detectable before. At this point, I can’t wait to see the data.”

The project is nicknamed DiSCo, because its full name is a mouthful: Discovering the Composition of the tTans-Neptunian Objects, icy Embryos for Planet Formation.

“My countdown to the release of JWST science data has been a succession of hackathons and virtual meetings,” Pinilla Alonso says. “Early this month, I will be able to lay my eyes on some data and start working on the analysis. This is going to be very revealing and I’m wearing down my fingernails in anticipation.”

Other members of this science team include assistant scientists at FSI Mário De Prá and Schambeau and graduate student Brittany Harvison, from UCF’s Department of Physics.

Psyche Bound

UCF alumna Stephanie Jarmak PhD ’20PhD will be using the JWST to look for water on the asteroid Psyche, located between Mars and Jupiter. It’s the same target of a NASA mission scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in August.

“Our planned observations will provide high-resolution spectra in a wavelength range inaccessible to the Psyche mission spacecraft,” says Jarmak who is a postdoctoral scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas. “Our ability to characterize various compositional features across Psyche’s surface will provide key context for Psyche mission observations. In particular, the main goal of our program is to unambiguously identify the presence of water or hydroxyl on Psyche to constrain Psyche’s possible formation and impact history, and these observations will provide critical context for not only the upcoming Psyche mission but also the interpretation of hydration features observed on asteroids in general.”

The asteroid holds special interest because it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet.

“Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets — including Earth — scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planets’ rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth’s core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets,” according to the Psyche Mission website.

The JWST will offer rich data ahead of the spacecraft’s arrival at the asteroid in 2026. Jarmak, who worked on experiments that have flown on Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spacecraft, is thrilled to have the opportunity to get an early peak and what it could mean for our understanding of asteroids.

“The sensitivity and spectral resolution available with the JWST in infrared wavelength ranges will revolutionize the study of hydrated materials on Solar System bodies,” Jarmak says.

Zoe Landsman, a scientist at FSI is a co-investigator on the project. The first telescope viewing time is planned in early 2023 and a second opportunity between December 2023 and December 2024.

Pluto and one of its Five Moons, Charon

Pinilla Alonso and de Souza Feliciano are also part of a team looking at Pluto and Charon, one of its moons. Emmanuel Lellouch an astronomer from the Observatory of Paris is leading the mission. There are also collaborators at NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The research team will use the telescope to gather data to address questions about Pluto’s climate evolution, the atmosphere’s chemistry, and energy balance as well as the thermal and compositional properties of Pluto and Charon’s surfaces.

Ariel and Uranus’ Other Moons: Umbriel, Titania and Oberon

UCF’s Pinilla Alonso is also part of the team looking at Uranus’ moons. Planetary astronomy researcher Richard Cartwright at the SETI Institute is leading the project. Collaborators include scientists at NASA, the Lowell Observatory and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The team aims to investigate materials on Uranus moons, which could indicate they once supported oceans. The researchers will look for spectral evidence of ocean activity and will characterize the organic material on their surfaces. The information should give the team information to assess how the moons formed within the Uranian sub-nebula.

It was an early look at the planet, which today celebrates its 175^th birthday.

“I did a Neptune project all the way back in my undergraduate days,” says  . “It was my first real astronomy project. Even today, it’s quite a mystery. There are several mission concepts out there and there’s a highly motivated group of astronomers pushing them, but there are no approved missions – yet.”

Despite the passage of time, the blue planet continues to captivate planetary scientists worldwide.

It is the narrowest of the gas giants and the furthest major planet out from the sun since Pluto was reclassified to a dwarf planet. Data from observations lead scientists to believe that Neptune is made up of gases and ice with a rocky core. Gravity is expected to be very close to what we experience on Earth because while Neptune has 17 times more mass than Earth, it is also four times larger than our planet. Distance is a challenge too. It would take about nine years to send a spacecraft to the planet with current technology.

There’s only been one flyby of the planet, completed by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989. It was a quick run and produced some stunning, but puzzling photos that left more questions than it answered.

The planet has also been studied from afar using the Keck, Hubble, and Spitzer telescopes, but it and its moon Triton still hold many secrets, says Assistant Professor of Physics Theodora Karalidi.

“Neptune … in a way, it is the closest thing we have to a brown dwarf in the solar system,” Karalidi says. “If finding life outside our planet is of interest, then exploring Neptune should be of interest. A ‘good’ atmosphere is important. The more we learn about atmospheres in our solar system, from the Earth to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune, the more we can understand atmospheres and differentiate between a planet that can support life from one that cannot. By learning what the key features of different types of clouds, chemistry or atmospheric circulation patterns are in our observations from a distance, and how they compare with observations from up-close, we can make more informed decisions on which planets to stare at for longer periods to see if they have life, even when we have a single pixel to work with.”

Karalidi specializes in atmospheres of other planets. She’s eager to see what Neptune and Triton can tell us about life formation.

“Triton — one of the moons of Neptune — is an intriguing, active body that could host an ocean. This could make it a great location to search for life outside the Earth,” she says. “If it could host life, understanding Neptune would again be important. The magnetic field of Neptune for example, is weird but we don’t know why. As magnetic fields can be friends and foes to life, how could that affect life on Triton? Also, understanding the weird field of Neptune could also inform us about planetary magnetic fields in general, their interaction with solar wind and cosmic rays, and in extension our own magnetic field and our protection from those factors here on Earth.”

Neptune and Triton will remain visible with telescopes throughout winter. There are Knights Under the Stars events scheduled in October and again in November where the public can see these objects and others through several telescopes set up at the Robinson Observatory — at no cost. Participants also get a chance to ask questions and get some pointers from UCF faculty and students in the planetary sciences program.

“We love sharing the wonder of space,” says Yan Fernandez, a physics professor and director of the observatory. “That’s how a lot of us got into space related work. It was simply looking up and seeing how big it is out there and realizing we have so much to learn.”

Because of COVID19 Knights Under the Stars have limited capacity. To get more information and RSVP, visit the observatory’s website.  Check out next month’s line up which includes participation in the International Observe the Moon Night on Oct.16.

“That’s something that won’t happen again here until May 2022,” says Yan Fernandez, a professor and director ɫ����’s Robinson Observatory. “It’s a pretty cool event regardless. This particular eclipse also happens to occur when the moon is at its closest to the Earth, which some people call a ‘super moon.’ The total eclipse itself gets called a ‘blood moon’ since it’s casting that reddish hue while in Earth’s shadow. And because it is happening in January, the Farmers’ Almanac calls it a ‘wolf moon.’ But whatever you call it, watching the moon change color as it creeps its way through the shadow is a terrific sight.”

“[The total lunar eclipse] is something that won’t happen again here until May 2022.” – Yan Fernandez, director ɫ����’s Robinson Observatory

The observatory, the library, and the student-run Astronomy Society are hosting the free public event on the main campus to give the community an opportunity to take it all in.  Telescopes and volunteers will be ready to help the public find the best view of the moon and answer questions.

In addition, there will be one telescope set up with a camera feed that will be projected on a screen so experts can share specific features of the moon with the public. Weather permitting, other planets or star systems may be visible as well.

The eclipse totality is expected to last from 11:45 p.m. Sunday to 12:45 a.m. Monday. Weather permitting, volunteers will be on hand from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The eclipse begins about 11:30 p.m.

For weather updates, follow the observatory on or . If you’re unable to make it to this event, keep an eye on the Robinson Observatory website for more upcoming events.

To help get you ready for the event, the John C. Hitt Library on the main campus will host two activities on Thursday, Jan. 17. From noon to 3 p.m. the public can visit the main floor of the library and visit a craft table to create a moon-phase calendar, which helps track the phases of the moon. Then at 3:30 p.m., join Assistant Professor Adrienne Dove, who will present “New Insights into an Old Moon.” The one-hour talk will be held in Room 223. For more information about these events .

Scientists were already buzzing with excitement in November when the spacecraft’s long-range cameras began beaming early images of the asteroid. Now, the first few close ups confirm the buzz.

“The images are spectacular and spot on … it is pretty amazing to actually see [the Bennu asteroid] now.” – Humberto Campins, UCF professor

“We’re very excited,” says Humberto Campins, a ɫ���� planetary scientist, professor of and member of the OSIRIS-REx Science Team. He and UCF Associate Professor Yan Fernandez are part of the team that will analyze close range images of the asteroid to recommend the best spot to collect the sample. “The images are spectacular and spot on, what we expected thanks to predictions made with the instrumentation at the Arecibo Observatory in the late 90s and early 2000s. We will spend a year and a half mapping Bennu and have to wait until mid 2020 we collect the sample, but it is pretty amazing to actually see it now. Christmas came early.”

The mission’s lead scientists from the University of Arizona and other institutions presented initial results about the asteroid and the mission at the in Washington D.C. today. The AGU is the largest worldwide conference in Earth and space sciences and was expected to host more than 20,000 attendees this year, including representatives from the Arecibo Observatory.

“The amazing Bennu images coming out now look strikingly similar to the shape model derived from Arecibo radar data in 2013,” says Anne Virkki, a research scientist at observatory in Puerto Rico.

Bennu was discovered in 1999, and shortly after, Arecibo’s radar and the Goldstone planetary radar system were used to examine it. In 2005 Arecibo was used to complete a second set of radar observations. In 2013, a team of scientists led by Michael Nolan (who now works for the OSIRIS-REx mission as asteroid scientist and science team chief), published Bennu’s shape model and pole orientation, based on the radar data from 1999 and 2005. The Arecibo radar team also predicted Bennu’s size and rotation period and the team detected a distinctive boulder on the asteroid’s surface.

OSIRIS-REx launched from the Space Coast in 2016. The early images from OSIRIS-REx dramatically confirm that those predictions were accurate, scientists say.

“No other ground-based method is capable of detecting such features,” Virkki says from the facility.

Arecibo director Francisco Cordova, who attended the conference, was thrilled to see another example of the facility helping advance space science.

“This only demonstrates what everyone at Arecibo already knows,” Cordova says. “Our facility is a tremendous resource to the world, which continues to contribute to important discoveries, across multiple science communities. The best is yet to come for the observatory, which will be receiving significant upgrades over the next four years including new receivers, feeds and transmission capabilities.”

Campins agrees. He says the work done at Arecibo was invaluable in NASA’s selection of the OSIRIS-REx project for full funding when it was competing with a dozen other proposals in NASA’s New Frontiers Program.

UCF operates the Arecibo Observatory in partnership with Sistema Ana G. Mendez Universidad Metropolitana and Yang Enterprises Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The planetary radar program is supported by NASA’s Near Earth Object Observation Program.

“The information obtained from radar characterization of this asteroid at Arecibo was critical in mission target selection and supported OSIRIS-REx science definition and mission planning,” Campins says. “Arecibo’s radar data gave us two main advantages. It minimized the uncertainty in the shape of the asteroid and its orbit, which help reduce risk and increase the likelihood of a successful mission.”