Ocean Worlds

Exoplanet population statistics

Asteroid surface geology

Venus

Science Communication

Managing Interdisciplinary Teams

Statistics

The microfeatures of Europa's surface

Europa's surface is peppered with small (<100 km^2 in area) features that I call microfeatures. The formation processes of these microfeatures are not well understood, though there are a couple of models that are more likely. One of these models implies that there are pockets of liquid water within the ice shell that are actively forming a particular type of microfeature. I am actively working to publish papers from my PhD dissertation that examines how these microfeatures are related to each other spatially on Europa, which offers clues as to how they form. If I can verify one formation model over another, then I will be able to suggest (with evidence) where on Europa to send future missions. To do this work I use a combination of image processing, geomorphic mapping, and spatial statistics.

Kuiper Belt Object Haumea

This is work I began as part of my postdoc at Arizona State University. It is a two-pronged approach into the evolution of the KBO Haumea, with one approach focused on the geophysical evolution and the other focused on the geochemical evolution. Haumea is the largest rapidly spinning body in the solar system. Its surface is covered in water ice and it is associated with its own dynamical family, the only one known among KBOs. The work that I do focuses on how that entire system may have evolved based on the changes that Haumea underwent during differentiation, and evaluates whether Haumea could have ever sustained a subsurface liquid water ocean. If it did, then it would be the most distant ocean world ever discovered (at 43 AU from the Sun!).

How to Faciliate Interdisciplinary Research

As a part of my management duties, I help create and execute opportunities for members of NExSS teams to talk to each other so that new collaborations and ideas may germinate. I am also actively leading at least two white papers as a result of the NExSS Habitable Worlds 2021 workshop held in February 2021. One of these papers will discuss the logistics of the conference extensively, and the other will focus on the benefits and needs of interdisciplinary research.

The surface geology of 25143 Itokawa

I quantified the sizes, shapes, and locations of blocks on the surface of asteroid 25143 Itokawa, which was visited by the JAXA mission Hayabusa. It is a small asteroid--only 500 m long--and thought to be a contact binary asteroid, which hints to a catastrophic past. The blocks on its surface could be clues as to how it formed and evolved. It is (as of June 2021) the only asteroid for which we have a mission-returned sample of. I am using the information I collected on Itokawa to connect it to the histories of other asteroids, specifically 101955 Bennu (the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission) and 162173 Ryugu (the target of the Hayabusa-2 mission).

The VALENTInE Mission

I was a part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Planetary Science Summer School in 2020. Our team proposed a New Frontiers-class Venus balloon mission called the Venus Air and Land Expedition: a Novel Trailblazer for In situ Exploration (VALENTInE). This mission uses a variable altitude balloon to float passively in Venus' atmosphere, collecting multiple atmospheric profiles in multiple locations. We are currently working on a long mission concept manuscript to describe our goals and mission details (mechanical, orbital, etc.). If this mission were real, it would be an excellent complement to the NASA DAVINCI+ mission that will visit Venus' surface, and the NASA VERITAS and ESA EnVision missions that will use radar to study Venus' clouds and surface.

The official science communication branch of NExSS

I was a founding member of and science writer for Science on Main. Once a month, a group of subject matter experts would set up a booth on the public event Second Fridays on Main in Mesa, AZ and we'd answer any and all questions from the public to the best of our abilities. I also wrote weekly stories on the Science on Main blog about interesting new science and science stories. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to our in-person activities, and I moved to Maryland before it started up again.

I am one of the subject matter experts for the Facts Machine podcast team. I advise on the topics of space, geology, and dinosaurs. I've even been a guest on one of their episodes: Facts that Hold Water. Link here: https://www.factsmachinepodcast.com/episode-41

I was a guest for the Spacepod podcast episode 186: What's more powerful than a dinosaur? In this podcast I talked about the story of the interdisciplinary work in the 1970s and 1980s that led to the hypothesis that the non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out by an impact event. We now know a lot about the impact crater, Chicxulub, and the bolide that hit. Spoiler alert: it was an asteroid, not a comet.