Planetary Environments Laboratory

Sander Johannes Goossens

(RESEARCH AST, PLANETARY STUDIES)

Sander Johannes Goossens's Contact Card & Information.
Email: sander.j.goossens@nasa.gov
Phone: 301.614.6499
Org Code: 698
Address:
NASA/GSFC
 Mail Code 698
 Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer:
NASA

Missions & Projects

Brief Bio

Sander Goossens received his PhD in 2005 from Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering in the Netherlands. From 2005-2011 he worked at the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan on the SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (SELENE) mission (also called Kaguya). He was involved in the determination of the gravity field of the Moon using the first-ever farside data (combined with available historical lunar tracking data), and in the determination of the topography of the Moon using laser altimeter data.

In 2011 he joined the Planetary Geodynamics group (now: Planetary Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Laboratory, or PGG lab) at Goddard as a scientist with the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology/University of Maryland Baltimore County. At Goddard, he has extensively worked on gravity field determination of various terrestrial planets: the Moon using GRAIL data, Mercury using MESSENGER data, Mars using a combination of MGS, Odyssey, and MRO data, Venus using Magellan and Venus Express data, and Titan and Enceladus using Cassini data. These results have been used to infer models of the interior structure of the planets. In August 2021 he became a NASA employee in the PGG lab.


Recent highlights include:

  • Providing the first estimate of the Moon's yearly Love number k2 from GRAIL and LRO data. See here for the paper.
  • Determining a new estimate for Titan's Love number k2. See here for the paper.
  • Deriving a relationship between spherical harmonic degree and source depth, that can help interpretations of gravity field models. See here for the paper.
  • Involvement in a study that investigated the influence of small craters on true polar wander on the Moon, showing that although small, they resulted in a displacement of the Moon's pole by ~10˚ along the Earth-Moon tidal axis. See here for the paper.
  • Provided the geophysical modeling to investigate the north-western Arabia Terra area on Mars. The geophysical analysis was in support of geochemical analysis showing supervolcanic resurfacing. See here for the paper.
  • Used a novel combination of differenced image data to improve estimates of asteroid 101955 Bennu's shape, mass, rotation state, and gravity field. See here for the paper.


Currently, he is a Participating Scientist for Juno's Extended Mission, focusing on the gravity field determination of the Galilean moons. He is also a Participating Scientist for JAXA's MMX mission, where he will use radio, camera, and laser altimeter data to determine Mars' moons' rotational state and gravity field and to verify models of their shape.

Research Interests

Planetary geodesy

Determining the gravity field and shape of planetary bodies, using spacecraft data such as tracking, altimetry, and image data.

Precision orbit determination of planetary spacecraft

Determine the orbits of planetary spacecraft with high precision using radiometric tracking, altimetry, and image data, for the purpose of reconstructing trajectories, and for determining geophysical parameters (such as the gravity field, shape, and interior structure parameters of the body).

Interior structure modeling

Solar System: Geophysics

Determination of interior structure parameters such as core size and composition, density profiles, and crustal structure (density, thickness), from geodetic measurements such as the gravity field, topography, moments of inertia, and Love numbers.

Current Projects

MMX Participating Scientist

Mars

I have been selected as a Participating Scientist for JAXA's MMX mission. I will use data from the cameras, radio tracking data, and data from the laser altimeter to determine Phobos' and Deimos' gravity field and rotational state, and to verify models of their shape. This work will rely on techniques that we developed for OSIRIS-REx, focusing for example on the use of differential data types to improve estimates of important geophysical parameters.

Juno Extended Mission

Geophysics

I have been selected as a Participating Scientist for the Juno Extended Mission. My research will focus on using Juno tracking data to determine gravity fieldd models for Jupiter, and the moons Europa, Ganymede, and Io during Juno's flybys of these moons. My research will focus on using different analysis techniques and tools, with the goal to determine robust gravity field models.

Cassini

Moons

I am using tracking data from Cassini to determine Enceladus' gravity field and Titan's gravity and tides. See our LPSC abstract here.

GRAIL

Analysis of the GRAIL tracking data, consisting of inter-satellite Ka-band tracking data and conventional Doppler data from the Deep Space Network. The focus is on determining parameters related to the Moon's deep interior.

Venus

Analysis of historic Magellan data together with recent Venus Express (ESA) data for high-resolution gravity field determination of Venus. I am also interested in using these geodetic measurements in modeling using Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to detemine parameters of models of Venus' interior structure.

Positions/Employment

Research AST, Planetary Studies

NASA - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

August 2021 - Present

Associate Research Scientist

University of Maryland, Baltimore County - NASA/GSFC Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory, Greenbelt MD

December 2015 - August 2021

Assistant Research Scientist

University of Maryland Baltimore County - NASA/GSFC Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory, Greenbelt MD

August 2011 - December 2015

Researcher

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan - Mizusawa, Oshu, Japan

June 2007 - July 2011


Postdoctoral fellowship with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan - Mizusawa, Oshu, Japan

June 2005 - June 2007


Education

Ph.D. 2005 Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Supervisors B.A.C. Ambrosius and P.N.A.M. Visser, "The Near Side - Regional Lunar Gravity Field Determination"

M.Sc. 1999 Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Cum Laude, "Long-term Low Lunar Orbit Perturbations Due to the Selenopotential and Solar Radiation Pressure"

Professional Societies

American Geophysical Union

2002 - Present

Professional Service

Member of NASA Advisory Committee “Mapping and Planetary Spatial Infrastructure Team'' (MAPSIT, https://www.lpi.usra.edu/mapsit/), 2019-present.

Convener of Planetary Geodesy session at AGU Fall Meeting in 2011, 2015, and 2017.

Reviewer for many journals, and several funding organisations.

Awards

A Best Reviewer Award for 2022, for the journal Icarus (see here).

The 2020 Robert H. Goddard Engineering Team Award, awarded to the OSIRIS-REx Independent Verification & Validation Navigation Team, at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Listed as an outstanding reviewer for AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2019. (link)

The NASA Group Achievement Award for MESSENGER, in 2018.

The NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, in May 2016.

The 2014 Robert H. Goddard Science Exceptional Achievement Award, awarded to the GRAIL Gravity Team at Goddard Space Flight Center.

The 2010 Tsuboi Group Prize of the Geodetic Society of Japan, awarded to the RISE Project for Contributions to Lunar Geodesy in the SELENE Project.

Both a short-term and a post-doctoral fellowship with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

 

Grants

Comprehensive Geodesy for Phobos and Deimos

NNH22ZDA001N-MMXPSP - NASA - Awarded: 2023-04-12


Dates:  - 

Galilean Satellite and Jupiter Gravity Science with Juno Extended Mission Data

NNH21ZDA001N-JPSP - NASA - Awarded: 2021-11-12


Dates: 2021-12-01  - 2024-11-30

Geophysical Exploration Of the Dynamics and Evolution of the Solar System (GEODES)

NNH18ZDA018C: SSERVI CAN-3 - NASA - Awarded: 2019-06-26


Dates: 2019-10-01  - 2024-09-30

Interior Structure of Saturn's Moons from Cassini Tracking Data

NNH17ZDA001N-CDAP - NASA - Awarded: 2018-02-02


Dates: 2018-06-01  - 2021-06-01

Kaguya Orbital and Geometric Restoration

NNH17ZDA001N-PDART - NASA - Awarded: 2017-11-04


Dates: 2018-04-01  - 2021-04-01

The Deep Lunar Interior From Multi-Satellite Data Analysis

NNH16ZDA001N-LDAP - NASA - Awarded: 2017-05-19


Dates: 2017-10-01  - 2020-10-01

Geophysical Properties of Mercury's Crust and Lithosphere From MESSENGER Tracking Data

NNH16ZDA001N-DDAP - NASA - Awarded: 2017-04-13


Dates: 2017-09-01  - 2020-09-01

Localized analysis of GRAIL data for high-resolution gravity field determination

NNH14ZDA001N-PDART - NASA - Awarded: 2015-02-11


Dates: 2015-05-01  - 2020-04-30

 Analysis of Magellan and Venus Express satellite tracking data for high-resolution gravity field determination

NNH13ZDA001N-PMDAP - NASA - Awarded: 2014-04-23


Dates: 2014-07-10

Comprehensive Geodesy for Phobos and Deimos

NNH22ZDA001N-MMXPSP - NASA - Awarded: 2023-04-12


Dates: 2023-04-12  - 2029-03-31

Other Professional Information

Publons: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/K-2526-2015

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7707-1128

Publications

Refereed

2024. "A Low‐Viscosity Lower Lunar Mantle Implied by Measured Monthly and Yearly Tides." AGU Advances 5 (5): [10.1029/2024av001285] [Journal Article/Letter]

2024. "A low-density ocean inside Titan inferred from Cassini data." Nature Astronomy [10.1038/s41550-024-02253-4] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Constraining the Structure under Lunar Impact Basins with Gravity." The Planetary Science Journal 4 (11): 204 [10.3847/psj/acfcac] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Constraining the Venus interior structure with future VERITAS measurements of the gravitational atmospheric loading." The Planetary Science Journal 4 (65): [Full Text] [10.3847/PSJ/acc73c] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Regional variations of Mercury's crustal density and porosity from MESSENGER gravity data." Icarus 391 115332 [10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115332] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Gravity degree–depth relationship using point mass spherical harmonics." Geophysical Journal International 233 (3): 1878-1889 [10.1093/gji/ggad036] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Supervolcanic resurfacing in northwestern Arabia Terra, Mars." Icarus 390 115303 [10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115303] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "The Contribution of Small Impact Craters to Lunar Polar Wander." The Planetary Science Journal 3 217 [10.3847/PSJ/ac8c39] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Tidal insights into rocky and icy bodies: an introduction and overview." Advances in Geophysics 63 231-320 [10.1016/bs.agph.2022.07.004] [Article in Book]

2022. "Constraining the Internal Structures of Venus and Mars from the Gravity Response to Atmospheric Loading." The Planetary Science Journal 3 (7): 164 [10.3847/psj/ac7878] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Estimation of Crust and Lithospheric Properties for Mercury from High-resolution Gravity and Topography." The Planetary Science Journal 3 (6): 145 [10.3847/psj/ac703f] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Geodetic investigations of the mission concept MAGIC to reveal Callisto’s internal structure." Acta Astronautica 195 68-76 [Full Text] [10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.02.013] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Science Goals and Mission Concept for a Landed Investigation of Mercury." The Planetary Science Journal 3 (3): 68 [10.3847/psj/ac1c0f] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Evaluation of Recent Measurements of Mercury’s Moments of Inertia and Tides Using a Comprehensive Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method." The Planetary Science Journal 3 (2): 37 [10.3847/psj/ac4bb8] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Mass and shape determination of (101955) Bennu using differenced data from multiple OSIRIS-REx mission phases." The Planetary Science Journal 2 (6): [10.3847/PSJ/ac26c4] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Patched Local Lunar Gravity Solutions using GRAIL Data." Earth and Space Science 8 (11): e2021EA00169 [10.1029/2021ea001695] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Deriving Mercury geodetic parameters with altimetric crossovers from the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA)." Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets 126 (4): e2020JE006683 [Full Text] [10.1029/2020JE006683] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Heterogenous mass distribution of the rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu." Science Advances 6 (41): eabc3350 [Full Text] [10.1126/sciadv.abc3350] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "High-resolution gravity field models from GRAIL data and implications for models of the density structure of the Moon’s crust." Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 125 (2): [10.1029/2019JE006086] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Improving the geometry of Kaguya extended mission data through refined orbit determination using laser altimetry." Icarus 336 [10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113454] [Journal Article/Letter]

2019. "Geodetic evidence that Mercury has a solid inner core." Geophysical Research Letters 46 (7): 3625-3633 [Full Text] [10.1029/2018gl081135] [Journal Article/Letter]

2018. "Orbit determination of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: Status after Seven Years." Planetary and Space Science 162 2-19 [Full Text] [10.1016/j.pss.2017.10.004] [Journal Article/Letter]

2018. "Solar System Expansion and Strong Equivalence Principle as seen by the NASA MESSENGER mission." Nature Communications 9 289 [Full Text] [10.1038/s41467-017-02558-1] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "Evidence for a Low Bulk Crustal Density for Mars from Gravity and Topography." Geophysical Research Letters 44 (15): 7686–7694 [Full Text] [10.1002/2017GL074172] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "Small-scale density variations in the lunar crust revealed by GRAIL." Icarus 291 107-123 [10.1016/j.icarus.2017.03.017] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "Summary of the Results from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter after Seven Years in Lunar Orbit." Icarus 283 70-91 [10.1016/j.icarus.2016.06.006] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "Gravity field of the Orientale basin from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory Mission." Science 354 (6311): 438-441 [10.1126/science.aag0519] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "The deep lunar interior with a low-viscosity zone: Revised constraints from recent geodetic parameters on the tidal response of the Moon." Icarus 276 96-101 [10.1016/j.icarus.2016.04.021] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "Seasonal and static gravity field of Mars from MGS, Mars Odyssey and MRO radio science." Icarus 272 228-245 [10.1016/j.icarus.2016.02.050] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Lunar impact basins revealed by Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory measurements." Science Advances 1 (9): e1500852-e1500852 [Full Text] [10.1126/sciadv.1500852] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Long-term variability of CO2 and O in the Mars upper atmosphere from MRO radio science data." J. Geophys. Res.-Planets 120 (5): 849-868 [10.1002/2014JE004770] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "The Gravity Field, Orientation, and Ephemeris of Mercury from MESSENGER Observations after Three Years in Orbit." J. Geophysical Res.-Planets 119 2417–2436 [10.1002/2014JE004675] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "Strong tidal heating in an ultralow-viscosity zone at the core-mantle boundary of the Moon." Nature Geoscience 7 569-572 [doi:10.1038/ngeo2211] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "Lunar interior properties from the GRAIL mission." J. Geophys. Res.-Planets [10.1002/2013JE004559] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "High-resolution local gravity model of the south pole of the Moon from GRAIL extended mission data." Geophys. Res. Lett. 41 (10): 3367-3374 [Full Text] [10.1002/2014GL060178] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "GRGM900C: A degree-900 lunar gravity model from GRAIL primary and extended mission data." Geophys. Res. Lett. 41 (10): 3382-3389 [Full Text] [10.1002/2014GL060027] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "High-degree gravity models from GRAIL primary mission data." J. Geophys. Res.-Planets 118 1676-1698 [10.1002/jgre.20118] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Gravity field of the Moon from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Mission." Science 339 (6120): 668-671 [Full Text] [10.1126/science.1231507] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Gravity Field and Internal Structure of Mercury from MESSENGER ." Science 336 (6078): 214-217 [Full Text] [10.1126/science.1218809] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Local lunar gravity field analysis over the South Pole-Aitken basin from SELENE farside tracking data." Journal of Geophysical Research Planets 117 [10.1029/2011JE003831] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Effect of Phase Pattern of Antennas Onboard Flying Spin Satellites on Doppler Measurements ." IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 47 (1): 405-419 [10.1109/TAES.2011.5705683] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Anomalous Moscoviense Basin: Single Oblique Impact or Double Impact Origin?." Geophysical Research Letters 38 L03201 [10.1029/2010GL045887] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Accuracy Assessment of Lunar Topography Models, Earth, Planets and Space." Earth Planets and Space 63 15-23 [10.5047/eps.2010.08.005] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Orbit determination of the SELENE satellites using multi-satellite data types and evaluation of SELENE gravity field models." J. Geodesy 85 487-504 [10.1007/s00190-011-0446-2] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Lunar gravity field determination using SELENE same-beam differential VLBI tracking data." J. Geodesy 85 (4): 205-228 [Full Text] [10.1007/s00190-010-0430-2] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Applying spectral leakage corrections to gravity field determination from satellite tracking data." Geophysical Journal International 181 (3): 1459-1472 [10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04585.x] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "An improved lunar gravity field model from SELENE and historical tracking data: Revealing the farside gravity features." J. Geophys. Res.-Planets 115 E06007 [Full Text] [10.1029/2009JE003499] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "Lunar global shape and polar topography derived from KAGUYA-LALT laser altimetry." Science 323 897-900 [doi:10.1126/science.1164146] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "Farside gravity field of the Moon from four-way Doppler measurements of SELENE (Kaguya)." Science 323 900-905 [doi:10.1126/science.1168029] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Lunar degree 2 potential Love number determination from satellite tracking data." Geophys. Res. Lett. 35 [doi:10.1029/2007GL031960] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Illumination conditions at the lunar polar regions by KAGUYA (SELENE) laser altimeter." Geophys. Res. Lett. 35 [doi:10.1029/2008GL035692] [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "Lunar satellite orbit determination analysis and quality assessment from Lunar Prospector tracking data and SELENE simulations." Adv. Sp. Res. 40 43-50 [10.1016/j.asr.2006.12.008] [Journal Article/Letter]

2005. "A method to determine regional lunar gravity fields from earth-based satellite tracking data." Planetary and Space Science 53 1331-1340 [10.1016/j.pss.2005.06.009] [Journal Article/Letter]

2005. "Local gravity from Lunar Prospector tracking data: Results for Mare Serenitatis." Earth, Planets and Space 57 1127-1132 [10.1186/BF03351893] [Journal Article/Letter]

Talks, Presentations and Posters

Invited

A low-density ocean inside Titan inferred from Cassini Data

October 3, 2024

DragonFly Geomorphology Geophysics Surface/Subsurface Properties Working Group meeting

Evaluation of recent measurements of Mercury’s moments of inertia and tides using a comprehensive Markov Chain Monte Carlo method

April 25, 2022

5th BepiColombo Geodesy and Geophysics Working Group Virtual Meeting

What we learned about the interior of the Moon, Mercury and Mars from recent (and ongoing) NASA missions

March 5, 2019

Seminar at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in the Phsyics Seminars series.

Tidal heating and the interior structure of the Moon

3, 2014

Seminar at the Physics Department of UMBC.

Lunar exploration in Japan: scientific results from Kaguya (SELENE) and future mission plans

August 27, 2010

Seminar at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.

SELENE orbit determination and gravity field model evaluation

August 2010

Oral presentation at 38th COSPAR Assembly, 2010.

Selenodetic results from the Kaguya (SELENE) mission

August 26, 2010

Seminar at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

Orbit determination and quality assessment Using SELENE tracking data and results

August 2008

Oral presentation at 37th COSPAR Assembly, 2008.

Global lunar gravity field determination using historical and recent tracking data in preparation for SELENE

2006

Oral presentation at AGU Fall Meeting, 2006.

Lunar satellite orbit determination analysis and quality assessment from Lunar Prospector tracking data and SELENE simulations

August 2006

Oral presentation at 36th COSPAR Assembly, 2006.

Other

Mercury Deep Interior

July 16, 2021

Science Discussion Solar System Exploration Division, GSFC

Planetary Geodesy: Determining Terrestrial Planets’ Interior Structure from Gravity and Topography

May 16, 2021

Seminar for the Society of Physics Students, UMBC

Mass and shape determination of (101955) Bennu using inter-orbital phase tracking data

February 27, 2021

Solar System Exploration Science Seminar for the Director of Science and Exploration of GSFC

Mass and Shape Determination of (101955) Bennu Using Inter-Orbital Phase Tracking Data

16, 2020

AGU Fall Meeting, P081-0009, Poster.

Mass and shape determination of asteroid (101955) Bennu with OSIRIS-REx data

4, 2020

CRESST II Retreat

Interior structure modeling of the terrestrial planets using gravity and topography

December 13, 2020

CRESST II Undergrad Interaction Day

Updated Kaguya Extended Mission Orbit Product for Improving the Geometry of the Extended Mission Data

July 18, 2019

Oral presentation at the 4th Planetary Data Workshop, 2019.

Estimation of Crust and Lithospheric Properties for Mercury from High-Resolution Gravity Field Models

June 22, 2019

Seminar for the director of the Solar System Exploration Division of GSFC.

Estimation of Crust and Lithospheric Properties for Mercury from High-Resolution Gravity Field Models

April 19, 2019

Oral presentation at the 50th LPSC, 2019.

How GRAIL and LOLA data help improve the geometry of the data of the lunar Kaguya mission

March 27, 2019

Seminar for the director of the Solar System Exploration Division at GSFC.

Venus Gravity Field Determination Using Magellan and Venus Express Tracking Data

December 7, 2018

Oral presentation at VEXAG 2018 meeting.

Improving the geometry of Kaguya extended mission data through refined orbit determination using laser altimetry data

August 17, 2018

Oral presentation at COSPAR 2018 meeting.

A high-resolution global map of lunar gravity from patched local solutions using GRAIL data

April 23, 2018

Oral presentation at the 49th LPSC, 2018.

Estimating crustal properties directly from satellite tracking data by using a topography-based constraint

10, 2017

Oral presentation at AGU Fall Meeting, 2017.

Evidence for a Low Bulk Crustal Density for Mars from Gravity and Topography

November 25, 2017

Seminar for the director of the Solar System Exploration Division of GSFC.

Global and Local Gravity Field Models of the Moon Using GRAIL Primary and Extended Mission Data

April 16, 2015

Oral Presentation at 48th LPSC meeting, 2017.

Selected Public Outreach

The Moon’s Tides Hint at a Melty Lunar Layer

October 2024 - October 2024

Research Spotlight at the AGU's Eos website highlighting our recent AGU Advances paper concerning the Moon's yearly tides and its interior. See here for the paper itself.

Underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn moon Titan

May 2024 - May 2024

Press release from Delft University of technology about our paper in Nature Astronomy on Cassini data analysis that presents a lower Love number for Titan than previous analysis. See here for the paper.

Studying the gravity field of planets and moons

September 2023 - September 2023

An article in the Italian online magazine Kosmo, following my selection as an MMX Participating Scientist.

Conversations with Goddard: Exploring the solar system from here on Earth

June 2023 - June 2023

Interview after my selection as an MMX Participating Scientist.

NASA Selects 10 Scientists for International Mission to Martian Moons

May 2023 - May 2023

Announcement of selection of Participating Scientists for JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission.

Small Craters Add Up to Wandering Poles on Moon

October 2022 - October 2022

A NASA article highlighting a new paper by Smith, Viswanathan, et al. (for the paper, see here) where we investigated the effect of small craters on True Polar Wander (reorientation of the Moon), finding that small craters are important and together have shifted the Moon's axis about 10 degrees. A companioon article also appeared at UMBC (see here), highlighting Dr. Vishnu Viswanathan's contributions to this work.

Moon’s Porosity Changes Cratering History, Study Says

September 2022 - September 2022

Provided comments on a recent paper in Nature Geoscience that looked at the porosity of the Moon's crust and its bombardment history (for the paper, see here).

NCCS-Enabled Gravity Models Reveal Density of Moon’s Crust

May 2020 - May 2020

Results for the recent paper by Goossens et al. (2020) on the density of the crust of the Moon as determined from GRAIL data were obtained with the use of the supercomputing facilities of the NASA Center for Climate Simulation at GSFC. This piece highlights the results and computational resources applied.

UMBC’s Sander Goossens determines structure of Mercury’s core as part of NASA team.

October 2019 - October 2019

A news article at UMBC describing the results of the Genova et al. (2019) paper, which presents geodetic evidence for the existence of a solid inner core for Mercury.

Mercury’s Spin and Gravity Reveals the Planet’s Inner Solid Core

May 2019 - May 2019

A NASA press release discussing the results and implications of the Genova et al. (2019) paper on Mercury's interior structure.

New Gravity Map Suggests Mars Has a Porous Crust

October 2017 - October 2017

A NASA press release describing the results of the Goossens et al. (2017) paper on the crustal density of Mars.

NASA Studies Asteroid Collisions From Millions Of Years Ago

2016 - 2016

A television interview with Alex DeMetrick of the CBS affiliate WJZ, discussing the Orientale Science paper by Zuber et al. (2016).

UMBC research analyzes close-up of massive moon crater, a remnant of early solar system

2016 - 2016

An interview with the Baltimore Sun about the Orientale Science paper by Zuber et al. (2016).

New Science cover story on massive Moon crater features innovative UMBC research techniques

December 2016 - December 2016

An interview published at the UMBC News site that highlights the Zuber et al. (2016) Science paper (with cover image) on Mare Orientale.

Three Cool Things We’ve Learned From NASA's Mars Gravity Map

April 2016 - April 2016

An article at National Geopgraphic highlighting the new Mars gravity field model that was published in the Genova et al. (2016) paper.

Local Model Better Describes Lunar Gravity

November 2014 - November 2014

A research highlight in EOS, describing the Goossens et al. (2014) paper that presents a high-resolution local model of lunar gravity at the south pole. This paper also provided the cover image for the issue of Geophysical Research Letters in which it appeared. This cover image was subsequently featured in Discover magazine, and used for other articles in that magazine as well (for example, see this article about drilling into the Chicxulub crater).

Earth's pull melts layer around Moon's core

August 2014 - August 2014

An interview with the Australian ABC news site about a possible low-viscosity zone in the deep lunar interior, published in a Nature Geoscience (Harada et al., 2014) paper.

Contact Us

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