Postdoctoral Research Associate Andrea Rajšić has published new research in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, titled "Using the Melosh Model of Acoustic Fluidization to Simulate Impact Crater Collapse on the Earth and Moon." The publication explores the role of acoustic fluidization in crater collapse, examining vibration properties and their effects on subsurface deformation, with models improving upon simplified approaches to reproduce depth-to-diameter trends on Earth and the Moon.

New images taken from space show how dust on and around InSight is changing over time — information that can help scientists learn more about the Red Planet. “Even though we’re no longer hearing from InSight, it’s still teaching us about Mars,” said science team member Ingrid Daubar, DEEPS Associate Professor (Research). “By monitoring how much dust collects on the surface — and how much gets vacuumed away by wind and dust devils — we learn more about the wind, dust cycle, and other processes that shape the planet.”

New research led by Peter Buhler from the Planetary Science Institute proposes that a carbon-dioxide ice cap may have acted as an insulating layer on Mars, allowing rivers and a large lake to form in the planet’s southern highlands. DEEPS Professor James Head commented, "Peter Buhler has done a magnificent job of exploring the implications of possible massive atmospheric collapse and CO2 ice accumulation in the south circumpolar region at a critical early time in the history of Mars."

The Brown Daily Herald explores the work of two DEEPS labs contributing to NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission by analyzing specimens returned from a near-Earth asteroid.

New radiometric dating of material returned from the Moon suggests there was active volcanism 120 million years ago – nearly 2 billion years more recently than previous estimates. Assistant Professor James Dottin III shared his perspective, unconvinced that the three beads are conclusively volcanic.

DEEPS community members were on hand to celebrate two successful launches this October.

NASA has announced a new strategy review team, including DEEPS Professor Jack Mustard, to assess potential architecture adjustments for the agency’s Mars Sample Return Program. The program aims to bring back scientifically selected samples from Mars, and is a key step in NASA’s quest to better understand our solar system and help answer whether we are alone in the universe.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral on October 14th to find out whether the icy ocean of Jupiter's moon is habitable. “We’ll be able to describe what that habitable environment is like,” says Associate Professor Ingrid Daubar, who works on Clipper for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

DEEPS Assistant Professor James Dottin is featured in the latest installment of PBS's award-winning documentary series, NOVA. The five-part series premiers on October 2nd, and will focus on the solar system.

The endeavour to leverage mycotecture – called the Mycotecture Off Planet Structures at Destination project – has recently been awarded a Phase III contract with NASA, meaning it will receive the funding necessary to continue. The mycotechnology has the support of prominent NASA figures such as DEEPS Professor Jim Head, who once trained astronauts for the Apollo lunar exploration programme, and Apollo 15 commander David Scott.

A new paper published earlier this year by alumn Benjamin Boatwright PhD’22 and Professor James Head PhD’69 proposes new refinement to current imagining technologies using a method they call “shape-from-shading.”

Logan Tullai ’25 oversaw the creation of large-scale cyanotype prints using two rolls of NASA Lunar Orbiter film, decommissioned from the repository of NASA data and images once housed within DEEPS. “I thought it would be cool to use the sun’s UV to make pictures of the moon,” Tullai said.

In a recent study published in the PLanetary Science Journal, researchers describe an odd surface feature that supports the presence of underground caves termed subsurface voids. DEEPS professor and study co-author James Head indicated that the relatively low lunar gravity likely allowed big bubbles of gas to form in magma, leaving behind subsurface voids.

LUMIO is a newly approved CubeSat mission to observe meteoroid impacts on the lunar farside. This week, the ESA approved the next stage of the Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) CubeSat mission, meaning it could be ready for launch as early as 2027. In 2023, Postdoctoral Research Associate Aleksandra Sokołowska was selected to be a member of the LUMIO Science Team. She shared her excitement for the project, saying "Being a part of this mission in its early stages has been incredibly fun and rewarding because members of our Science Team come from many different countries, work collaboratively, and the areas of expertise are very diverse. This final mission approval means that the journey continues."

A recent NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts award will provide $2 million over two years to continue technology development of the Mycotecture Off Planet project in preparation for a potential future demonstration mission. With support from the 2018 Stanford-Brown-RISD iGEM team, the project is developing technologies that could “grow” habitats on the Moon and beyond using fungi.

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar module returned to Earth on Tuesday, June 25th, with the first ever samples retrieved from the far side of the moon. Professor James Head spoke with CNN about the significance of these samples and their importance for the international research community, saying "It’s a gold mine… a treasure chest.”

Professor Jim Head commented on China's Chang'e-6 Moon-lander samples, saying, "Obtaining dates and compositional information from the many hundreds of fragments sampled by the Chang’e-6 drill and scoop is like a having treasure chest full of critical parts of lunar history, and will very likely revolutionize our view of the entire Moon."

Trailblazer of the Week is an ongoing series showcasing the diversity of experience and expertise that supports the collective determination of the Lunar Trailblazer mission. The series recently highlighted Kierra Wilk, DEEPS PhD student working with Trailblazer Co-Investigator Carle Pieters to investigate the spectral signature of water on the Moon.

Professor Jim Head spoke with CGTN Europe about China's Chang'e–6 mission and exploring the far side of the Moon.

The Brown Daily Herald highlights the upcoming Space Horizons conference, exploring topics at the intersection of space and ecology.

Professor Jack Mustard spoke with Scientific American about the Mars Sample Return program and NASA's recent update. “There are aspects of solar system evolution that can only be done through the return of samples [from Mars]."

Dr. Sierra (Wiegman) Brown holds a B.S. (2016) in Geophysics and Geochemistry from SUNY Fredonia, and M.S. (2018) and Ph.D. (2022) degrees in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences from Brown University. Brown is also an enrolled member of the Shinnecock Nation, and draws on the practice of “Two-Eyed Seeing” to provide unique insights that integrate indigenous and western approaches to knowledge.

DEEPS Professor John Mustard recently shared his opinion with Nature about NASA's new considerations for the Perseverance rover's mission, saying the rocks currently on board are “great, but they’re not sufficient to be the transformative samples that we want them to be.”

Professor Jim Head spoke with China Global Television Network on Intuitive Machines' Odysseus Lunar Mission in the South Pole area of the Moon.

Postdoctoral Research Associate Aleksandra Sokołowska has successfully applied to Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Fellowship, and was selected as one of the 1,249 experienced postdoctoral researchers from over eight-thousand applicants for this prestigious opportunity. UK Research and Innovation guarantees funding for successful UK-based projects despite the UK not having been fully associated with Horizon Europe back in 2023. Alex will be hosted by the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London to pursue her original research project, “iPMS: Impacts Probing Martian Subsurface". Sokołowska explained, "As a Fellow I will be developing a new method of decoding this message, which will involve extracting information from planetary images as well as conducting numerical experiments of impact cratering. What is really exciting is that we continuously find new impacts on Mars, and their depths of excavation fall in the range of shallow subsurface depths which are still largely unexplored. One of the main goals of my work is to find out to what an extent this new technique will help us close that sensing gap."

Associate Professor Ingrid Daubar and colleagues recently published a new paper in Space Science Reviews titled “Planned Geological Investigations of the Europa Clipper Mission.” The publication outlines the geological investigations planned for the Europa Clipper mission, which aims to assess Europa’s potential habitability.

DEEPS Professor Jim Head spoke with Space.com about the MEPAG Tiger Team report and their insights into NASA's moon-to-Mars strategy. "NASA is currently updating the objectives for the Moon-to-Mars initiative with the strategy of 'architect from the right/execute from the left,'" Head said.

In a new paper published in the journal of Science China Earth Sciences, DEEPS Professor James Head and colleagues used the phases of volcanic activity and deposits formed by meteorite impacts to propose a new time scale for the Moon's geologic history.

Brown's Multimedia Lab encourages students to create projects using film negatives from NASA Lunar Orbiter 4 Mission. The scans were originally part of the Brown/NASA Northeast Planetary Data Center and were donated to the Creative Reuse Center in June 2023 after a DEEPS consolidation effort. “We were surprised and delighted to see some of the scans turn up back at Brown,” Jackson wrote to the Brown Daily Herald.

NASA-funded researchers have been granted permission to apply to the China National Space Administration (CNSA) for access to portions of samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 mission. This is an exciting and welcome development, DEEPS Professor James Head told SpaceNews. “The Solar System is a big place, and planetary science can benefit tremendously from complementary, non-duplicative exploration destinations, and the sharing of samples and other results.”

The next wave of lunar explorers is headed to terrain that promises to be both stunning and challenging. DEEPS Professor James Head offered his comment, saying "I don’t think we know yet how the trafficability is going to affect how the astronauts are going to be able to walk and drive."

The Odyssey orbiter captured clouds and dust in the Red Planet’s skies, along with one of its two tiny moons. Laura Kerber '11, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter, explains in a video how and why the spacecraft captured a view of the Red Planet similar to the International Space Station’s view of Earth.

The Brown Daily Herald spoke with DEEPS researchers and faculty about the recent study using models atmospheric modeling to show that Venus once had plate tectonics similar to Earth.

Assistant Professor James W. Dottin III is featured on a recent episode of PBS's science documentary series, NOVA. In the episode, "Ancient Earth: Birth of the Sky," scientists explore the creation of Earth's atmosphere and our familiar blue sky.

Members of Professor Yongsong Huang's Lab gathered to watch and celebrate the historic return of NASA's Bennu sampling capsule arrival in Utah.

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is returning to Earth carrying an estimated 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of material gathered from the surface of an asteroid. Takahiro Hiroi, DEEPS Senior Research Scientist and Spectroscopy Specialist, shared his optimism for the mission, saying, “Returned samples can additionally [preserve] microscopic, including nanophase, materials that can be evidence of space weathering or shock events, most elements and isotopes, grain density, [and] material strength.”

University of Central Florida planetary scientist and DEEPS alumna Kerri Donaldson Hanna is counting the days until NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission launches from Cape Canaveral and begins its journey to search for water on the moon.