Newsletter 15-29

Issue 15-29, July 24, 2015

 

+————————————–CONTENTS————————————–+

  1. REMINDER: PLEASE VOTE IN THE 2015 DPS ELECTION
  2. ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR 47th DPS MEETING IN NATIONAL HARBOR
  3. IN MEMORIAM: RAUL A. BARAGIOLA (1945-2015)
  4. UPCOMING MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS

+——————————————————————————————–+

 

 

1———1———1———1———1———1———1———1———1———1

REMINDER: PLEASE VOTE IN THE 2015 DPS ELECTION

 

DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING: ONLY ONE MORE WEEK LEFT TO VOTE!

 

The 2015 election for DPS Vice-Chair and Committee is now open, and will close on July 31st 2015.

 

Please remember to vote!

 

Go to http://aas.org/vote/ 

You will need your AAS member login ID (which defaults to your membership number), and your password. 
If you haven’t registered or renewed your DPS membership recently, you are getting this e-mail because we 
are using large recent DPS lists, but you may actually not be an active member anymore… So, please check your status now and renew if you haven’t done so already at  (http://members.aas.org). 
This will allow you to vote and benefit from all membership advantages.

 

If you have trouble voting on line, the AAS can do a proxy vote and vote on your behalf (send an e-mail to [email protected]). You will still get an automated email confirmation and a separate manual email, both with who you voted for and a confirmation number.

 

You should vote for one of the two candidates for Vice-Chair:

o Lucy McFadden, Goddard Space Flight Center

o Ralph McNutt, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

 

The elected Vice-Chair will take his/her functions in November 2015 and will become the DPS Chair in October 2016.

 

You should also vote for two of the five candidates for DPS Committee: 

o Adrienne Dove, Univ. Central Florida

o Gianrico Filacchione, Institute for Astrophysics and Planetary Science from Space

o Paul Hayne, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

o Carly Howett, Southwest Research Institute

o Joe Spitale, Planetary Science Institute

 

The successful candidates will serve on the Committee for three years after November 2015.

 

The detailed vitae and position statements for each of the candidates is linked from the main election page,

http://aas.org/vote/

 

If you find you’re having difficulties voting, it may be that your registration with DPS has expired. 
Please go to the Member Pages (http://members.aas.org) and click the Member Profile link to review 
your information. Or ask [email protected]for assistance.

 

It is very important for all of us to participate to these elections, so please take a moment to vote!

 

Thank you!

 

2———2———2———2———2———2———2———2———2———2

ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR THE 47TH DPS MEETING IN NATIONAL HARBOR

 

National Harbor, MD, 8-13 November 2015 at the Gaylord National Harbor

http://aas.org/meetings/dps47

 

DPS members you are invited to attend the 47th Annual DPS meeting!

 

* Important dates

 

25 August 2015: Regular Abstract deadline, coming up quickly now!

 

See http://aas.org/meetings/dps47/abstracts

 

Other important dates:

24 August 2015  DPS 47 Exhibitor Deadline

http://aas.org/dps-47th-meeting/47th-dps-meeting-exhibiting-sponsorship-opportunities

1 September 2015  DPS 47 Early Registration Deadline

http://aas.org/meetings/dps47/registration

8 September 2015  DPS 47 Regular Registration Deadline

http://aas.org/meetings/dps47/registration

 

And also:

– 24 September 2015: 47th DPS Late Abstract Submission Deadline – 9:00pm ET

– 8 October 2015: 47th DPS Hotel Reservations Deadline

 

3———3———3———3———3———3———3———3———3———3

IN MEMORIAM: RAUL A. BARAGIOLA (1945-2015)

 

A man of diverse interests and avid curiosity, Raúl A. Baragiola, the Alice and Guy Wilson Chair Professor of Materials Science at the University of Virginia, passed away 21 June 2015, only few months after his seventieth birthday. Raúl began his career at the Balseiro Institute in Bariloche, Argentina, studying electron emission from solid materials, later expanding his expertise to ion, electron, and photon interactions with surfaces. His interest in the surface properties of semi-conductors and insulators led him to the field of Space and Planetary Science, where for the last 25 years he studied the interaction of radiation with condensed ices, minerals, and extraterrestrial materials.

 

Born 31 March, 1945, Raul came to the US after working many years at the Centro Atómico in Bariloche, Argentina when concerns about the Argentina’s political stability and the safety of his family lead him to emigrate. He joined Ted Madey’s laboratory at Rutgers in 1988. He settled permanently at the University of Virginia (UVa) to direct the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Surface Physics (LASP) in 1990.

 

At UVa, Raúl started working on electronic sputtering from condensed gases and water ice in close collaboration with R. E. Johnson (UVa) and Walter Brown (AT & T Bell Laboratory), but he soon initiated key experiments designed to explore the complexities of sputtering of water ice. He had notable success in studying water ice photodesorption induced by Lyman-alpha light and its implications for interstellar ices. Subsequent efforts in a similar vein included investigating the existence of condensed O2 on Ganymede, measuring the sputtering yield of various ices, and characterizing the physical and chemical effects of radiations on laboratory analogs of planetary ices, while making laboratory data available to guide interpretation of astronomical spectra. In collaboration with R. W. Carlson (JPL), results from ion irradiation of water ice were used to explain the infrared signature of hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Europa. Raúl made numerous other significant research contributions towards understanding of the properties of planetary and interstellar water ice and the effects of radiation on these extraterrestrial surfaces. Recent ongoing research centered on laboratory astrochemistry, focusing on the synthesis, destruction and sputtering of plethora of condensed ices which include H2, CO, CO2, CH4, NH3, O2, O3, H2O2 and more complex species by ion and UV irradiation.

 

In collaboration with Lucy McFadden (NASA-Goddard) to understand the sulfur deficit on the surface of the Eros during NEAR’s encounter, Raul initiated research focused on the effects of space weathering on airless bodies. The combined in situ ability to measure reflectance, surface chemistry, and sputtered species due to solar-wind type ion irradiation was a hallmark feature of Raúl’s laboratory. In particular, Raúl was interested in the formation of Fe nano-particles and the effects of Earth’s atmosphere on ion bombarded silicates and minerals. With the discovery of water on the lunar surface, Raúl investigated formation for -OH species by solar wind proton irradiation of silicate minerals. Recent experiments characterizing electron emission from lunar soils echoed his early work on electron-induced secondary electron measurements.

 

Raúl was a prominent member in the Planetary Science and the Laboratory Astrophysics community and a frequent, vocal participant at DPS, AGU, and LPSC conferences. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the Institute of Physics (London), receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Committee on Atomic Collisions in Solids and a NASA Achievement Award for his work on the Cassini mission. He served as a science member on the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) team, collaborating with D. T. Young at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Over the course of his career, Raúl published ~ 200 refereed scientific articles and book chapters, contributed to more than 140 conferences presentations and 80 invited lectures, advised more than 40 students and post-doctoral researchers on multiple continents, and collaborated with more research groups than is possible to name. His scientific legacy endures through them.

 

He leaves behind his dear wife of 46 years, Beatriz; three children: Verena, Valeria, and Pablo; his three precious grandchildren: Maya, Ella, and Leo who were the pride and joy of his later life; and his family of students and post-docs. All of whom will greatly miss Raul’s ability to simplify deeply complex problems, as well as his passion for life, philosophy, and wicked sense of humor.

————————————-

Catherine Dukes – Research Scientist – Laboratory for Astrophysics and Surface Physics – UVa

Ujjwal Raut – Research Scientist – Laboratory for Astrophysics and Surface Physics – UVa    

 

4———4———4———4———4———4———4———4———4———4

UPCOMING MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS

 

A) AGU SESSION 8234 – MERCURY AFTER MESSENGER

 

We are pleased to announce a session on Mercury at the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA, December 14–18, 2015.

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft completed more than four years of orbital operations at Mercury in 
April 2015. The mission returned unprecedented measurements of Mercury’s surface, interior, exosphere, 
and magnetosphere that collectively have revolutionized our understanding of the innermost planet. This session will highlight results from the most recent, highest-resolution observations returned by 
MESSENGER, as well as results from analysis of the six years of flyby and orbital data from this 
highly successful mission, to understand Mercury’s geological evolution, the planet’s geophysical 
and geochemical characteristics, and the interaction of the planet’s exosphere and magnetosphere with 
the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field. We also welcome contributed papers on complementary
ground-based observations, laboratory measurements, theoretical developments relevant to planetary 
processes at Mercury, and future mission opportunities.

Please consider submitting an abstract for this session. For more information,visit: 
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm15/preliminaryview.cgi/Session8234.

 

The submission deadline is August 5, 2015.

 

Conveners:

Paul Byrne (Lunar and Planetary Institute)

Larry Nittler (Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Sean Solomon (Columbia University)

 

We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco.

 

B) AGU SESSION P005 – ENCELADUS: A DECADE’S OBSERVANCE OF A HABITABLE WORLD 

 

Session Description:  This year marks the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the geysering south polar
terrain of Saturn’s small icy moon, Enceladus, and ten years of routine observing and studying its activity
from the Cassini spacecraft. Over the course of the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that
Enceladus’ geysers erupt from a large, long-lived, sub-ice-shell liquid water reservoir, chemically suitable
for the sustenance of biological processes and directly accessible to sampling and analysis. And by the time
this session is convened, two of the last 3 close, targeted flybys that Cassini will make of Enceladus will
have been completed and the data available for presentation. 

 

In this session, we will focus on the most recent observational, theoretical and modeling results on the
chemistry, state and dynamics of Enceladus’ geysers, the moon’s thermal and interior state, geologic
activity, as well as its astrobiological potential. 

 

To submit abstracts to this session, visit: 
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm15/preliminaryview.cgi/Session7905  

 

Primary Convener:  Christopher P McKay, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
Convener: Carolyn Porco, Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO, United States

 

———————————+

Send submissions to:

Anne Verbiscer, DPS Secretary ([email protected]

 

To unsubscribe visit http://aas.org/unsubscribe or email [email protected].

To change your address email [email protected].

 

 


Anne J. Verbiscer
Research Associate Professor
Department of Astronomy
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4325