Seven months after launch, Pandora has officially begun its mission: to catch never-before-seen-glimpses of worlds beyond our solar system and the stars they orbit. Now the work of Professor Daniel Apai and his science team is kicking into high gear. news.arizona.edu/news/pandora...

Pandora mission begins science operations

Few space missions are run from university campuses. NASA's Pandora space has embarked on its mission to stare at worlds outside of our solar system and their host stars, all under the watchful eyes o...

news.arizona.edu

TAPS is now on Bluesky! We are excited to announce that TAPS is back for 2027! Submissions are open now. TAPS 2027 will feature both data art and fine art with this year’s theme being “As We Float on By: 50 Golden Years of Voyager”

LPL scientists play crucial roles in the science of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which launches Sunday, August 30 at 7:26am EDT. news.arizona.edu/news/u-scien...

LPL grad student Naman Bajaj dug into archival data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to better understand how vast amounts of gas vanished from our solar system disk and other like it. news.arizona.edu/news/planet-...

Planet formation is a 'race against time,' according to new U of A research

"Stunning" JWST images of newborn-solar systems shed light on how and when they lose gas, suggesting that planet formation is "a race against time," according to new research led by U of A graduate st...

news.arizona.edu

The Fall 2027 application for the Ph.D. program at LPL is now open. Find more information here: lpl.arizona.edu/admissions

LPL has begun building EMILIA-3D, one of three science investigation payloads selected by NASA earlier this year to be delivered to the moon by a future Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, lander. news.arizona.edu/news/u-begin...

Introducing the Fall 2026 LPL Evening Lecture Series! More information can be found here: lpl.arizona.edu/calendar/eve...

Check out the updates on the LPL-led LEMS instrument! science.nasa.gov/missions/art...

NASA Completes Astronaut-Deployed Science Instrument for Lunar Surface - NASA Science

NASA has declared “wrenches down” on the first completed payload designed for Artemis astronauts to deploy on the Moon's surface. Engineers working on NASA’s

science.nasa.gov

Please join us in congratulating Dingshan Deng, who today successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation, Measuring Disk Masses with CO Isotopologues Using Self-Consistent Models. 📸: Dingshan is pictured with his Ph.D. advisors, Dr. Uma Gorti and Dr. Ilaria Pascucci

Read about LPL-led Snow4Flow, which seeks to measure and model how far and fast glaciers are retreating in the far north. science.nasa.gov/earth/new-na...

New NASA Earth Missions Gear Up to Start Science Flights   - NASA Science

The first of six new airborne campaigns will hit the skies this summer.

science.nasa.gov

LPL graduate student Kayla Smith is taking planetary sciences lessons to Pima County Juvenile Detention Center! www.kold.com/2026/07/23/j...

Juvenile detainees discover other worlds through UA planetary science program

A planetary sciences graduate student developed the curriculum herself and chose to bring it to the detention center.

kold.com

Check out LPL's Dr. Dani DellaGiustina on the latest episode of Looking Up as she discusses "What Did NASA Find on Asteroid Bennu?" www.wvxu.org/podcast/look...

What did NASA find on Asteroid Bennu? (with Dr. Daniella Mendoza DellaGiustina)

What is a potentially hazardous asteroid like? Up close and personal? Very few space missions have visited asteroids and fewer still have touched an asteroid and brought some of it back to Earth. Dean...

wvxu.org

LPL's Professor Lynn Carter and team developed SESAR-LITE, a radar instrument designed to search for water ice and map lunar subsurface terrain, which has completed critical thermal vacuum and preliminary antenna testing. research.arizona.edu/news/prototy...

Prototype NASA lunar radar instrument makes history as the first test subject for U of A’s giant thermal vacuum chamber

The TVAC’s inaugural test subject, SESAR-LITE, marks the university's entry into an exclusive testing arena, positioning the Space Institute alongside established government and commercial testing fac...

research.arizona.edu

Kudos to LPL grad students Namya Baijal and Ruby Fulford!

Please join us in congratulating Lucas Smith, who today successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation, Preservation of Presolar Materials and Igneous Clasts in Aqueously Altered Carbonaceous Asteroids. Congratulations, Lucas! 📸: Lucas is pictured with his PhD advisor, Dr. Pierre Haenecour

Please join us in congratulating Maizey Benner, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, A Transmission Electron Microscopy Investigation of Phosphorus- and Sulfur-bearing Mineral Formation in Primitive Planetary Materials. 📸: Maizey is pictured with her Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Tom Zega

Great news! @uarizona.bsky.social ranked #3 in space sciences globally according to the latest report from US News and World report! This ranking includes both LPL and @stewardobservatory.bsky.social. news.arizona.edu/news/u-space...

Kudos to LPL alums Michelle Thompson and James Keane who received their PECASE awards yesterday! More info about this honor is here: www.nasa.gov/organization...

Space Drafts #117 is on May 20 @ 7:30PM at Zerai's International Bar! On tap this month we have @jenivevep.bsky.social telling us about the hunt for infant black holes and @zarahwithaz.bsky.social telling us about Saturn's Rings! If you can't make it in person we are online at bit.ly/SpaceDrafts117.

Please join us in congratulating Kiana McFadden, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, Thermal Modeling of Main Belt and Mars-Crossing Asteroids: Improved Constraints on Physical Properties from Extended WISE/NEOWISE Observations. Congratulations, Kiana!

Please join us in congratulating Kana Ishimaru, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, Probing the Alteration Histories of Primitive Carbonaceous Materials from the Asteroid to the Atomic Scale. 📸: Kana is pictured with her Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Jessica Barnes.

Congrats to all! LPL is proud of our alums! More information about the DPS prize winners can be found here: dps.aas.org/news/aas-div...

Kudos to Kayla!

Congratulations, 2026 Galileo Scholars!

Congratulations, Lucas! 🥳

A research team at LPL demonstrated that ground-penetrating radar mounted on drones can map the thickness of rocky debris covering glaciers on Earth. These results could help future astronauts locate accessible water locked in buried ice on Mars. news.arizona.edu/news/drone-r...

Drone radar reveals buried glaciers on Earth, guiding the search for water on Mars

U of A researchers launched drones equipped with ground-penetrating radar over debris-covered glaciers in Alaska and Wyoming that resemble buried ice deposits found on Mars.

news.arizona.edu

Kudos to LPL graduate student Cole Meyer! 🎉

Kudos to Dingshan!

Congratulations, Beau and Jeremy!

Remembering LPL alum Betty Pierazzo.

Planetary Science Institute@psi.edu · 5mo ago

NASA's Barbara Cohen created this image of the Moon's Pierazzo crater, named after our late PSI colleague Betty Pierazzo. Betty was an expert in impact modeling and the astrobiological and environmental effects of impacts. She also passionately supported students and other teachers.