Events & Media Coverage

2023

July 14th, 2023
Bereket Mamo wins his FINESST proposal titled ‘The Role of CO2 in Shaping the Anomalous Distribution of Europa’s H2O2.’

Congrats Bereket!

March 30th, 2023
Danna Qasim is selected for the 2022 Agency Honor Award for category Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Medal (DEIAM) for developing the CONNECTORS mentorship program.

March 13-17th, 2023
CLASSE contributions at the 2023 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).

  • Bereket Mamo presented a poster at the ‘Experimental Research and Analogues for Icy Bodies and Rings’ session discussing possible reasons for why Europa appears dark in the Far-ultraviolet.
  • Caleb Gimar gave a talk highlighting results from his recent JGR publication in the ‘Lunar Regolith Properties and Processes’ session, alongside prominent personalities like Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt.
  • Michael Poston gave a talk on Argon and Water Interactions with Lunar-Relevant Materials at the ‘Lunar Volatiles and Where to find them’ session.
  • Ujjwal Raut presented a poster at the ‘Fire and Ice: Europa and Io Geology and Composition’ session discussing how Jovian plasma could potentially darken Europa’s UV-bright fresh cryoplume fallouts.

Jan 23rd, 2023
Danna Qasim contributed to ‘An Ice Age JWST inventory of dense molecular cloud ices‘ published in Nature Astronomy. See press release.

Jan 9th, 2023
Danna Qasim’s manuscript ‘Meteorite Parent Body Aqueous Alteration Simulations of Interstellar Residue Analogs’ is published in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. See press release.

2022

Oct 25th, 2022
CLASSE team members Bereket Mamo and Josh Kammer join the Europa Clipper Science team as Europa-UVS Graduate Student Affiliate and Europa-UVS Professional Affiliate. Bereket will continue to perform laboratory experiments of icy Europan analogs in the far-ultraviolet while Josh will continue to analyze UV atmospheric and auroral datasets, including Juno-UVS radiation environment count-rate response in support of the Clipper mission set to explore Europa beginning in 2030!

Oct 22nd, 2022
Caleb Gimar’s manuscript ‘Far-Ultraviolet Photometric Characteristics of JSC-1A and LMS-1 Lunar Regolith Simulants: Comparative Investigations with Apollo 10084‘ is accepted for publication in JGR Planets and available online! Congrats Caleb!

August 29th, 2022
Bereket Mamo is the recipient of the Underrepresented Minority (URM) travel grant which will support his participation in the upcoming 2022 Division of Planetary Science Conference (DPS) to be held in London, Ontario (Canada). Bereket will present on ‘Probing Ice Crystallinity with Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopy: Implications for Condensed Volatiles in Lunar Permanently Shadowed Regions and Outer Solar System Icy Satellites.‘

June 21, 2022
Caleb Gimar wins his FINESST proposal titled ‘Solar Wind Radiolysis of Hydrocarbons Pertaining to Charon’s Polar Reddening.’

June 17,  2022
Ujjwal Raut’s manuscript ‘Charon’s refractory factory‘ is published in Science Advances. See press release.

April 18, 2022
Ben Teolis’ manuscript ‘Extreme Exospheric Dynamics at Charon: Implications for the Red Spot‘ is published in GRL and available online!

Feb 11, 2022
SwRI-UTSA graduate students Caleb Gimar and Bereket Mamo submit FINESST proposals to examine the color of irradiated hydrocarbons and to investigate the cause behind the puzzling H2O2 distribution on Europa respectively. Fingers Crossed!

Jan 27, 2022
Josh Kammer wins NFDAP to investigate the role of Solar Wind in the origin of Charon’s Red Polar region. We are eager to blast hydrocarbon ices with keV protons and investigate the color changes. Extending our previous work beyond Lyman-α!

Dec 15, 2021
CLASSE Holiday Social at Toro

Come join our joint SwRI-UTSA program in Space Physics and Instrumentation