The BNC Faculty Seminar Series is designed to provide faculty a platform to present an overview of their research and the opportunity for collaborative discussion with other BNC faculty and researchers across six colleges and 15 academic units.

Michelle Thompson

Assistant Professor of Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

October 7^th, 2021 | 12:00pm

Join Zoom: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/91754078808

Title: From Atomic Scales to Asteroid Surfaces: Understanding Planetary Surfaces across the Solar System through the Coordinated Analysis of Returned Samples

Abstract: :  Soils on the surfaces of airless planetary bodies such as the Moon and asteroids are continuously being modified by their exposure to interplanetary space. These surface materials experience micrometeorite bombardment and irradiation by energetic particles from the solar wind, a phenomenon collectively known as space weathering. Such interactions change the chemical and microstructural characteristics of soil grains and, as a result, their optical properties which we can measure with remote sensing spacecraft. In order to understand the nature of space weathering processes on airless planetary surfaces, my group combines nanoscale analyses of returned samples with experimental simulations of space weathering in the laboratory. I will present my work using various techniques to simulate micrometeorite impacts and solar wind irradiation of both returned samples and analog materials. I will discuss the analysis of these samples using various electron microscopy techniques. I will put these results into context for what we know about the Moon from the Apollo samples, and the ongoing NASA OSIRIS-REx and JAXA Hayabusa2 missions to near-Earth asteroids.

Bio: Michelle Thompson got her bachelors’ degrees in Geological Engineering and Biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She received her MSc and PhD in planetary science from the University of Arizona. She completed a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johnson Space Center before moving to Purdue in 2018. She is currently

an Assistant Professor in the department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. She is a member of the science team for the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 sample return missions.

Previously recorded talks: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Intranet/Groups/BNC/FacultySeminars

Upcoming BNC Virtual Faculty Seminars and Recorded Talks, Spring 2021:

10/14/21	Xiaoping Bao, Assistant Professor, Davidson School of Chemical Engineering	Engineer and Manufacture Off-the-Shelf CAR-NK Cells for Targeted Cancer Immunotherapy
10/21/21
10/28/21	Andres Arrieta, Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering
11/4/21	Tian Li, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering	Naturally Nanostructured Cellulose towards Energy Water Nexus
11/11/21	Caitlin Proctor, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering & Environmental and Ecological Engineering	Biofilms in Everyday Life
11/18/21

Thanks!

Nancy Black
Administrative Assistant | Discovery Park

Birck Nanotechnology Center | 1205 West State St | West Lafayette, IN 47907

blackn@purdue.edu | purdue.edu/discoverypark/birck