UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

10/22/2026

Please join us in congratulating Claire Cook, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, The Extent and Formation History of Buried Ice on Mars. 🎉

📸Claire is pictured with her Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Shane Byrne.

10/22/2026

The LPL-led NASA mission that helped transform how scientists understand asteroids and the history of our solar system officially came to an end Sept. 30. Here are 5 things we learned.

An asteroid that nearly swallowed a spacecraft and clues about the origins of life are among the surprises from the OSIRIS-REx mission. Explore more in a gallery of mission images.

10/21/2026

Join LPL two weeks from tonight as we welcome Dr. Dante Lauretta who will speak on "Bennu’s Ancient Waters: Asteroid Samples and the Chemical Origins of Life." More information about this event can be found here: https://lpl.arizona.edu/events/2026-lpl-evening-lecture-series-dr-dante-lauretta

10/20/2026

Congrats to LPL alum Moses Milazzo on his new role on the Flagstaff, AZ city council!

Moses Milazzo is the newest member of the Flagstaff City Council.

10/19/2026

n April 2029, the asteroid Apophis is expected to pass within about 20,000 miles of Earth's surface – closer than satellites carrying TV broadcasts and satellite images. LPL's OSIRIS-APEX will be gathering data about the asteroid during a scheduled flyby.

OSIRIS-APEX, the spacecraft that originally flew as OSIRIS-REx, is expected to reach the asteroid Apophis in late spring of 2029, but the team is already keeping the spacecraft busy.

10/09/2026

Researchers spent 11 hours staring at WISE 0855, the coldest known brown dwarf, collecting a spectrum of its light every 15 minutes, resulting in the first direct confirmation that water clouds on another body are changing thickness over time.

A Jupiter-sized world just 7.5 light-years away is cloudy, chemically complex, and, it turns out, more like home than anyone expected.

10/09/2026

Congrats to LPL Associate Professor Kris Klein! 🎉

10/08/2026

September 30 marked the formal end of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. In the more than two decades since its inception, the mission overcame several challenges to accomplish unprecedented feats of exploration and science.

Sept. 30 marked the formal end of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. This was the United States' first ambitious attempt to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth, and it was led by the University of Arizona.

10/08/2026

Kudos to LPL grad student Anna Taylor! 🥳

10/07/2026

Don't forget to join us tonight! More details about the lecture are here: https://lpl.arizona.edu/events/2026-lpl-evening-lecture-series-dr-joellen-russell

The next LPL Evening Lecture is Wednesday, October 7 and features Dr. Joellen Russell! More information is here: https://lpl.arizona.edu/events/2026-lpl-evening-lecture-series-dr-joellen-russell