Maryland Planetary Group

The planetary group seeks to understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System. They accomplish this primarily by exploring the various constituents (comets, asteroids and planets) of the Solar System theoretically, observationally, and experimentally. Doug Hamilton and Derek Richardson focus on dynamical modeling of solar system motions, while Mike A'Hearn, Tony Farnham, Casey Lisse, Lucy McFadden and Dennis Wellnitz concentrate on observational work and Rosemary Killen's research emphasizes models based on observations. Planetary and small body studies do not have many opportunities for experimental work, but with Mike A'Hearn as Principal Investigator (PI) for the Deep Impact mission, the planetary group is also accomplishing its goals by directing a projectile into a comet and observing the results with a flyby spacecraft as well as earth-based telescopes.
The planetary group supports several projects including the Deep Impact mission, the Small Bodies Node of the Planetary Data Systems, and dynamical modeling using cutting-edge parallel processing technology.

DEEP IMPACT
Deep Impact is a NASA Discovery mission led by PI Mike A'Hearn. The mission launches in January 2004 and will encounter comet Tempel 1 in July 2005. The spacecraft is actually a dual craft composed of a flyby craft and an impactor that are launched as one unit and separate about 24 hours before the encounter. The 370kg impactor will be released into the path of the comet and will target itself to hit the comet. It is expected to excavate a crater about the size of a football field and about 7 stories deep on the 6km diameter comet. Lucy McFadden is Co-Investigator and will focus on determining the composition of the surface of the comet. She also manages the education and public outreach program for the mission. Casey Lisse and Dennis Wellnitz provide science support for the design, implementation and data analysis for the mission.

MESSENGER
Dr. Rosemary Killen is a participating scientist on the atmospheres and magnetospheres discipline team for MESSENGER. She is modeling the tenuous atmosphere (exosphere) of Mercury and will use the observations from the UV/VIS spectrometer to determine the composition, spatial and temporal variations of the exosphere to deduce the sources and sinks for volatiles on the closest planet to the sun. MESSENGER will flyby Mercury on January 14, 2008, October 6, 2008 and September 29, 2009, and will go into orbit about Mercury in 2011.

PDS
The Planetary Data System (PDS) is a distributed archive of solar system data, prepared in a standard format for use primarily by astronomical observers and mission planners, as well as educators and students. The Small Bodies Node (SBN) specializes in data concerning asteroids, comets and interplanetary dust and is located at the University of Maryland. Mike A'Hearn is the PI for this NASA project, Ed Grayzeck is the archive manager. The database design and system programming is done by Anne Raugh.

	Images of Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact into Jupiter, taken at Calar Alto by Doug Hamilton, debuted in 1999 on Germany's first holographic stamp! More images from the planetary group.
Back to Research Groups
Department Email and Phone Directory