The world is badly made : It is during the darkest nights you can not see the Moon..
Aurelien Scholl.
Presentation
This is me, with various sceneries of the United States. I have a position as a Research Associate at the University of Maryland in the Astronomy department. I am part of the planetary group. I mainly interact with the EPOXI Team, especially the PI Michael F. A'Hearn and Jessica M. Sunshine. I am also collaborating with J. Sunshine on the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3). I also work with other persons of the department on several projects that include asteroids, comets, rocky planets and satellites.
The EPOXI mission combines two science investigations that re-use the Deep Impact spacecraft. DIXI is the Deep Impact eXtented Investigation of comets that has observed comet 103/PHartley 2 during a close flyby in November 2010.
The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) is one of two instruments that NASA is contributing to India's first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, which launched on October 22, 2008. (M3) is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that provide the first map of the lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution, revealing the minerals of which it is made.
What's new ?
[Oct 01 2012] October 1st should be my first day at ESA... Exciting.
[Sept 27 2012] I will be at the EPSC conference in Madrid presenting results on Hartley 2. I have an invited talk (nice!) Tuesday at 11h00. I will also present a poster about lunar volcanism (Marius Hills) Monday evening.
[Sept 19 2012] I have a talk at the Observatoire de Bordeaux: "Volatiles in comet Hartley 2: A close view from the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) flyby"
[July 18 2012] A joined Stardust-DIXI meeting where I will present my analyses of the gazeous species
[Apr 20 2012] I am giving a public talk at the UMd observatory: "New views of the Moon"
[Apr 07 2012] I accepted an offer from ESA for a fellowship ! Consequently, I am going back to Europe ;-)
[Mar 27 2012] I am happy with my interview in Paris for the CNAP. I will try again next year !
[Mar 12 2012] Last Paper on the flyby of Lutetia, this one on age dates from Marchi et al. [Reprints here].
[Mar 12 2012] One more Paper on the flyby of Lutetia, this one on boulders from Kueppers et al. [Reprints here].
[Feb 13 2012] Another Paper on the flyby of Lutetia, this one on craters from Vincent & Besse et al. [Reprints here].
[Jan 28 2012] Back from Spain with a visit of ESAC in Madrid. I gave a talk on lunar Mare Basalts.
[Jan 16 2012] Papers on the flyby of Lutetia start to come out. First one on geomorphology from Thomas et al. [Reprints here].
[Jan 05 2012] I submitted my application to the CNRS French permanent position.
[Nov 01 2011] We delivered the M3 level2 data to PDS! I was in charge of the photometry correction.
[Oct 02-07 2011] I will be at the DPS presenting results on EPOXI at Hartley 2. I have two talks Tuesday, 10h30 and 15h40. I will also present a poster about the Moon seen by Kaguya and Chandrayaan-1.
[Sept 07 2011] I am organizing a one day online workshop on lunar Swirls. I will have a presentation also.
[Jul 26 2011] Just received an award for "outstanding contribution to science objectives of the EPOXI Project" by NASA. This is a very good surprise!
[June 17 2011] The Science paper EPOXI at comet Hartley 2 is finally published. I have contributed to a lot of things !!
[June 07 2011] I have a talk at the Observatoire de Paris (France) about the flyby of comet Hartley 2.
[May 14 2011] My paper on Marius Hills (JGR) is published. [Reprints here].
[May 07 2011] I have a public talk at the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (VA) about "Highlights Mission in Planetary Science in the last two year".
[May 5 2011] I have a public talk at the Riderwood Village at Silver Spring (MD) about the flyby of comet Hartley 2.
[April 02 2011] The Asteroids, Comets and Meteors (ACM 2011) conference in Japan is posponed. We will most likely present the latest results of the Hartley2 flyby at the DPS in France.
[Mar 07 2011] I am going to the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). I have a poster on M3 photometry.
[Feb 21 2011] My paper on Marius Hills is accepted: Besse et al. Compositional Variability of the Marius Hills Volcanic Complex from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)
J. Geophys. Res., doi: 10.1029/2010JE003725, in press.
[Feb 17 2011] I have a public talk at the HOWARD ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE in Columbia (MD) about the flyby of comet Hartley 2.
[Nov 04 2010] The Deep Impact eXtented Investigation of comets will observe comet 103/PHartley 2 during a close flyby.
[Mar 04 2010] I have a talk at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) Thursday afternon. I will present the latest result from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) for the Marius Hills complex.
[Feb 27-28 2010] I will attend the Brown-Vernadsky Microsymposium 51 at the Woodlands and present last result of the Moon mineralogy as seen by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3).
[Jan 08 2010] The Paper 'E-Type Asteroid (2867) Steins as Imaged by OSIRIS on Board Rosetta' is finally published. I have contributed to the shape model, the age estimation and the crater counting.
[Dec 14 2009] I have a poster presentation at the American Geoscience Union at San Francisco. I will present the resuts about the craters' physical parameters on the surface of asteroid Steins.
[Nov 20 2009] I have a talk at the University of Maryland Observatory. The Title is : 50 years of Planetary Exploration : What's Best ?
[Oct 29 2009] Pals at UMD. I will talk about the Steins observations with the OSIRIS camera onboard Rosetta spacecraft.
[Oct 19 2009] That's it! I just get my PhD, this is wonderful.