Portrait of Michael S. Kelley

Michael S. Kelley

Research Scientist

I am a planetary scientist specializing in comets, software, and data archiving. My cometary interests have spanned from the thermal emission from dust, to the behavior of comets as they orbit the Sun, to the distribution of their dust and gas as seen in telescopic and spacecraft data. I have also developed open source software for comets specifically and planetary astronomy more generally. I have interests in increasing the accessibility of planetary data through data sharing, metadata standardization, and long-term data archiving.
Research Centers & Collaborations:
Small Bodies Node
Space Missions

Latest Papers

Prediscovery Activity of New Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS: Rapid Brightening from 6 to 4 au

| The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Author(s): Quanzhi 泉志 Ye 叶, Michael S. P. Kelley, Henry H. Hsieh, et. al
UMD Author(s): Quanzhi Ye, Michael S. Kelley


JWST Detection of a Carbon-dioxide-dominated Gas Coma Surrounding Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS

| The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Author(s): Martin A. Cordiner, Nathan X. Roth, Michael S. P. Kelley, et. al
UMD Author(s): Michael S. Kelley


Optical and Near-infrared Spectroscopy of the Outbursting Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

| The Astrophysical Journal
Author(s): Ruining Zhao, Bin Yang, Michael S. P. Kelley, et. al
UMD Author(s): Michael S. Kelley


A Large Outburst, Coma Asymmetries, and the Color of Comet 243P/NEAT

| The Planetary Science Journal
Author(s): Michael S. P. Kelley, Silvia Protopapa, Dennis Bodewits, et. al
UMD Author(s): Michael S. Kelley, Tony L. Farnham, Quanzhi Ye, Lori M. Feaga


JWST Discovers Heavily Hydrogenated PAHs in the Coma of the Dynamically New Oort Cloud Comet C/2017 K2 (Pan-STARRS)


Author(s): Diane Wooden, Charles Woodward, Dominique Bockelee-Morvan, et. al
UMD Author(s): Michael S. Kelley


CATCHing the Sky


Author(s): James Bauer, Michael S. P. Kelley, Yaeji Kim, et. al
UMD Author(s): Michael S. Kelley, Yaeji Kim, Benjamin Sharkey