Planetary scientists sharing ideas and discoveries.

Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site sharing the latest research by NASA-sponsored scientists on meteorites, asteroids, planets, moons, and other materials in our Solar System. The website is supported by the Cosmochemistry Program of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and by Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium and is a vital link for planetary and space sciences, and for learning how science works.

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CosmoSparks Reports

CosmoSparks reports give quick views of big advances in cosmochemistry, with links to further details.

DATE POSTED	REPORT	PDF VERSIONS
MARCH 2013	Studying the Most Primitive Extraterrestrial Dust - Isotopic compositions and presolar grain abundances from interplanetary dust particles.
FEB 2013	The Surprise Meteorite Fall in Russia, February, 2013 - The meteoroid, meteor, and ordinary chondrite in the news.
FEB 2013	ANSMET 2012-2013 Field Season Yields New Meteorite Samples - Hundreds of new specimens will be available for research.
FEB 2013	Meteoritics & Planetary Science Journal–Special Issue - Articles in the December 2012 issue cover cosmochemical research presented at the 2011 Workshop on Formation of the First Solids in the Solar System.
JAN 2013	Chondrule Formation - Data from oxygen-isotopic conpositions and oxidation states of chondrule olivines in CR chondrites.
OCT 2012	Discovery of Native Mercury and Mercury Sulfide in Tieschitz Meteorite - Microbeads of native Hg indicate cold accretion.
SEPT 2012	Volatiles on Vesta - Implications for the hydrogen detected on Vesta with data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.
AUG 2012	Mantle of Mars - Insights to the interior of Mars: theme of an upcoming workshop in Houston, TX and a newly selected NASA geophysical mission.
JULY 2012	Lunar Rock Densities - Measuring rock properties of density and porosity for geophysical modeling of the Moon.
JULY 2012	Water, Carbonaceous Chondrites, and Earth - The drive continues to understand all the possible sources of Earth's water.
JUNE 2012	Olympic-caliber Mineral Finder - A new mineral, panguite, formed during the birth of our Solar System has been found in the Allende meteorite.
MAY 2012	Space Station Crew Answers Question about Micrometeorites - On the day Space Station astronauts opened the hatch and entered the SpaceX Dragon capsule for the first time, PSRD asked: how does micrometeorite bombardment affect spacecraft?
MAY 2012	Weathered Glass on Mars - Extensive deposits of weathered, glassy sediments suggest widespread explosive volcanism and late-stage surface alteration by water.
APRIL 2012	Meteoritics & Planetary Science Journal–Special Issue - Nineteen articles in the April 2012 issue cover cosmochemical results from the Stardust Mission to Comet Wild 2.
APRIL 2012	Earth's Temporary Minimoons - Asteroids temporarily orbiting Earth follow a wild route before they exit. Could they someday be mined?
APRIL 2012	Why the Definition of Crystal Changed - The discovery of quasicrystals revolutionized the science of crystal chemistry, and one of them shows evidence of an extraterrestrial origin.
FEB 2012	ANSMET 2011-2012 Field Season in the Miller Range, Antarctica - 302 meteorites collected for scientific study.
JAN 2012	A Summer Fall - Martian meteorite, Tissint, fell in Morocco in July, 2011 and pieces are now being analyzed by cosmochemists.
JAN 2012	Soluble Organics of the Bells Meteorite - An inventory of prebiotic, soluble organic compounds in an anomalous CM chondrite.
DEC 2011	It's Not All Basalt on the Moon: Another Kind of Volcanic Rock - Looking at non-mare silicic volcanism.
NOV 2011	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences–Cosmochemistry Special Feature - Nine articles inside the November 2011 issue cover cosmochemical research.
OCT 2011	Earth's Heat - It is now possible to measure the radiogenic heat production inside Earth, previously estimated from element ratios in chondritic meteorites.
SEPT 2011	Cosmochemical Building Blocks called GEMS - The unfolding story of grains of Glass with Embedded Metal and Sulfides found in interplanetary dust particles.
JULY 2011	Shooting Iron Sulfides into Aluminum Foil to Better Understand Comet Wild 2 - Laboratory simulations of impacts on Stardust Al foils.
JULY 2011	Vesta and the Vestoids - Insights to Vesta's crust, before the Dawn mission's close look at the asteroid.
JUNE 2011	Looking After and Preserving NASA's Extraterrestrial Samples - The work of NASA's Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office.
JUNE 2011	A Meteorite with Up and Down Markers - Metal-sulfide nodules and vesicles aligned in asteroid's gravitational field.
MAY 2011	Discovery of New Mineral, Krotite, in a CAI - CaAl₂O₄ named after Alexander N. Krot.
APRIL 2011	The Role of H₂S in Amino Acid Synthesis on Primordial Earth and Elsewhere - Intriguingly similar abundances of amino acids from historic lab samples and carbonaceous chondrites.
MARCH 2011	Planetary Science Decadal Survey - Vision and voyages for planetary science in the decade 2013-2022.
MARCH 2011	Elements Magazine–Special Issue on Cosmochemistry - Seven articles inside the February 2011 issue cover cosmochemical research.
FEB 2011	1,203 More Antarctic Meteorites Bound for Study - The 2010-2011 ANSMET team's collection.
FEB 2011	Asteroid Itokawa Samples - Hayabusa Mission results show definitive evidence for LL chondrite compositions of minerals in Itokawa Samples.
DEC 2010	Asteroid Tracked--Meteorites Found! - The unfolding story of meteorite Almahata Sitta is covered in the Oct/Nov 2010 issue of Meteoritics & Planetary Science journal.
OCT 2010	An Icy Treat - Water ice confirmed on the Moon.
OCT 2010	Stardust--Snapshots of Stars - Automated NanoSIMS Measurements of Spinel Stardust.
SEPT 2010	Brownleeite: The First New Mineral Identified From a Comet - Manganese silicide discovered in an IDP.
AUG 2010	Putting a Damper on the Damp Moon - Measurements of chlorine isotopes in lunar samples.
JULY 2010	Controlling Contamination Before, During, and After Spaceflight - NASA Stardust Mission.
JULY 2010	Messing with an Onion - Cooling of the H-chondrite parent body.
In July, 2010 we began creating CosmoSparks reports to bring you quick views of big advances in cosmochemistry.

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