UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Please join us in congratulating Dingshan Deng, who today successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation, Measuring Disk Masses with CO Isotopologues Using Self-Consistent Models.

📸:Dingshan is pictured with his Ph.D. advisors, Dr. Uma Gorti and Dr. Ilaria Pascucci

Read about LPL-led Snow4Flow, which seeks to measure and model how far and fast glaciers are retreating in the far north.

New NASA Earth Missions Gear Up to Start Science Flights - NASA Science The first of six new airborne campaigns will hit the skies this summer.

LPL graduate student Kayla Smith is taking planetary sciences lessons to Pima County Juvenile Detention Center!

Juvenile detainees discover other worlds through UA planetary science program A planetary sciences graduate student developed the curriculum herself and chose to bring it to the detention center.

Check out LPL's Dr. Dani DellaGiustina on the latest episode of Looking Up as she discusses "What Did NASA Find on Asteroid Bennu?"

What did NASA find on Asteroid Bennu? (with Dr. Daniella Mendoza DellaGiustina) What is a potentially hazardous asteroid like? Up close and personal? Very few space missions have visited asteroids and fewer still have touched an asteroid and brought some of it back to Earth. Dean chats with NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission's image processing lead scientist, Dr. Daniella Mendoza DellaG...

Thank you Senator Mark Kelly! LPL appreciates all of your support for space science!

As a former NASA astronaut and Arizona's senator, I couldn't be prouder that The University of Arizona is leading the way in space science. This is exactly the kind of American innovation and excellence we should be investing in.

LPL's Professor Lynn Carter and team developed SESAR-LITE, a radar instrument designed to search for water ice and map lunar subsurface terrain, which has completed critical thermal vacuum and preliminary antenna testing.

Prototype NASA lunar radar instrument makes history as the first test subject for U of A’s giant thermal vacuum chamber The TVAC’s inaugural test subject, SESAR-LITE, marks the university's entry into an exclusive testing arena, positioning the Space Institute alongside established government and commercial testing facilities. SESAR-LITE, is a high-resolution low frequency radar instrument designed to peer beneath ...

Kudos to LPL graduate students Namya Baijal and Ruby Fulford!

Please join us in congratulating Lucas Smith, who today successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation, Preservation of Presolar Materials and Igneous Clasts in Aqueously Altered Carbonaceous Asteroids.

Congratulations, Lucas!

📸: Lucas is pictured with his PhD advisor, Dr. Pierre Haenecour

Please join us in congratulating Maizey Benner, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, A Transmission Electron Microscopy Investigation of Phosphorus- and Sulfur-bearing Mineral Formation in Primitive Planetary Materials.

Congratulations, Maizey!

📸: Maizey is pictured with her Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Tom Zega

Great news! The University of Arizona ranked #3 in space sciences globally according to the latest report from US News and World report! This ranking includes both LPL and University of Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory. Read more about this honor here:

U of A space science ranks No. 1 among public universities in latest US News global ranking The U of A ranked No. 1 among public U.S. universities in space science and No. 20 among all public U.S. universities overall in the 2026-2027 Best Global Universities ranking.