Post-doc opportunity
Postdoc position on modeling the fate of volatile elements during accretion and early differentiation of rocky planets The CLEVER Planets (Cycles of Life-Essential Volatile Elements in Rocky Planets) team and Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice University are seeking applicants for a postdoctoral scholar position who would explore dynamical and geochemical fingerprints of accretion and magma ocean processes, searching for conditions of producing thermo-chemically habitable rocky planets. The focus will be tracking the fate of life-essential volatile elements, C, N, H, and S in our Solar System and other exoplanetary systems from the protoplanetary disk to...
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Laura Flagg, graduate student, talks about her astronomy research
Laura Flagg grew up near the nation’s capitol, and her parents used to take her to the Air and Space Museum all the time. “It was free, and it’s a great way to distract kids,” she explains. Later on, she has the “classic story” of an inspirational teacher, in this case, a ninth grade biology teacher, who took the students on “awesome” field-trips. On one such trip, they attended an astrobiology lecture. Laura thought: “wait, people study this for a living? That’s so cool. Maybe I can do that.” So here she is, a PhD student at Rice’s Department...
Continue readingEnd-of-School-Year Congratulations
CLEVER Planets wishes very hearty congratulations to everyone featured during the awards ceremony on Friday. Damanveer Grewal, a CLEVER Planets graduate student, received a department award. He also received a university-wide award that is only given to five graduate students in total every year. Those white roses were well-earned!...
So where did the moon come from? Sarah Stewart puts her “outrageous” ideas to work.
Dr. Sarah Stewart says she likes to “smash planets together”. She works in the realm of the planetary unknown, where sometimes a certain theory of the moon’s formation is accepted … even though lots of scientists reject the theory … purely because there aren’t any better ideas. So how did that slender silver crescent, shining through the dark veil of night, get its start? Check out Dr. Stewart’s new TED talk, where along with her students, she dives into outrageous ideas which just might teach us something new. >> Where did the moon come from? A new theory. This...
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Giant impact may have delivered Earth’s important volatile elements
Earth’s ability to sustain life depends a lot on volatile elements like carbon, hydrogen, sulfur and nitrogen that make up a large proportion of our atmosphere, allowing us to breathe and keep warm in cold space. In a new study from Rice University, CLEVER Planets PhD student Damanveer Grewal, Principal Investigator Rajdeep Dasgupta, Researcher Kyusei Tsuno and Postdoctoral scholar Chenguang Sun, with the help of Gelu Costin, suggest that most of these necessary elements may have been delivered to our planet when a Mars-sized planetary body smashed into early Earth more than 4.4 billion years ago. The late addition of...
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Lenardic reflects in Rice Magazine: Are we alone?
Adrian Lenardic offers his reflections about whether or not there might be life in the great beyond. Check out his thoughts here....
Isella’s protoplanetary disk images
Physics World posted an article earlier this week outlining the findings of CLEVER Planets co-investigator Andrea Isella, from Rice University, and his colleagues, who used the ALMA observatory radio-telescope array in Chile to image protoplanetary disks (spinning disks of dust and gas that make up the building-blocks of planets). With these data, they can learn about planetary formation. The article indicates that they have discovered that gas-giants may form much faster and earlier than thought and further away from their host stars than previously believed. Read more about this research update on Physics World’s site here....
Postdoctoral Position in Volcanic-Tectonic-Climate Modeling
We would like to announce a new opportunity to get involved with CLEVER Planets research as a postdoctoral scholar. The CLEVER Planets team and the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice University are seeking someone to fill a fully funded postdoctoral scholar position who would explore volcanic-tectonic-climate interactions of rocky planets and how such interactions affect habitability. To learn more about this position and apply, please visit the ad with a full description on our Open Positions page....
NASA-CLEVER Planets Postdoctoral Opportunity
We would like to announce a new opportunity to get involved with CLEVER Planets research as a postdoctoral scholar. Because CLEVER Planets is part of the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), candidates may submit a proposal to work on this project (or any other in the NExSS Research Coordination Network) through the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP). Upcoming application deadlines are November 1st, 2018 and March 1st, 2019. To learn more about this position and apply, please visit the ad on our Open Positions page....
Lee on volcanism and life at HMNS
Though most know volcanoes as a source of immense destruction, these vents between the Earth’s interior and exterior, on the other hand, also offer a multitude of beneficial purposes on our planet, from expelling gases that make up Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere to providing natural resources and driving the economy. With their heavily integrated relationship with humans, volcanism, a process that has been active since Earth’s formation and even extends to other planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, is a significant factor in the origins and evolution of life. This will be the subject of a lecture...
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