Kelsi Singer

Last updated
Kelsi N. Singer
Alma mater Washington University in St. Louis, University of Colorado at Boulder
AwardsAAS Division of Planetary Science Urey Prize
Scientific career
Fieldsplanetary science, geophysics, geomorphology, solar system astronomy
InstitutionsSouthwest Research Institute
Thesis Icy Satellite Tectonic, Geodynamic and Mass Wasting Surface Features: Constraints on Interior Processes and Evolution  (2013)
Doctoral advisor William McKinnon
Website https://sites.google.com/site/kelsisinger/

Kelsi N. Singer (born 1984) is an American planetary scientist who is a senior research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, CO. She is a co-investigator and deputy project scientist of NASA's New Horizons mission studying the geomorphology and geophysics of the Pluto system and of Arrokoth (2014 MU69).

Contents

Education

Singer received a Bachelor's degree in Astronomy and Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder. While there, she decided to pursue research in the fields of astrobiology and planetary science. [1] She studied abroad at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, during her undergrad, where she worked at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. Upon returning to Boulder, she worked with Steve Mojzsis on her honors thesis project about using cyclic rhythmites to trace the length of a day over millions of years. She received a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013; her dissertation was titled Icy Satellite Tectonic, Geodynamic, and Mass Wasting Surface Features: Constraints on Interior Processes and Evolution. [2]

Research

Singer continued as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University after receiving her Ph.D. In 2014, she joined the New Horizons team at SwRI as a postdoctoral researcher, where she studies the geophysics of Kuiper Belt Objects, particularly cratering physics. [3] At SwRI, she is a senior research scientist and Deputy Project Scientist for the New Horizons Extended Mission.

In 2019, Singer and her team demonstrated from images of craters taken by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LoRRI) that small Kuiper Belt Objects (less than one mile in diameter) are rare. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The results place constraints on formation and evolution models of the Solar System, suggesting that objects in the Kuiper Belt formed from rapidly collapsing dust clouds rather than incremental collisions of larger debris. [6]

Singer has coordinated and contributed to the 'Women in Planetary Science' blog site since 2009. [9] She has also contributed articles for the Planetary Society's website. [10]

Awards and honors

Singer received the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Division of Planetary Science (DPS) Harold C. Urey Prize in 2019, [11] which recognizes outstanding achievements in planetary science by early career researchers. Asteroid 10698 Singer was named in her honor. [12] The naming was published by the Minor Planet Center on 13 April 2017 ( M.P.C.103977). [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pluto</span> Dwarf planet

Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is slightly less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has only one sixth the mass of Earth's moon, and one third its volume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charon (moon)</span> Largest natural satellite of Pluto

Charon, known as (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of 606 km (377 mi). Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS).

<i>New Horizons</i> NASA probe that visited Pluto and Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth

New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow, which became a mission to 486958 Arrokoth. It is the fifth space probe to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Buie</span> American astronomer

Marc William Buie is an American astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets who works at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the Space Science Department. Formerly he worked at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was the Sentinel Space Telescope Mission Scientist for the B612 Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid impact events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryovolcano</span> Type of volcano that erupts volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane, instead of molten rock

A cryovolcano is a type of volcano that erupts volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane into an extremely cold environment that is at or below their freezing point. The process of formation is known as cryovolcanism. Collectively referred to as cryomagma, cryolava or ice-volcanic melt, these substances are usually liquids and can form plumes, but can also be in vapour form. After the eruption, cryomagma is expected to condense to a solid form when exposed to the very low surrounding temperature. Cryovolcanoes may potentially form on icy moons and other objects with abundant water past the Solar System's snow line. A number of features have been identified as possible cryovolcanoes on Pluto, Titan and Ceres, and a subset of domes on Europa may have cryovolcanic origins. In addition, although they are not known to form volcanoes, ice geysers have been observed on Enceladus and potentially Triton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Pluto</span>

The geology of Pluto consists of the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto. Because of Pluto's distance from Earth, in-depth study from Earth is difficult. Many details about Pluto remained unknown until 14 July 2015, when New Horizons flew through the Pluto system and began transmitting data back to Earth. When it did, Pluto was found to have remarkable geologic diversity, with New Horizons team member Jeff Moore saying that it "is every bit as complex as that of Mars". The final New Horizons Pluto data transmission was received on 25 October 2016. In June 2020, astronomers reported evidence that Pluto may have had a subsurface ocean, and consequently may have been habitable, when it was first formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nix (moon)</span> Moon of Pluto

Nix is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of 49.8 km (30.9 mi) across its longest dimension. It was discovered along with Pluto's outermost moon Hydra on 15 May 2005 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, and was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. Nix is the third moon of Pluto by distance, orbiting between the moons Styx and Kerberos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydra (moon)</span> Moon of Pluto

Hydra is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of approximately 51 km (32 mi) across its longest dimension. It is the second-largest moon of Pluto, being slightly larger than Nix. Hydra was discovered along with Nix by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope on 15 May 2005, and was named after the Hydra, the nine-headed underworld serpent in Greek mythology. By distance, Hydra is the fifth and outermost moon of Pluto, orbiting beyond Pluto's fourth moon Kerberos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwarf planet</span> Small planetary-mass object

A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to planetary geologists is that they may be geologically active bodies, an expectation that was borne out in 2015 by the Dawn mission to Ceres and the New Horizons mission to Pluto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">15810 Arawn</span>

15810 Arawn, provisional designation 1994 JR1, is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) from the inner regions of the Kuiper belt, approximately 133 kilometres (83 mi) in diameter. It belongs to the plutinos, the largest class of resonant TNOs. It was named after Arawn, the ruler of the Celtic underworld, and discovered on 12 May 1994, by astronomers Michael Irwin and Anna Żytkow with the 2.5-metre Isaac Newton Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands, Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Grinspoon</span> American astrobiologist

David H. Grinspoon is an American astrobiologist. He is Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and was the former inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology for 2012–2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exploration of Pluto</span> Overview of the exploration of Pluto

The exploration of Pluto began with the arrival of the New Horizons probe in July 2015, though proposals for such a mission had been studied for many decades. There are no plans as yet for a follow-up mission, though follow-up concepts have been studied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">486958 Arrokoth</span> Kuiper belt object

486958 Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU69; formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft when the NASA space probe New Horizons conducted a flyby on 1 January 2019. Arrokoth is a contact binary 36 km (22 mi) long, composed of two planetesimals 21 and 15 km (13 and 9 mi) across, that are joined along their major axes. With an orbital period of about 298 years and a low orbital inclination and eccentricity, Arrokoth is classified as a cold classical Kuiper belt object.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Charon</span>

The geology of Charon are the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto's moon Charon. Charon's diameter is 1,208 km (751 mi)—just over half that of Pluto. Charon is sufficiently massive to have collapsed into a spheroid under its own gravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirk (crater)</span> Crater on Charon

Kirk Crater is the unofficial name given to a small crater on Pluto's largest moon Charon. The crater was discovered by the New Horizons space probe in 2015 during its flyby of Pluto and its moons. It was named after the character James T. Kirk from the Star Trek media franchise. The crater is located in the southern hemisphere, just south of the equator, and just east of the prime meridian, near Clarke Montes, in a region that astronomers have named Vulcan Planum.

REX (<i>New Horizons</i>)

REX or Radio Science Experiment is an experiment on the New Horizons space probe to determine various aspects of the atmosphere of Pluto during the 2015 flyby.

Centaurus is a mission concept to flyby the centaurs 2060 Chiron and Schwassmann-Wachmann 1. It was submitted in response to the NASA Discovery program call for proposals in 2019 but ultimately was not among the four missions selected for further development by NASA in February 2020. If it had been selected, Centaurus would have been the first mission to attempt a flyby of a centaur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of New Horizons</span>

Timeline for the New Horizons interplanetary space probe lists the significant events of the launch, transition phases as well as subsequent significant operational mission events; by date and brief description.

References

  1. ↑ Gardner-Vandy, Kat (2011-05-09). "Kelsi Singer: do research as an undergraduate, and embrace the rewards of grad school". Women in Planetary Science: Female Scientists on Careers, Research, Space Science, and Work/Life Balance. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  2. ↑ Singer, Kelsi Nab (May 2013). Icy Satellite Tectonic, Geodynamic and Mass Wasting Surface Features: Constraints on Interior Processes and Evolution (PhD dissertation). Washington University in St. Louis. doi:10.7936/K7BG2M1T.
  3. ↑ Courier, Left Hand Valley. "Niwot's Kelsi Singer is a planetary star". Left Hand Valley Courier. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  4. ↑ Singer, K. N.; McKinnon, W. B.; Gladman, B.; Greenstreet, S.; Bierhaus, E. B.; Stern, S. A.; Parker, A. H.; Robbins, S. J.; Schenk, P. M.; Grundy, W. M.; Bray, V. J. (2019-03-01). "Impact craters on Pluto and Charon indicate a deficit of small Kuiper belt objects". Science. 363 (6430): 955–959. arXiv: 1902.10795 . Bibcode:2019Sci...363..955S. doi: 10.1126/science.aap8628 . ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   30819958.
  5. ↑ "New Horizons data indicates small Kuiper Belt Objects are rare". SpaceFlight Insider. 2019-03-03. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  6. 1 2 "Battle Scars on Pluto and Charon Reveal the Solar System's Origins". www.pbs.org. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  7. ↑ "Crater counts on Pluto, Charon show small Kuiper Belt objects surprisingly rare". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  8. ↑ "Pluto and Charon Don't Have Enough Small Craters". Universe Today. 2019-03-09. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  9. ↑ "Kelsi Singer". Women in Planetary Science: Female Scientists on Careers, Research, Space Science, and Work/Life Balance. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  10. ↑ "Kelsi Singer". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  11. ↑ "2019 Prize Recipients | Division for Planetary Sciences". dps.aas.org. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  12. ↑ "(10698) Singer = 1981 EJ43 = 1988 DM5 = 1993 RT20". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  13. ↑ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". www.minorplanetcenter.net. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
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