Would you like to help investigate solfataric alteration on volcanic islands?  Join Janice for a week in the spectacular wilds of Iceland, or the splendid landscapes of Santorini or Hawaii, investigating an analog site for Mars.  You’ll get to experience sulfur vents up close and personal, while participating in sample collection and in situ spectral measurements. 

Some locations are a bit remote and require a hike with a heavy backpack. The scenery, however, is almost always breathtaking. 

What is Mars made of? Dust and many kinds of rock, for sure. But Janice Bishop, who is both a chemist and planetary scientist, is trying to learn more about the Red Planet’s makeup by studying the spectral behavior of other materials that might be found there. Her group is analyzing pure minerals, rocks from potential Mars analog field sites, and meteorites that are rocks from Mars. Spectroscopy is a means of identifying compounds by the specific wavelengths of light they reflect, and her expertise in this hi-tech “fingerprinting” scheme has led to her participation in the research programs of many of today’s robotic Mars explorers. These include NASA’s new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the highly successful and peripatetic Exploration Rovers, and Europe’s Mars Express.

Janice has also made investigations into how particles of iron oxide (also known as rust) might have been critically important in life’s early days, before an ozone layer could protect biology from the searing ultraviolet rays of the Sun. Small iron oxide particles could have operated as “sunshades” for these ancient microbes, letting infrared and visible light through (so photosynthesis could occur), while blocking the damaging ultraviolet. There was a time, billions of years ago, when living in the rust belt was a good thing. In addition, experiments with iron oxides in Janice’s lab are geared toward understanding the magnetic properties of the martian dust.

For more information on how to adopt this scientist
Please call us toll free at 1-866-616-3617 and ask for Karen Randall.