As a planetary scientist I get to work not only on Earth, but also on planets throughout our solar system. My research focuses primarily on three moons: Saturn's moon Titan, Jupiter's moon Io, and our own Moon.

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2005, and with its array of diverse instruments it has discovered many fundamental, new things about the Saturn system. As an Associate Team Member of the Cassini Radar Science Team, I work with scientists to understand the surface processes on Titan that form such features as dunes, mountains, lakes, rivers, and cryovolcanoes.

The Galileo spacecraft spent nearly ten years in orbit around Jupiter, and it brought to light many complex and exciting characteristics of the Jupiter system. My students and I study active volcanoes on Io, specifically the distribution and thermal output of volcanic eruptions from Galileo and Cassini images. We also study the formation and distribution of paterae, large volcano-tectonic depressions similar to volcanic calderas on Earth.

In preparation for NASA's Return to the Moon, we seek to study the Moon both from the ground, from orbit, and from its surface. A group of scientists from BYU is preparing mass spectrometers for study of the lunar environment, and we are linked with a larger group named AEOLUS , which studies the origin and nature of current gas emissions at the lunar surface.

Student Projects

• Comparisions of dunes on Titan from Cassini Radar images to dunes in the Namib and Saharan deserts - Chris Savage, Chris Spencer
• Temperatures and eruption styles of volcanoes on Io from Cassini ISS eclipse images - Daniel Allen
• Distribution and level of activity of paterae on Io - Brandon Barth
• Morphologies and distributions of mountains on Titan from Cassini Radar images - Parker Valora
• Temperatures and eruption styles of volcanoes on Earth from a handheld camcorder and satellite data - Greg Carling and Anne Dangerfield