Center for Earth and Planetary Studies

CEPS News and Highlights features not only current events and happenings at Center for Earth and Planetary Studies and the National Air and Space Museum, but also reflects ongoing programs and research involving CEPS staff. Whenever possible, we have provided links to additional information that can be found on CEPS' own department pages and elsewhere on the Internet.

July 16, 2009
Countdown to the Moon Day!

Visitors can celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 with a variety of educational and fun activities throughout the Museum.
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April 30, 2009
MESSENGER Discovers Unusual Impact Basin on Mercury

CEPS scientist Thomas Watters is lead author of the report on the findings published in the journal Science.
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July 21, 2006
Mars Day!
CEPS coordinated the 10th annual National Air and Space Museum Mars Day! celebrating the Red Planet with over 15 educational and fun family activities. More than 6000 visitors participated in the Mars Day! events.
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June 1 , 2005
Interior Channels in Martian Valleys
NASM Scientists Ross Irwin and Bob Craddock and their colleague Alan Howard from the University of Virginia have identified dry river channels within valley networks on Mars. The width of these channels indicates substantial past runoff from Martian drainage basins of up to centimeters per day during wet episodes.
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December 12, 2003
CEPS Planetary Mission Involvement
Researchers at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies are involved in a number of robotic planetary missions currently under way. A long awaited return mission to Mercury and several missions to Mars will let us study these planets in a whole new way.
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December 11, 2003
Radar Mapping of the Lunar Poles
The Moon has a small number of areas close to its poles which are never illuminated. These regions of permanent shadow could trap and retain deposits of water ice or other frozen volatiles delivered by comet impacts. NASM scientist Bruce Campbell, working with collaborators at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cornell, and the Arecibo Observatory, collected new radar maps of the lunar poles using a 70-cm radar wavelength to probe 5 m or more into the lunar dust. The new maps have a spatial resolution of ~300 m. This research was featured in a recent article in Nature.
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November 3, 2003
Sand Ripples Taller on Mars
Mars has now been found to have sand ripples twice as tall as they would be on Earth. Initial measurements of some of the Red Planet's dunes and ripples using stereo-images from the Mars Orbiter Camera onboard the Mars Global Surveyor have revealed ripple features reaching almost 20 feet high and dunes towering at 300 feet. Kevin Williams of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum will be presenting this latest insight into the otherworldly scale of Marscapes on Monday, Nov. 3 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Seattle, WA.
GSA News Release