The Centre for Planetary Sciences at UCL/Birkbeck

The Exoplanet journal club has been established by the Exoplanet and Exomol groups within the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Prof. Ian Crawford (CPS, Birkbeck) has been awarded a grant of £99,318 by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to identify the source localities of lunar meteorites. This study will combine spacecraft remote sensing observations of the Moon with laboratory analyses of lunar meteorites. The grant will fund a PhD studentship starting in April 2013.

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission (JUICE) will study Jupiter and its large, ice/ocean-bearing moons. JUICE is planned to launch in 2022 and arrive in 2030. Dr Nick Achilleos (CPS / UCL Astrophysics) is part of the J-MAG Consortium, an international team of investigators who have successfully proposed one of the 11 scientific experiments to be flown on board this mission.

The Natural Environment Research Council have featured a news article on astrobiology work in Iceland carried out by CPS members on their 'Planet Earth Online' website. The article is based on a paper in press with the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, led by Dr Claire Cousins, entitled "Glaciovolcanic hydrothermal environments in Iceland and implications for their detection on Mars".

This term's Astrobiology and Planetary Exploration (APEX) programme will get underway this Thursday (24 Jan) at 13:00 in the Garwood Lecture Theatre (2nd Floor, UCL South Wing). The first talk of the term will be given by:

Dr Adrian Jones: The Late Heavy Bombardment: A Paradigm Transformed?

As always, everyone interested is welcome to attend.

If you are interested in postgraduate study in the area of Planetary Sciences, please come along to the UCL Mathematical and Physical Sciences Graduate Open Day.

Together with James Carpenter (ESA), Ralf Jaumann (DLR) and Charles Cockell (Edinburgh), Prof. Ian Crawford was a Guest Editor of a Special Issue of Planetary and Space Science devoted to the topic of "Scientific Preparations for Lunar Exploration" published in December 2012. The contents of this Special Issue can be viewed at the above link and includes a paper led by Prof. Crawford, entitled "Back to the Moon: The scientific rationale for resuming lunar surface exploration".

The first of a new series of UCL Institute of Origins networking events, to enhance intellectual interaction across the MAPS faculty, takes place on Wednesday 31 October, from 3-5pm at the North Cloisters UCL. The theme for the first event is "The Origins of Life".

This will be an informal meeting style, with a brief introduction, followed by a few short (10 min each) research talks representing different Origins disciplines, with time for discussion and networking over light refreshments.

Dr. Nick Lane, a Senior Lecturer in Genetics, Evolution & Environment at UCL's Division of Biosciences, is co-organising a pair of meetings at the Royal Society this November, both of which have sessions on the origin of life and related questions relevant to the CPS:

Preliminary results from Curiosity DAN (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons) and REMS (Remote Environment Monitoring Station) data at the EPSC 2012 press conference this morning in Madrid: UStream recording (from 6 mins).