Crater on Mars named after school that partnered with UCL researcher

Rebecca Warrilow, a PhD student at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, partnered with Blenheim High School in Epsom, Surrey, bringing her Mars research to an unexpected team of researchers: eight secondary school physics students in years 10 and 12.

The students were trained in remote sensing analysis, using satellite data to measure the channel widths and slopes of Martian deltas - remnant landforms of ancient river systems that once flowed across the planet billions of years ago, when Mars had a much wetter climate.

Rebecca Warrilow explained: “Remote sensing is really just measuring something from a distance. We started the project by learning about the different orbital datasets available for Mars and how to identify deltas, then moved on to how we could use this data to extract meaningful measurements and scientific results.”

The students investigated evidence of ancient water activity on Mars, helping scientists better understand when the planet might once have hosted habitable conditions. Landforms shaped by flowing water, such as river channels and deltas, suggest that liquid water was stable on the Martian surface for extended periods in the planet’s past. Part of Warrilow’s PhD research focuses on using satellite data to study the geology of the Martian surface.

The team investigated a delta within McCauley crater, located northeast of Hellas Planitia, using their measurements to estimate that an ancient lake system existed there for approximately 25,000 years. Understanding how long liquid water was present on the Martian surface is important for reconstructing the planet’s past climate.

As part of placing the study region into its wider geographic context, Warrilow and the students also examined a neighbouring unnamed crater, which has now officially been designated the “Blenheim” crater in recognition of the students’ work.

Warrilow and the student team discovered that Blenheim crater was once part of the same ancient lake system hosted within McCauley crater around 3.6 billion years ago, during a period when river activity on Mars was beginning to decline. This suggests the lakes may have been sustained in part by glacial meltwater, pointing to a complex climate early in Mars’s history. Today, Blenheim crater serves as a reminder of Mars’s once wetter and potentially more habitable past.

Joe Dewison, a teacher at the school, said: “[Warrilow] gave the students as much help as she could while still making sure all their work was their own. I cannot speak highly enough of how much the students gained from this experience and am sure they would say the same themselves.”

Warrilow published the team’s findings jointly with the school in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, making the students published researchers. She then undertook the rigorous and often unsuccessful process of applying to have the crater officially named*, with approval granted four months later by the International Astronomical Union.

She later gifted the school’s physics department with a framed image of Blenheim crater, where it now stands as a reminder of the students’ achievement.

Warrilow said: “When they finally found out, I think they were all incredibly proud of themselves to know they had named a permanent place on Mars.” 

Warrilow partnered with Blenheim High School through the Orbyts programme, which has connected PhD researchers with secondary school students since 2018. The programme has led to more than a dozen scientific publications involving hundreds of students, with the aim of giving young people direct experience of real scientific research alongside working with realistic science role models.

Following the work on McCauley and Blenheim craters, Warrilow worked with students at Blenheim High School on another project this year – this time investigating if the ExoMars rover, due to launch to the red planet in 2028, could detect vegetation in Mars soil. They did this by replicating Mars regolith (loose rock and soil), combining 13 minerals identified from satellite data on Mars, then mixing in different quantities of photosynthetic material. They imaged this mixture using the ExoMars rover camera system, PanCam, which was designed and built by a UCL-led team.

Emily, a Year 12 student at the school, said: “Participating in Orbyts has been incredibly valuable, and has given me useful research and presentation skills. Our fellow, Becky, was always so helpful, providing a framework and structure for our ideas, as well as teaching us specific technical information, such as how PanCam [the panoramic cameras of the ExoMars rover] works.”

At the end of the Orbyts projects each year, school groups get the chance to present their results at a conference at UCL, with each giving a three-minute lightning talk on stage to the other schools and Orbyts fellows attending. Emily from Blenheim High School said: “I really enjoyed presenting our lightning talk and watching all of the other schools, and I think that it also enabled us to condense our project so that we could convey the key details quickly, which will be very important for university and career opportunities in the future. I think that it was also beneficial for us to be able to talk in more detail to the other students attending about their own projects. Overall, I really enjoyed the day, and it was amazing to see the results of our work.”

* Blenheim crater was named in recognition of the work by the students of Blenheim High School. Under International Astronomical Union (IAU) naming conventions, Martian craters smaller than 50 km in diameter are named after towns with populations of less than 100,000. The town of Blenheim, New Zealand, was therefore chosen because it shares its name with the school, enabling the students' achievements to be recognised while adhering to the official naming guidelines.

Links

• Orbyts
• Official International Astronomical Union naming information
• Rebecca Warrilow’s PhD profile
• Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL
• UCL Mathematical & Physical Sciences
• Blenheim High School

Images

• Top: The Blenheim crater on Mars, which covers most of the image. Middle: Students with their poster for the Orbyts conference at UCL.

Media contact

Mark Greaves

m.greaves [at] ucl.ac.uk

+44 (0)20 3108 9485