Jay Melosh, Distinguished Professor, studies impact cratering and planetary tectonics:

Professor Melosh's research focuses on numerical modeling of the physics and chemistry of impacts at scales ranging from the Deep Impact event on comet Tempel 1 to the Mars-size object that impacted the Earth 4.5 billion years ago and created our Moon. He studies the exchange of microorganisms between the planets and the origin of life. He is part of NASA's DIXI mission to comet Hartly-2, the NExT return to Comet Tempel 1, and the GRAIL mission to obtain high-precision data on the lunar gravity field.

List of current projects with student research opportunities: click here

Andy and his students use finite element models to understand the tectonic evolution of impact basins and associated faulting, with projects currently focused on the Moon and Mercury. As an example, the panel on the right shows Pantheon Fossae, a pattern of radial-oriented graben that extend from the center of the Caloris impact basin on Mercury. This pattern is not observed anywhere else in our solar system. We have shown that Pantheon Fossae may have been created when the Apollodorus impact altered a pre-existing stress field associated with basin uplift.

More about Andy's research can be found at:
http://www.eas.purdue.edu/freed/

Brenda Beitler Bowen, Assistant Professor, focuses on understanding depositional and diagenetic processes on Mars from orbital spectra, in-situ data, and detailed analysis of analog sites on Earth.

Her field studies of extreme environments on Earth such as acid saline lakes in Western Australia and the hyperarid Atacama Desert yield a unique glimpse of the geological, hydrological, chemical, and perhaps biological forces that shaped the surface of Mars over billions of years of solar system history.

More about Brenda's research can be found at:
http://www.eas.purdue.edu/sed/

Marc Caffee, Professor and PRIME Lab Director, studies radionuclides produced by cosmic rays interactions in terrestrial and extra-terrestrial materials. Examples of the products of these high-energy reactions are ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl, and ⁴¹Ca. These radioncuclides are measured using a technique referred to as Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). In extra-terrestrial materials, the concentration of these cosmic-ray-produced radionuclides can be used to determine how long meteors are exposed to cosmic rays and large these masses are before they collide with Earth.

As part of a project funded by NASA he is developing AMS techniques to measure other radionuclides, specifically ⁵³Mn, in extra-terrestrial materials. Cosmic rays also produce radionuclides in Earth's atmosphere and in upper several meters of the crust. Radionuclides produced in glacially deposited boulders, for example, can be used to reconstruct glacial cycles. Projects funded by NSF in this area include one to improve our understanding of the production systematics of terrestrial cosmic-ray-produced nuclides and another project to measure cosmogenic nuclides in ice layers taken from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

James Richardson, Assistant Research Professor, studies the geology, geophysics, and geomorphology of small solar system bodies -- asteroids, comets, and planetary moons -- specializing in impact cratering related processes. His interests have led to research along four lines, using analytical and numerical modeling techniques to investigate (1) the formation, expansion, and fallout of impact ejecta, particularly the bright plume produced by the Deep Impact mission on comet Tempel 1; (2) the effects of impact-induced seismic "shaking" on the geomorphology of cratered terrains, particularly asteroid 433 Eros; (3) the evolution of cratered landscapes over time and continued bombardment, with an emphasis on regolith creation and movement, morphological changes, and cratering statistics; and (4) the formation of large, multi-ring basins on the Earth's Moon and other terrestrial planet surfaces.

More about James' research can be found at:
http://www.eas.purdue.edu/richardson