The annual Orionid meteor shower is underway, and this year's dark, moonless skies could result in excellent viewing!  While the meteor shower is active October 2 to November 7, this year's peak will be October 21-22.  At its height, you may expect to see up to 20 meteors per hour, some very bright and fast…

Celebrate World Space Week with a visit to the Meteorite Gallery at the Center for Meteorite Studies!  Find out where meteorites come from and how planets form! Discover what scientists are learning from meteorites – right here at ASU! Touch real meteorites! World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their…

Dr. Melissa Morris, who until recently served as Assistant Director of the CMS, began an appointment as of September 1, 2014, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the State University of New York in Cortland. Dr. Morris, whose research interests are primarily  in understanding early solar system processes through astrophysical modeling, received…

This September, graduate students Prajkta Mane (Ph.D. candidate) and Kera Tucker (M.S. candidate) represented the Center at the 77th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society, in Casablanca, Morocco. Mane's presentation focusses on Zr isotope systematics of Allende CAIs (Calcium-Aluminum-rich Inclusions), and Tucker discussed hydrogen isotope systematics of maskelynite in the Los Angeles shergotite. The Meteoritical…

A new study of the martian meteorite NWA 7533 ("Black Beauty") has concluded that, while water was more abundant on Mars 4.5 billion years ago, the martian surface has been dry and desert-like for at least 1.7 billion years. Using isotopes found in the mineral zircon, researchers were able to utilize meteorite NWA 7533 to…