News

Hi everyone! I'd like to draw your attention to the Student and Early Career Travel Awards for MetSoc this year. A limited number of travel awards will be available to undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral members of The Meteoritical Society. The purpose of the financial support is to enable conference participation of early career researchers with limited sources of funding. Please go to: https://www.metsoc2021-chicago.com/travel-awards to check out eligibility, and for the application form. Any questions, please contact the Chair of the Travel Award Committee, Dr. Jemma Davidson: jdavidson at asu.edu. The deadline is June 4th, 2021, so don't delay! More…

Stuart Ross Taylor, Leonard Medalist (1998) and former president of the Meteoritical Society (1989-1990) passed away at his home in Canberra, Australia, this month. Ross was a geochemist who made seminal contributions to our understanding of the origin and evolution of Earth’s continental crust, and the composition and origin of the Moon, meteorites, tektites, and the solar system. More…

Jan L. Hellmann, currently a postdoc at the Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, Germany, is awarded the 2021 Pellas-Ryder Award for his paper titled “Origin of volatile element depletion among carbonaceous chondrites” published in Earth & Planetary Science Letters in 2020. Jan Hellmann was a PhD student at the Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, working with Thorsten Kleine, when the paper was submitted. He analyzed the isotopic composition of tellurium, a moderately volatile element, in carbonaceous chondrites to find that mass-dependent Te isotope fractionation correlated with matrix mass fraction and nucleosynthetic chromium (Cr-54) isotope compositions. More…

Günter W. Lugmair passed away on March 31 after a short illness. A Fellow of the Meteoritical Society since 1980 when he also served as an organizer of the Annual Meeting in La Jolla, and winner of the society’s Leonard Medal, Günter’s mastery of the mass spectrometer pushed the precision of isotopic measurements to new levels. He pioneered the applications of new radiometric systems and measurements of nucleosynthetic anomalies to fundamentally advance our understanding of the processes operating in the early Solar System. More…

The Extraterrestrial Materials Analysis Group (ExMAG, formerly CAPTEM) is seeking applications for open positions starting in April 2021. If you are interested in serving on ExMAG, please apply by March 31, 2021. Applications should consist of a short statement describing your interest and qualifications for the position sought and a two-page CV; send to ExMAG.community@gmail.com. Potential members should be prepared to attend the ExMAG Spring Meeting April 7-8, 2021, which will be held virtually. Exploration Hardware. One regular member of ExMAG with experience or expertise in the curation and user base for space-exposed Exploration Hardware is sought. Facilities and Informatics Subcommittee Chair. The Facilities and Informatics Subcommittee provides analysis to NASA concerning the operation, maintenance, construction, and future planning for curatorial facilities and data-serving capabilities for NASA-held collections, in consultation with the PI community and Curation at Johnson Space Center. Lunar Subcommittee member. The Lunar Subcommittee provides assessment and analysis for all aspects of current and future lunar sample curation, including sample and hardware handling processes, contamination control, documentation, and facilities design, care, and use. Meteorite Subcommittee members. The Meteorite Subcommittee provides assessment and analysis for all aspects of current and future Antarctic meteorite sample curation, including sample and hardware handling processes, contamination control, documentation, and facilities design, care, and use. More…

An ExMAG (formerly CAPTEM) town hall meeting will be held virtually on February 25, 2021 from 3:00–5:00 p.m. EST. The committee, formerly known as the Curation, Analysis, and Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials (CAPTEM), is changing! This town hall meeting will be for the community to learn about the transition from CAPTEM to the Extraterrestrial Materials Analysis Group (ExMAG), upcoming ExMAG spring and fall meetings, opportunities for membership on ExMAG, and to ask questions. More…

Frontiers in Mars Sample Chronology March 24-25, 2021 A virtual workshop sponsored by The Meteoritical Society and The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Determining the absolute ages of Mars samples is a key objective for current and future Mars exploration. Recent work on martian meteorites has pushed the analytical envelope in Mars sample geochronology; this work informs future plans for the geochronology of samples returned to Earth through Mars Sample Return, an effort that starts with the collection and caching of samples by the NASA Mars 2020 Mission. The goal of this workshop is to review recent results; identify and elaborate on the frontiers in spatial and isotopic resolution, and minimum sample mass; and consider advances that will be required to optimize the geochronology of future samples of Mars. Registration is free, but pre-registration is required. Abstract deadline is 5th March. We hope you can join us! Co-conveners: James Darling, University of Portsmouth Christopher Herd, University of Alberta More…

James J. Papike passed away on Dec. 21, 2020, at the age of 83. He was emeritus director of the Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico and Fellow of the Meteoritical Society. He was active in and had been an officer or councilor in the Mineralogical Society of America (president), the American Geophysical Union, the Geochemical Society (president), the Society of Economic Geologists, the National Academy of Sciences, the Universities Space Research Association, and numerous other professional organizations. More…

Renew your MetSoc membership before Jan. 20 to avoid loss of MaPS subscription. More…

Interactions between the interior and atmosphere of terrestrial planets are modulated by the planets’ bulk composition, which in turn is linked to the chemical properties of their host stars. As stellar photosphere and planetary atmosphere can be directly probed, compositional properties of the rocky interior can only be inferred from other data. What constraints can be placed on the range of possible compositions of terrestrial exoplanets? How do surface-interior interactions shape atmospheric properties of rocky worlds around other stars? How diverse is the physical and chemical parameter space of these exo-worlds? We invite contributions - from geodynamics, geochemistry, cosmochemistry as well as astrophysics - that explore physical and chemical links between stars and planets and between rocky interior and atmosphere, and their implications for planet long-term evolution. More…