Big ideas don’t wait — and neither do the researchers behind them.

The 2026 Reach for the Stars honorees — six Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ assistant professors — are already making a substantial impact on their respective fields through meaningful research and creative work that extends far beyond campus, with national and international influence.

Across disciplines, their work and research reflect a shared mission to advance ideas into impact — uncovering what shapes ethical decision-making in the workplace; exploring the origins of our solar system; developing computational solutions to meet future energy demands; designing more intuitive and reliable software experiences; strengthening education for students with disabilities; and engineering faster, more energy-efficient artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Together, this brilliant group represents the kind of bold, forward-thinking innovation Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ continues to champion.

Each year, the Reach for the Stars awards recognize early-career faculty opening new doors for what’s possible across their fields. The prestigious award is second only to Pegasus Professor as Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s highest faculty honor.

In recognition of their achievements, each honoree will receive a $10,000 annual research grant for three years in addition to the distinction of being an award recipient.

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ community is cordially invited to come and congratulate the recipients from 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, in the Pegasus Ballroom at the Student Union as part of the 2026 Founders’ Day Faculty Honors Celebration.

This year’s Reach for the Stars honorees are:

John Bush

Assistant professor of management in the College of Business

What’s something few people know about you?

Working at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is a homecoming for me. Growing up in Florida, I had the opportunity to experience all the great things this state and its universities have to offer. And while my younger self might not have predicted I’d end up in Black & Gold, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and Orlando have been incredible homes.

What does your research focus on?

I study when, why, and how employees cross ethical lines, and what role leaders, management policies, and organizational systems play in those decisions. A big part of what makes my work unique is that I focus on an important puzzle: how things we typically think of as “good” can promote unethical behavior. We tend to assume that well-intentioned management practices will always lead to good outcomes. However, my research shows that’s not always the case, and the unintended consequences can be significant.

What drives you to take on this challenge?

Before I entered academia, I worked in corporate finance and accounting. That experience meaningfully shaped how I think about ethics in organizations.

There’s a common assumption that unethical behavior is a “bad appleâ€� problem, or rather, that it comes down to an individual’s character or integrity. But as my work has shown, it’s often a “bad barrelâ€� problem. The environments organizations create, the systems they put in place and the ways managers approach leadership profoundly influence how people behave.

What makes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the right place for you to do this kind of work?

I’m a firm believer that the people make the place — and the faculty, staff and students of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ are truly what make it such a great place to be. The College of Business has a management department full of colleagues who are both excellent scholars and genuinely collaborative people.

What’s next for you or your research?

I’m excited about several new directions, each of which builds upon my existing work. I’m particularly interested in examining more nuanced, less studied drivers of ethical decision-making. For example, what happens when someone becomes an accidental witness to unethical behavior? How does that experience shape what they do next and the moral burden that’s placed on them?

Ana Carolina de Souza-Feliciano

Assistant professor at the

What’s something few people know about you?

While many people know I’m not afraid to face challenges, few know that I’m afraid of roller coasters.

What does your research focus on?

I study the small bodies of our solar system (objects such as asteroids, Trojans and trans-Neptunian objects) from an observational perspective to try to understand how our planetary system formed and evolved. The small bodies that remain from the early solar system still preserve clues about the materials and conditions that existed when planets formed. By observing their surfaces, compositions and physical properties, we can piece together the history of how the solar system came to be.

What drives you to take on this challenge?

The solar system still holds many unanswered questions, and every observation has the potential to reveal something completely new about its history. I’m especially motivated by the idea that these small and distant objects preserve a record of the earliest stages of planetary formation, and since we still don’t know much about them, we need to better characterize these groups to have a chance of getting closer to important scientific answers.

What makes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the right place for you to do this kind of work?

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ provides a dynamic research environment with strong collaborations and access to facilities that help me achieve my scientific goals.

What’s next for you or your research?

I aim to expand my research group and continue developing new projects exploring the composition and physical properties of small bodies in the outer solar system.

Shyam Kattel

Assistant professor of physics in the College of Sciences

What’s something few people know about you?

I enjoy long, quiet walks or runs. It’s when I do my best thinking and come up with new ideas for teaching and research.

What does your research focus on?

My research group is interested in understanding chemical processes through computer simulations. These chemical processes are central to many energy and fuel generation and energy conversion processes. We are exploring the design of catalytic materials that selectively convert abundant small molecules, such as CO2, N2, NO3, O2 and H2O, to a wide variety of synthetic chemicals and fuels in a carbon-neutral way to fulfill the growing energy demand of the future.

What drives you to take on this challenge?

I’m a huge advocate of sustainability. I’m fascinated by the rapid development and advancement of modern computers, machine learning (ML) and AI, which have enabled us to understand complex science on a time scale that’s impossible with traditional trial and error methods. This unique opportunity to utilize supercomputers with ML and AI to tackle energy and sustainability challenges keeps me awake at night.

What makes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the right place for you to do this kind of work?

By training, I’m a physicist, but my research focuses on looking into chemical reactions. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s physics department is among a handful of institutions in the U.S. with a very strong catalysis program. This allows me to collaborate within the department and teach a physics course, which I enjoy. Additionally, the university’s large size and research facilities present opportunities to recruit the best students and to collaborate both within and beyond the department.

What’s next for you or your research?

My lab is developing capabilities to integrate ML and AI into our methods for understanding structure-materials property relationships across a large set of materials, driving the development of the next generation of clean and sustainable energy and fuel generation technologies. Our goal is to develop an integrated materials design framework that anyone can use for their research and for teaching research-based undergraduate and graduate courses.

Kevin Moran

Assistant professor of computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, director of the Software Automation, Generation and Engineering Research Lab and affiliate of the Cyber Security and Privacy faculty cluster initiative

What’s something few people know about you?

I was a Division 1 rower as an undergraduate at the College of the Holy Cross. Our team competed in the national championship regatta my senior year and was ranked among the top 20 teams in the country.

What does your research focus on?

If you’ve ever been frustrated by glitches in apps or websites, my students, collaborators and I aim to give engineers the tools they need to build more reliable software. My group has pioneered work in user interface engineering, focusing on user-facing systems and making software easier to use.

What drives you to take on this challenge?

Since I was young, I’ve enjoyed building things, taking them apart and understanding how they work. I view software as the ultimate engineering medium, where abstract ideas can quickly become reality. What excites me most is tackling the complexity of modern software systems by developing tools that engineers can easily adopt. Seeing those tools save engineers hours or days of time is truly fun.

What makes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the right place for you to do this kind of work?

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has been an excellent place to grow as an early-career researcher. I’ve received invaluable mentorship from department and college leadership, as well as senior faculty. The university’s connection to the local tech industry is also exciting, and I look forward to forming connections with local companies to put our tools into practice.

What’s next for you or your research?

Software engineering is rapidly shifting toward agentic workflows, where AI-powered agents perform engineering tasks autonomously. While this increases speed, it also introduces complex errors that are harder to spot. My lab aims to understand these software engineering agents, improve their reliability and create tools that help developers use them effectively.

Soyoung Park

Assistant professor of teacher education in the College of Community Innovation and Education (CCIE)

What’s something few people know about you?

When I travel for conferences, I love to explore local bookstores and cafes.

What does your research focus on?

My research focuses on transforming educator preparation to better support students with disabilities. Supported by more than $3.75 million in U.S. Department of Education funding, my work prepares special education teachers, speech-language pathologists and school psychologists to serve students with autism spectrum disorders and high-intensity needs. I also develop evidence-based mathematics interventions for students with learning disabilities.

What drives you to take on this challenge?

Mathematics remains an area where both research and practice need stronger alignment. Teachers need accessible, evidence-based guidance on how to teach effectively, but it isn’t always easy to find or interpret. Students need consistent access to high-quality instruction that meets their individual needs. I’m interested in helping bridge that gap so that research can better support educators and the students they serve.

What makes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the right place for you to do this kind of work?

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s strong infrastructure for research and collaboration further amplifies my work. Support from the Office of Research has been instrumental in advancing my research development, grant capacity and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a CCIE research fellow and affiliated faculty member at the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute, I have valuable opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration across colleges.

What’s next for you or your research?

Our next project focuses on synthesizing large data sets to help educators identify mathematics interventions that align with their students’ needs. We’re also exploring how AI can support this process through pedagogical AI chatbots and interactive web-based platforms that guide educators in interpreting and applying research evidence in practice. Ultimately, this work aims to strengthen both instruction and student outcomes at scale.

Hao Zheng

Assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science

What’s something few people know about you?

I enjoy traveling, especially visiting national parks and exploring new cities. Each trip helps me recharge, and I often come back with fresh perspectives and new ideas.

What does your research focus on?

My research focuses on making today’s AI systems faster, more energy-efficient and more reliable by bridging the gap between algorithms and hardware. AI has reshaped daily life, but behind the scenes, modern AI models require enormous amounts of computation and energy. My work explores new ways to co-design hardware and software so AI can run efficiently, especially for irregular or sparse data structures, such as graphs.

What drives you to take on this challenge?

I’m driven by both the importance and the difficulty of the problem. We’re at the turning point of rethinking future computing systems. Defining a new computing paradigm, despite its challenges, can have a far-reaching impact across society. Our research can fundamentally reshape how future computers are designed and how AI is deployed at scale.

What makes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ the right place for you to do this kind of work?

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is an ideal place to pursue bold research ideas, supported by strong momentum in engineering, computing and interdisciplinary collaboration. The university also offers an exceptional and supportive community of mentors and collaborators, including students, who set a high bar for excellence. I’ve been fortunate to work with many outstanding colleagues, and those experiences have shaped how I think about building a high-impact research program and growing as a scholar.

What’s next for you or your research?

Next, we’re expanding our work toward real-world deployments, including applications in healthcare and robotics. We’re also continuing to strengthen our research in building processors for AI and scientific computing so that our ideas can translate into improvements in performance and energy efficiency.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s leading space medicine experts, valued strategic partners and an astronaut who holds NASA’s record for spacewalks will gather April 10 in Lake Nona’s Medical City to discuss how they can work together to keep space travelers healthy and use that research to create groundbreaking clinical innovations on Earth.

The “Star Nona 2026� event is led by the Lake Nona Research Council, which is focused on encouraging interdisciplinary scientific partnerships between industry, academia and healthcare.

The council includes physicians and researchers from Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, Orlando Health, AdventHealth, the , the Orlando VA Medical Center, Nemours Children’s Health, business and industry.

Star Nona 2026 Event Details

“Our goal is to bring together space medicine leaders and experts from academia, medicine and the space industry to find more ways we can work together to research the health impacts of space flight and how our discoveries can also improve healthcare on Earth,â€� says Michal Masternak, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ professor of medicine.

An anti-aging and cancer researcher, Masternak leads the Lake Nona Research Council’s space medicine research group. He also leads the College of Medicine’s program that processes astronaut samples so physicians and scientists can analyze the immediate impact of space travel on astronauts’ bodies.

Sessions will include presentations on:

• Microgravity and radiation exposure and their impact on human physical and mental health
• How space travel affects muscles, bones, cells, vision and the brain
• Protecting muscles in space (led by AdventHealth researchers)
• Next generation of the space station
• New technologies for diagnosing how space travel impacts human cells.

These presentations will feature Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ researchers from medicine, , and . Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ graduate students and post-doctoral scientists will also present research posters on space medicine.

The plenary speaker is NASA astronaut Robert Curbeam, a U.S. Navy captain who completed four spacewalks during space shuttle Discovery’s 2006 mission to the International Space Station.

The Space Coast’s College of Medicine

Located 45 miles west of the Space Coast and Kennedy Space Center, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s College of Medicine is the perfect partner to chart a new frontier in healthcare as humans prepare for longer missions to the moon and Mars, and commercial space flights take more civilians into space.

The goal: explore how factors such as microgravity, radiation and isolation impact the human body in space and how that knowledge can drive innovation into diagnostics, treatment and disease prevention on Earth.

To further those efforts, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has created a new Center for Aerospace and Extreme Environments Medicine (CASEEM), which includes Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ faculty experts in medicine, engineering, computer science, psychology, arts and educational leadership. This interdisciplinary group will work together to research and develop new technologies for keeping space travelers healthy, as well as soldiers on military missions, deep sea explorers and mountain climbers.

About the Lake Nona Research Council

Edward Ross, the College of Medicine’s chair of medicine and assistant dean for research, leads the Lake Nona Research Council.

Ross says Star Nona and the partnerships it creates will help solidify Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and Medical City’s reputation as a premier center for space medicine.

“When people think of keeping space visitors healthy, we want them to immediately think Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.â€� — Edward Ross, College of Medicine’s chair of medicine

“As a university, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ was born to create the workforce to send humans to the moon,â€� he says. “We’re continuing that legacy with space medicine. When people think of keeping space visitors healthy, we want them to immediately think Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.â€�

Event Registration

Star Nona 2026 will be held at the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Lake Nona Cancer Center, with registration beginning at 8:15 a.m. Star Nona is made possible by support and sponsorships from Dr. Jogi Pattisapu and the Hydrocephalus and Neuroscience Institute, Tavistock Development Company and the Florida Space Institute. To sign up to attend the event, please visit .

When Alain Berinstain talks about space, he doesn’t just talk about rockets or research missions — he talks about people, partnerships and the power of doing things that haven’t been done before.

That daring mindset is exactly what he’s bringing to his new role as director of the (FSI) at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, which supports space research, development and education activities, along with the development of Florida’s space economy — civil, defense and commercial.

A business and research strategist, Berinstain brings more than 30 years of experience in the space industry, driving strategic growth and domestic and international partnerships. He officially stepped into the role in December of last year, ready to elevate FSI into a nationally recognized institute while strengthening Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s research profile, supporting Florida’s rapidly growing space economy and driving even greater global impact.

“Being bold is having ideas and doing things that nobody has ever done before,� Berinstain says. “If you do that in a collaborative way, then — pardon the pun — the sky’s the limit.�

A Career Built on Making Connections

Berinstain’s path to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ wasn’t a straight line — and that’s by design. Trained as a chemist, he earned a bachelor’s degree in honors chemistry from Concordia University, a master’s degree in space studies from the International Space University and a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Ottawa. Early in his career, he saw space as a powerful platform for science, but also one that demanded collaboration across disciplines, sectors and borders.

From 1997 to 2013, Berinstain held leadership roles at the Canadian Space Agency, including director of planetary exploration and space astronomy. There, he managed annual budgets exceeding $25 million and helped negotiate Canada’s participation in major NASA missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, OSIRIS-REx and the Mars Phoenix Lander. He also co-authored the original Global Exploration Roadmap, aligning international partners around shared exploration goals.

“I aim to show people how FSI can help meet their goals … and, in the end, raise the research profile in space at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, in Florida and in the world.”

Berinstain later moved between public service and the private sector, advising companies such as Virgin Galactic and Sierra Nevada Corporation, leading global development at Moon Express Inc. and most recently serving as chief strategy officer at science-based solutions company CSS Inc. Along the way, he helped generate more than $10 million in revenue for in-space manufacturing of health and technology products and cultivated strategic partnerships with academia, government and industry stakeholders.

That cross-sector experience now shapes his vision for FSI — especially when it comes to funding. A key priority, he says, is diversifying funding beyond traditional government grants by expanding private and commercial partnerships.

“Since I’ve spent time in other sectors and made contacts, I look forward to mining those to help collaborate and redevelop those relationships,â€� he says. “I aim to show people how FSI can help meet their goals and come up with new opportunities that we can respond to, and, in the end, raise the research profile in space at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, in Florida and in the world.â€�

Why Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ — and Why Now

Berinstain’s appointment will fuel the momentum of space exploration and research at SpaceU — the top provider of graduates in the nation to the aerospace and defense industry — and the new Florida Space Research Consortium.

“Alain is a daring innovator internationally recognized for his leadership throughout space’s public and private sectors,� says Winston Schoenfeld, vice president for research and innovation. “His experience, bold vision and strategic pursuit of partnerships will elevate the impact of our research at America’s Space University and further strengthen Florida’s rapidly growing space economy.�

FSI’s unique position within a deeply collaborative campus and a statewide network of space researchers is what Berinstain says drew him to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.

“We lead our own world-class science, but we also partner with researchers across colleges and departments … There’s real strength in numbers.”

“Where FSI fits within the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ ecosystem is really interesting. We lead our own world-class science, but we also partner with researchers across colleges and departments,â€� he says. “What also attracted me is the collaboration among state universities in Florida. With the new consortium for university space research, in which we’re in a leadership position, there’s real strength in numbers.â€�

From the Earth’s upper atmosphere to the origins of the planets and the dynamics of asteroids, FSI’s research tackles some of the biggest questions in space science. Building on those strengths, Berinstain is setting his sights on what comes next: expanding into areas shaping the future of commercial space, including microgravity research, pharmaceuticals and defense.

“I plan to grow FSI in areas that are of national and economic importance. They all need help from strong research groups,â€� he says. “It’s not so much about what we want to do — it’s about what they need us for. And that creates all kinds of cool opportunities for us for amazing research and mutually beneficial collaboration.â€�

Building on Momentum

Just weeks into the role, Berinstain says he’s already felt the energy that surrounds space at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½.

“I participated in Space Week at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ … and I came away [from that experience realizing] how pervasive and important space is to the culture of the institute,â€� he says. “So it feels like I’ve got to catch up to that momentum. It’s an honor. It’s a challenge. It’s wonderful to leverage that for FSI.â€�

Ask Berinstain about his leadership style, and don’t be surprised if he starts with a pop culture reference.

“Do you watch The Big Bang Theory?� he says. “Sheldon Cooper has that line: ‘I’m not crazy. My mom got me tested.’ Well, I’ve been tested for my leadership style.�

According to that assessment, Berinstain falls into what’s known as a “parental� leadership style — a label he’s quick to unpack.

“It sounds funny,� he says, “but what it really means is guided leadership. I’m very team-oriented. I’m resilient. I deal with situations head-on.�

At the core of that approach is trust — trusting people to do their best work when they feel supported and empowered.

“There are people here who’ve been doing amazing work for a long time. I want to build on that,â€� he says.

A Bigger Picture of Impact

For Berinstain, success at FSI isn’t just about dollars raised — it’s about alignment and purpose.

“I prefer to think of research funding as impact,â€� he says, “as contributions to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, to Florida and to our country. Let’s meet our own priorities and help others meet theirs. That’ll help in our growth.â€�

With a strong space legacy, a collaborative spirit and a rapidly expanding frontier ahead, Berinstain sees FSI entering a new era of possibility as a leader in space research.

Simply put, “it’s a dream job,� he says.

Their discovery in the Cygnus X region sheds new light on and deepens a long-standing mystery about the ionization state of the interstellar medium — the sparse material that fills the space between stars within a galaxy. This is crucial to understanding galactic evolution.

Using the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the team detected radio spectral lines from helium in diffuse ionized gas in the Cygnus X region, a massive star-forming complex located about 25,000 light-years from the galactic center.

“We are still investigating. This can provide a better understanding of how energy flows from stars to the interstellar medium in the inner region of the galaxy works,� says Roshi, who has served in a few of the world’s most advanced observatories over his 20-year career.

A Decades-Old Galactic Puzzle

According to the Big Bang theory, hydrogen and most of the helium in the universe were created in the moments after the initial cosmic event.

Ionization is the process where energetic radiation (like UV light or cosmic rays) or extreme heat strips electrons from neutral atoms or molecules, turning them into charged particles. This ultimately is what makes nebulae visible and is fundamental to understanding stellar life cycles and galactic structure.

For more than 30 years, astronomers have struggled to explain why specific wavelengths of light known as helium spectral lines are faint or missing in the diffuse ionized gas in the inner Milky Way, even though massive stars there produce more than enough high-energy radiation to ionize both hydrogen and helium.

“This has been a persistent mystery,� says Pooja Priyatharsheni, second author of the study and a doctoral student at India’s Lady Doak College, whom Roshi connected with two years ago while promoting astronomy to collegiate students in India. “We know the galaxy contains plenty of massive stars capable of ionizing helium, yet in many inner regions, we simply don’t see the helium signal we expect.�

Cygnus X Provides a Clue — and a Challenge

The new detection in Cygnus X demonstrates that helium within the diffuse gas associated with this region is fully ionized.

“This result confirms that when the radiation field is strong enough, helium becomes fully ionized and visible in radio observations,� Priyatharsheni explains. “But it also raises new questions about why the same doesn’t occur in the inner galaxy.�

What’s Next

Led by Roshi of the , researchers from the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, West Virginia University and Lady Doak College are now analyzing new high-sensitivity data from the Green Bank Telescope targeting the inner galaxy.

Their goal: to determine whether unusual  radiation sources, interstellar dust absorption, or unknown processes might explain the missing helium emission in the inner galaxy.

Their findings will better inform other astrophysicists and aerospace scientists about the energy flow through the interstellar medium and physical conditions of the galaxy, allowing them to refine their research and observational strategies.

They hope to retrieve most of the data for  their next findings by the end of 2026.

If all goes as planned, Julie Brisset’s NASA-funded project will send an experiment into space. Brisset, interim director of the Florida Space Institute, has a passion for advancing space exploration, which the project aims to do.

The technology to be tested is a Dust In-situ Manipulation System (DIMS) — a payload designed to create and control dust clouds in low-gravity environments, specifically for simulating how dust behaves in undisturbed environments, for example interstellar dust clouds or pollution aerosols in our atmosphere.

It’s designed for use in microgravity conditions, such as those found in space, to study dust particle behavior, including their levitation, size sorting, interaction with light and its implications for understanding planetary environments.

“Once you start research in this field, it is surprising to see how important dust is in many applications,� Brisset says. “From the confines of our universe to the lunar surface and our own atmosphere, dust particles play a key role in many physical processes.�

By studying dust clouds in a controlled setting, DIMS can provide insights into protoplanetary disks and other celestial bodies.

Using a combination of low gas pressure and thermal piezoelectric elements, it allows for the creation of a cloud of dust grains and its motion across the volume of the experiment at various speeds. Piezoelectric elements convert mechanical energy, such as pressure or vibration, into electrical energy, and vice versa.

DIMS will create a 3D image of a dust cloud using high-speed cameras from two different angles. It is designed to overcome current limitations related to the levitation of dust clouds in microgravity including size sorting, preferential particle orientation, hardware constraints and residual accelerations.

This technology was developed to offer a general platform supporting experiments over a range of applications, including astrophysics (spectroscopy of interstellar dust), planetary sciences (interplanetary dust, planetary rings, early stages of planet formation) and atmospheric sciences (aerosols).

“The ultimate goal is an orbital platform that can be useful for a range of scientific activities,� Brisset says.

In addition, as it allows for the motion of dust at various speeds, the DIMS technology will demonstrate a possible dust transport mechanism in future ISRU applications, such as asteroid mining or Lunar water extraction from regolith. The DIMS project was supported by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program and allowed for the training of many students and early career scientists over the years.

“Such programs are a great intersection between science, technology development, and education,� Brisset says.

This experiment is funded by NASA and conducted in collaboration with Technischen Universität Braunschweig.

The researchers were able to better determine the positions of Haumea and Namaka than any previous study which may in turn inform future research on ancient objects orbiting the sun beyond Neptune and further illuminate the origins of our solar system.

Rommel and Proudfoot, both fellows of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s , predicted and observed when these objects briefly blocked the light of a background star as they passed in front of it. This event is known as a stellar occultation.

During a stellar occultation, researchers can observe how the brightness of a star drops, which reveals the size, shape and even the presence of rings or atmospheres around the object blocking the light. On March 16, 2025, Haumea and Namaka crossed in front of the same star, casting two shadows onto Earth. The team captured this fleeting event using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii.

Their findings were recently published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.

Why Haumea? 

Astronomers are interested in Haumea and its two satellites, Namaka and Hi’iaka, because they belong to a varied group of objects within the Kuiper Belt or beyond it, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). These extremely distant objects provide researchers with a wealth of information as they are largely preserved since the solar system’s formation. Haumea is distinct from most other TNOs in that it is mostly composed of water ice, has satellites and is theorized to have housed an ocean at some point within its nearly 4.5-billion-year-old lifespan.

“We are always looking for opportunities to record trans-Neptunian objects during stellar occultation events so we can probe their sizes, shapes and surroundings,� Rommel says. “Understanding what happened and is undergoing in Haumea certainly helps to build upon previous studies of our solar system’s formation.�

Haumea is spinning so fast it takes on a football-like shape and has a ring system like the giant planets, which suggests it may have experienced a significant collision with another object in the solar system at some point in its history. Haumea is part of the only known collisional family in the trans-Neptunian region, making it a natural laboratory for understanding the solar system’s early history.

Namaka and its sibling moon Hi’iaka orbit Haumea in a complex gravitational system. By observing their motions, researchers can calculate masses, estimate densities and investigate Haumea’s interior structure through the way it affects the orbits of its moons.

“Since TNOs are billions of miles away, we can typically only study surface composition,� Proudfoot says. “But for Haumea, its moon’s orbital motion reveals deeper insights — mass, density, interior structure — things we can’t access otherwise.�

The unique opportunity to study Haumea and Namaka during this rare occurrence was critical to adding knowledge for an even deeper understanding of these complex objects, he says.

“This research is a huge help to better understanding the dwarf planet Haumea,� Proudfoot says. “Astronomers have long been refining our knowledge of star positions and Haumea’s position in our solar system. This builds off decades of effort to understand the motion of our solar system. We’re hoping with more analysis we can learn more about Haumea, its interior and ring system.�

An Extraordinary Feat of Timing and Precision 

While Proudfoot calculated when and where the occultation would occur, Rommel conducted the remote observations and performed the data analysis.

“This study is a strong validation of our predictive accuracy when it comes to stellar occultations by TNOs and their satellites,� Rommel says. “Even a small error can cause you to miss the event entirely. Predicting and then successfully observing Namaka’s occultation required precise modeling and careful coordination.�

She also emphasizes the collaborative environment at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ that helped make this result possible.

“Through Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s P3 program and the support at the Florida Space Institute, we’ve had the opportunity to develop and pursue ambitious research ideas,â€� Rommel says. “This result is the first of what we hope will be many. It was truly incredible teamwork in a very short timeframe.â€�

Proudfoot echoes her optimism, noting that the team is preparing to pursue follow-up observations.

“This is just the first step in better understanding Haumea,� he says. “We need more data to fully understand Haumea’s interior, which we hope to get with the Hubble Space Telescope.�

Rommel and Proudfoot collaborated with Estela Fernández-Valenzuela, associate research professor at the Florida Space Institute and principal investigator of the observing program. The project was supported by NASA, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain and NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute.

Researchers’ Credentials: 

Rommel holds a master’s degree in physics and astronomy from Federal University of Technology, Paraná in Brazil and a doctorate in astronomy from the National Observatory in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. She joined Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s Florida Space Institute in 2023 as a postdoctoral scholar. Her research focuses on the physical characterization of solar system small bodies using different observational techniques such as stellar occultations and direct optical images.

Proudfoot holds a doctorate in physics and astronomy from Brigham Young University. He joined the Florida Space Institute in 2024 as a postdoctoral scholar. His research focuses on understanding the origin and evolution of trans-Neptunian objects using a variety of observational and theoretical techniques. He is most interested in how dwarf planets tell the story of the formation of the solar system.

The team’s research, published in , studies how when exposed to light, boron-based catalysts can break down hydrocarbons into their component elements, such as hydrogen and carbon. Blair says that while carbon printing is common, their team has unexpectedly discovered an approach mild enough to print carbon fibers onto easily damaged materials like cotton.

“What’s exciting about this is that we’re essentially 3D printing carbon structures at room temperature,� Blair says. “This has been done before, but usually at very high temperatures. We’re able to do it at much lower temperatures and even on flexible materials like fabric.�

He says that this was not the team’s initial focus; the research team was originally researching catalysts for converting propylene into propane. By analyzing the catalyst surface exposed to the gas propylene with a laser, the researchers expected to gain insight into the reaction studied.

Fernand Torres-Davila ’17MS ’16PhD, a Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ graduate student who had since completed a doctorate in physics, was conducting spectroscopic analysis when he noticed black spots forming under the laser, which were initially attributed to the decomposition of the catalyst surface. However, upon further investigation, the marks turned out to be carbon formed by the breakdown of propylene adsorbed on the surface.

“We realized there’s no catalyst decomposition pathway that would make those black spots,â€� Blair says. “We were breaking the gas down into its component parts: hydrogen and carbon.â€�

Collaboration has been key to the process. Blair says with the help and patience of Tetard, they were able to create three-dimensional carbon structures with a laser, similar to certain types of 3D printers.

“We were looking at the hydrogen component, and my colleague, Dr. Tetard, noticed that as she focused the laser, interesting shapes were forming,� he says. “She moved the laser up from the surface, and the shapes would grow following the laser.�

Tetard and her research team offered their perspective on the discovery.

“Both of our teams have collaborated closely on this work. My group’s focus is more on the small-scale manipulation and understanding of the processes using nanoscale imaging and spectroscopy tools,� Tetard says. “These complement the efforts from all the other authors and contributors well. Each brings their unique perspectives in presenting this special project of carbon growth using 3D printing technology.�

Tetard shares that this collaboration has opened the door to new ways to implement catalysts to improve efficiency.

“Catalysis is important to achieve a lot of chemical transformations that are necessary for our society,� Tetard says. “Producing carbon without significant energy consumption is crucial in today’s context. This approach uses a catalyst engineered by Dr. Blair, which enables a new type of catalytic process that reduces the amount of energy required to grow carbon. One consequence of our work is that printing structures made of carbon in 3D becomes possible, opening the door to many new applications.�

Along with the discovery of sustainable and resilient carbon growth, Blair says it was discovered that these carbon structures are electrically conductive and biologically compatible.

“These carbon structures can interface with biological systems without killing them,â€� he says. “We’ve seen that electrodes made from these materials can be inserted into living cells without causing cell death. This allows the electrical processes in a cell to be monitored in vivo.  It may also enable direct interface between electronic and biologic systems.â€�

Tetard says they are looking for more ways to implement carbon into their continuing research.

“This project has been endearing because we observed many unexpected processes,� Tetard says. Unfolding all the details has been challenging but rewarding. We are still working on this project to present some other aspects of the processes at play during carbon growth, and to explore the properties of the carbon products.

Tetard says she is grateful for the collaborative efforts of her and Blair’s research teams.

“None of this research could be done without the undergraduate and graduate students, who were key to the realization of the project,� she says.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists analyzed far-away bodies — known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) — and found varying traces of methanol. The discoveries are helping them better classify different TNOs and understand the complex chemical reactions in space that may relate to the formation of our solar system and the origin of life.

The findings, recently published in by the American Astronomical Society, reveal two distinct groups of TNOs with surface ice methanol presence: one with a depleted amount of surface methanol and a large reservoir beneath the surface, and another — furthest from the Sun — with an overall weaker methanol presence. The study suggests that cosmic irradiation over billions of years may have played a role in the first group’s varying methanol distribution, while raising new questions about the second group’s muted signatures.

Reaching Back in Time and Space

TNOs are important to our understanding of our solar system’s origins because they are incredibly well-preserved remnants of the protoplanetary disk — or disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star such as the Sun — and can give scientists a thorough glimpse into the past.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Department of Physics Research Professor Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, who now works at the University of Oviedo in Spain, co-led the research as part of the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½-led Discovering the Surface Compositions of Trans-Neptunian Objects (DiSCo) program which includes Associate Professor Ana Carolina de Souza-Feliciano.

Pinilla-Alonso says the research helps piece together the history of the solar system’s chemistry and gain insights into exoplanets, where methanol and methane play a crucial role in shaping atmospheres and hinting at the conditions of potentially habitable worlds.

“Methanol, a simple alcohol, has been found on comets and distant TNOs, hinting that it may be a primitive ingredient inherited from the early days of our solar system — or even from interstellar space,� Pinilla-Alonso says. “But methanol is more than just a leftover from the past. When exposed to radiation, it transforms into new compounds, acting as a chemical time capsule that reveals how these icy worlds have evolved over billions of years.�

Methanol ice is a key precursor that may lead to organic molecules such as sugars, and its discovery in TNOs paves the way for so much more, she says.

These spectral differences reveal that not all TNOs formed from the same molecular ingredients, Pinilla-Alonso says. Instead, their compositions reflect their origins — where and how they formed — and their transformations over time.

“What excited me the most was realizing that these differences were linked to the behavior of methanol — a key ingredient that had long been elusive on TNOs from earth-based observations,� she says. “Our findings suggest that methanol is being destroyed on the surface of TNOs by irradiation, but remains more abundant in the subsurface, protected from this exposure.�

Pinilla-Alonso worked alongside Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ FSI researchers, including de Souza-Feliciano, who synthesized the laboratory data with modeling to better explain the behavior of methanol.

De Souza-Feliciano helped to better visualize the findings by reproducing some of the spectral features the scientists were seeing and could provide mathematical support for the data in the study.

“One of the biggest surprises came from the methanol behavior,� de Souza-Feliciano says. “From laboratory data, its signatures at shorter wavelengths differ from the fundamental ones in longer wavelengths.�

De Souza-Feliciano collaborated on prior DiSCo research projects using JWST that characterized binary objects and other distant TNOs.

“The main DiSCo paper addressed the main characteristics of the three groups of TNOs,� she says. “This paper goes into detail about one of them, known as the cliff group, which is the nickname for the spectral group where the reflectance did not increase after approximately 3.3 microns.�

Not only are these cliff group TNOs time capsules for our solar system, but the group houses cold-classical TNOs which have largely stayed in place since their formation, de Souza-Feliciano says.

“One of the reasons why this group is a key for the outer solar system understanding is [because] it contains all the cold-classical TNOs,� she says. “The cold-classical TNOs are the only dynamic group that probably stayed in the place where they formed from the formation of the solar system to today.�

International Collaboration

Rosario Brunetto, an astronomer at the Université Paris-Saclay, led the research with fellow scientists Elsa Hénault and Sasha Cryan.

He says he believes this collaborative discovery will provide foundational knowledge of our solar system and ignite interest in planetary science.

“This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of TNOs but also provides a crucial reference for interpreting JWST’s observations of other distant objects, such as Neptune Trojans, Centaurs and asteroids, as well as for future missions exploring the outer solar system,� Brunetto says. “Beyond its scientific significance, the search for methanol in the solar system also fuels curiosity and inspires new generations to explore the cosmos and understand the chemical evolutions in space.�

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ FSI Assistant Scientist Charles Schambeau and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ physics graduate student Brittany Harvison also contributed to the research.

The findings were made possible through an international collaboration with researchers from Northern Arizona University, the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon in France, NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute, the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik in Germany, the Lowell Observatory, the Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal, INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania in Italy, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain, the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain, Fundación Galileo Galilei-INAF in Spain and Observatório Nacional do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Researchers’ Credentials:

De Souza-Feliciano is an associate professor at FSI. She received a doctoral degree in astronomy from Observatório Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her main scientific interest is the characterization of the surface properties of small bodies in the solar system through an observational perspective. She’s been deeply involved in the study of the surface composition of TNOS to better understand the variety of the entire population using both ground-based and space-based facilities. Because of this, de Souza-Felicano is involved in several projects using the JWST.

Pinilla-Alonso is a former FSI professor who joined Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in 2015. Most of her work on this project was conducted while she was at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½. Pinilla-Alonso also holds a joint appointment as a research professor in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s , and has led numerous international observational campaigns supporting NASA missions such as New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx and Lucy. Pinilla-Alonso is a distinguished researcher at the Institute for Space Sciences and Technologies in Asturias, within the Universidad de Oviedo. She received a doctoral degree in astrophysics and planetary sciences from the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain.

The findings, published today in , reveal the distribution of ices in the early solar system and how TNOs evolve when they travel inward into the region of the giant planets between Jupiter and Saturn, becoming centaurs.

TNOs are small bodies, or ‘planetesimals,’ orbiting the sun beyond Pluto. They never accreted into planets, and serve as pristine time capsules, preserving crucial evidence of the molecular processes and planetary migrations that shaped the solar system billions of years ago. These solar system objects are like icy asteroids and have orbits comparable to or larger than Neptune’s orbit.

Prior to the new Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½-led study, TNOs were known to be a diverse population based on their orbital properties and surface colors, but the molecular composition of these objects remained poorly understood. For decades, this lack of detailed knowledge hindered interpretation of their color and dynamical diversity. Now, the new results unlock the long-standing question of the interpretation of color diversity by providing compositional information.

“With this new research, a more-complete picture of the diversity is presented and the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together,� says Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, the study’s lead author.

“For the very first time, we have identified the specific molecules responsible for the remarkable diversity of spectra, colors and albedo observed in trans-Neptunian objects,� Pinilla-Alonso says. “These molecules — like water ice, carbon dioxide, methanol and complex organics — give us a direct connection between the spectral features of TNOs and their chemical compositions.�

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the researchers found that TNOs can be categorized into three distinct compositional groups, shaped by ice retention lines that existed in the era when the solar system formed billions of years ago.

These lines are identified as regions where temperatures were cold enough for specific ices to form and survive within the protoplanetary disk. These regions, defined by their distance from the sun, mark key points in the early solar system’s temperature gradient and offer a direct link between the formation conditions of planetesimals and their present-day compositions.

Rosario Brunetto, the paper’s second author and a Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique researcher at the Institute d’Astrophysique Spatiale (Université Paris-Saclay), says the results are the first clear connection between formation of planetesimals in the protoplanetary disk and their later evolution. The work sheds light on how today’s observed spectral and dynamical distributions emerged in a planetary system that’s shaped by complex dynamical evolution, he says.

“The compositional groups of TNOs are not evenly distributed among objects with similar orbits,� Brunetto says. “For instance, cold classicals, which formed in the outermost regions of the protoplanetary disk, belong exclusively to a class dominated by methanol and complex organics. In contrast, TNOs on orbits linked to the Oort cloud, which originated closer to the giant planets, are all part of the spectral group characterized by water ice and silicates.�

Brittany Harvison, a Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ physics doctoral student who worked on the project while studying under Pinilla-Alonso, says the three groups defined by their surface compositions exhibit qualities hinting at the protoplanetary disk’s compositional structure.

“This supports our understanding of the available material that helped form outer solar system bodies such as the gas giants and their moons or Pluto and the other inhabitants of the trans-Neptunian region,� she says.

In a , the researchers found unique spectral signatures, different from TNOs, that reveal the presence of dusty regolith mantles on their surfaces.

This finding about centaurs, which are TNOs that have shifted their orbits into the region of the giant planets after a close gravitational encounter with Neptune, helps illuminate how TNOs become centaurs as they warm up when getting closer to the sun and sometimes develop comet-like tails.

Their work revealed that all observed centaur surfaces showed special characteristics when compared with the surfaces of TNOs, suggesting modifications occurred as a consequence of their journey into the inner solar system.

Among the three classes of TNO surface types, two — Bowl and Cliff — were observed in the centaur population, both of which are poor in volatile ices, Pinilla-Alonso says.

However, in centaurs, these surfaces show a distinguishing feature: they are covered by a layer of dusty regolith intermixed with the ice, she says.

“Intriguingly, we identify a new surface class, nonexistent among TNOs, resembling ice poor surfaces in the inner solar system, cometary nuclei and active asteroids,� she says.

Javier Licandro, senior researcher at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC, Tenerife, Spain) and lead author of the centaur’s work says the spectral diversity observed in centaurs is broader than expected, suggesting that existing models of their thermal and chemical evolution may need refinement.

For instance, the variety of organic signatures and the degree of irradiation effects observed were not fully anticipated, Licandro says.

“The diversity detected in the centaurs populations in terms of water, dust, and complex organics suggests varied origins in the TNO population and different evolutionary stages, highlighting that centaurs are not a homogenous group but rather dynamic and transitional objects� Licandro says. “The effects of thermal evolution observed in the surface composition of centaurs are key to establishing the relationship between TNOs and other small bodies populations, such as the irregular satellites of the giant planets and their Trojan asteroids.�

Study co-author Charles Schambeau, a planetary scientist with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s (FSI) who specializes in studying centaurs and comets, emphasized the importance of the observations and that some centaurs can be classified into the same categories as the DiSCo-observed TNOs.

“This is pretty profound because when a TNO transitions into a centaur, it experiences a warmer environment where surface ices and materials are changed,â€� Schambeau says. “Apparently, though, in some cases the surface changes are minimal, allowing individual centaurs to be linked to their parent TNO population. The TNO versus centaur spectral types are different, but similar enough to be linked.”

How the Research Was Performed

The studies are part of the Discovering the Surface Composition of the trans-Neptunian Objects, (DiSCo) project, led by Pinilla-Alonso, to uncover the molecular composition of TNOs. Pinilla-Alonso is now a distinguished professor with the Institute of Space Science and Technology in Asturias at the Universidad de Oviedo and performed the work as a planetary scientist with FSI.

For the studies, the researchers used the JWST, launched almost three years ago, that provided unprecedented views of the molecular diversity of the surfaces of the TNOs and centaurs through near-infrared observations, overcoming the limitations of terrestrial observations and other available instruments.

For the TNOs study, the researchers measured the spectra of 54 TNOs using the JWST, capturing detailed light patterns of these objects. By analyzing these high-sensitivity spectra, the researchers could identify specific molecules on their surface. Using clustering techniques, the TNOs were categorized into three distinct groups based on their surface compositions. The groups were nicknamed “Bowl,” “Double-dip” and “Cliff” due to the shapes of their light absorption patterns.

They found that:

• Bowl-type TNOs made up 25% of the sample and were characterized by strong water ice absorptions and a dusty surface. They showed clear signs of crystalline water ice and had low reflectivity, indicating the presence of dark, refractory materials.
• Double-dip TNOs accounted for 43% of the sample and showed strong carbon dioxide (CO2) bands and some signs of complex organics.
• Cliff-type TNOs made up 32% of the sample and had strong signs of complex organics, methanol, and nitrogen-bearing molecules, and were the reddest in color.

For the centaurs study, the researchers observed and analyzed the reflectance spectra of five centaurs (52872 Okyrhoe, 3253226 Thereus, 136204, 250112 and 310071). This allowed them to identify the surface compositions of the centaurs, revealing considerable diversity among the observed sample.

They found that Thereus and 2003 WL7 belong to the Bowl-type, while 2002 KY14 belongs to the Cliff-type. The remaining two centaurs, Okyrhoe and 2010 KR59, did not fit into any existing spectral classes and were categorized as “Shallow-type” due to their unique spectra. This newly defined group is characterized by a high concentration of primitive, comet-like dust and little to no volatile ices.

Previous Research and Next Steps

Pinilla-Alonso says that previous DiSCo research revealed the presence of carbon oxides widespread on the surfaces of TNOs, which was a significant discovery.

“Now, we build on that finding by offering a more comprehensive understanding of TNO surfaces� she says. “One of the big realizations is that water ice, previously thought to be the most abundant surface ice, is not as prevalent as we once assumed. Instead, carbon dioxide (CO₂) — a gas at Earth’s temperature — and other carbon oxides, such as the super volatile carbon monoxide (CO), are found in a larger number of bodies.�

The new study’s findings are only the beginning, Harvison says.

“Now that we have general information about the identified compositional groups, we have much more to explore and discover,� she says. “As a community, we can start exploring the specifics of what produced the groups as we see them today.�

The research was supported by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The TNOs study authors also included Mario De Prá with FSI, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Bryan Holler with Space Telescope Science Institute; Elsa Hénault with Université Paris-Saclay; Ana Carolina de Souza Feliciano with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Vania Lorenzi with Fundacion Galileo Galilei – INAF; Yvonne Pendleton with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Dale Cruikshank with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Thomas Müller with Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik; John Stansberry with Space Telescope Science Institute; Joshua Emery with Northern Arizona University; Lucas McClure with Northern Arizona University; Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre with Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement; Nuno Peixinho with Instituto de AstrofıÌ�sica e Ciências do Espaço, Departamento de FıÌ�sica, Universidade de Coimbra; Michele Bannister with University of Canterbury; and Ian Wong with the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The centaurs study authors also included Bryan Holler with Space Telescope Science Institute; Mário N. De Prá with FSI, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Mario Melita with Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas (UNLP), Instituto de Tecnología e Ingeniería (UNAHUR); Ana Carolina de Souza Feliciano with FSI, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Rosario Brunetto with Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale; Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre with Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement, UMR5276 CNRS, UCBL, ENSL; Elsa Hénault with Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale; Vania Lorenzi with Fundación Galileo Galilei-INAF, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC); John A. Stansberry with Space Telescope Science Institute, Northern Arizona University, Lowell Observatory; Brittany Harvison with FSI, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½; Yvonne J. Pendleton with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, Department of Physics; Dale P. Cruikshank with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, Department of Physics; Thomas Müller with Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik; Lucas McClure with Northern Arizona University; Joshua P. Emery with Northern Arizona University; Nuno Peixinho with Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Departamento de Física, Universidade de Coimbra; Michele T. Bannister with University of Canterbury, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences – Te Kura MatÅ«; Ian Wong with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, American University.

Chiron belongs to the class of objects that astronomers call “Centaurs.� Centaurs are space objects that orbit the sun between Jupiter and Neptune. They are akin to the mythological creature they borrow their name from in that they are hybrid, possessing characteristics of both asteroids and comets.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ (FSI) scientists recently led a team that found, for the first time, that Chiron has surface chemistry unlike other centaurs. Its surface has both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ice along with carbon dioxide and methane gases in its coma, the cloud-like envelope of dust and gas surrounding it.

The researchers’ results were recently published in the journal .

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ FSI Associate Scientist Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, who now works at the University of Oviedo in Spain, and Assistant Scientist Charles Schambeau led the research. The new findings build upon prior discoveries from Pinilla-Alonso and colleagues that detected carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide ice on trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) for the first time earlier this year.

Those observations, paired with ones of Chiron, are creating foundational knowledge for understanding the creation of our Solar System, as these objects have largely remained unchanged since the Solar System was formed, Pinilla-Alonso says.

“All the small bodies in the Solar System talk to us about how it was back in time, which is a period of time we can’t really observe anymore,� she says. “But active centaurs tell us much more. They are undergoing transformation driven by solar heating and they provide a unique opportunity to learn about the surface and subsurface layers.�

Since Chiron possesses characteristics of both an asteroid and a comet, it makes it rich for studying many processes that could assist in understanding them, she says.

“What is unique about Chiron is that we can observe both the surface, where most of the ices can be found, and the coma, where we see gases that are originating from the surface or just below it,� Pinilla-Alonso says. “TNOs don’t have this kind of activity because they’re too far and too cold. Asteroids don’t have this kind of activity because they don’t have ice on them. Comets, on the other hand, show activity like centaurs, but they are typically observed closer to the sun, and their comas are so thick that they complicate the interpretations of observations of the ices on the surface. Discovering which gases are part of the coma and their different relationships with the ices on the surface help us learn the physical and chemical properties, such as the thickness and the porosity of the ice layer, its composition, and how irradiation is affecting it.�

The discovery of these ices and gases on an object as distant as Chiron – observed near its farthest point from the sun – is exciting because it could help contextualize other centaurs and provide insight into the earliest era of our Solar System, Schambeau says.

“These results are like nothing we’ve seen before,� he says. “Detecting gas comae around objects as far away from the sun as Chiron is very challenging, but JWST has made it accessible. These detections enhance our understanding of Chiron’s interior composition and how that material produces the unique behaviors as we observe Chiron.�

Schambeau specializes in studying centaurs, comets and other space objects. He analyzed the methane gas coma and determined that the outflowing gas detected was consistent with it being sourced from a surface area that was exposed to the most heating from the sun.

Chiron, first discovered in 1977, is characterized much better than most centaurs and comparatively is unique, Schambeau says. The newly analyzed information helps scientists better understand the thermophysical process going on in Chiron that produces methane gas, he says.

“It’s an oddball when compared to the majority of other Centaurs,� Schambeau says. “It has periods where it behaves like a comet, it has rings of material around it, and potentially a debris field of small dust or rocky material orbiting around it. So, many questions arise about Chiron’s properties that allow these unique behaviors.�

The researchers concluded that the coexistence of the molecules in various states adds another layer of intrigue for studying comets and centaurs. The study also highlighted the presence of irradiated byproducts of methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide that will require further research and could help scientists further reveal the unique processes producing Chiron’s surface composition.

Chiron originated from the TNO region and has traveled around our Solar System since its creation, says Pinilla-Alonso. The orbits of Chiron and many other large non-planetary objects occasionally experience close encounters with one of the giant planets where the gravitational pull from the planet changes the smaller object’s orbit, taking them all over our Solar System and exposing them to many different environments, she says.

“We know it has been ejected from the TNO population and is only now transiting through the region of the giant planets, where it will not stay for too long,� Pinilla-Alonso says. “After about 1 million years, centaurs like Chiron typically are ejected from the giant planets region, where they may end their lives as Jupiter Family comets or they may return to the TNOs region.�

Pinilla-Alonso notes that the JWST’s spectra showed for the first time Chiron’s plethora of ices with different volatilities and their formation processes, she says.

Some of these ices, such as methane, carbon dioxide, and water ice, may be primordial components of Chiron inherited from the pre-solar nebula. Others, such as acetylene, propane, ethane, and carbon oxide, could have formed on the surface because of reduction and oxidation processes, she says.

“Based on our new JWST data, I’m not so sure we have a standard centaur,� Pinilla-Alonso says. “Every active centaur that we are observing with JWST shows some peculiarity. But they cannot be all outliers. There must be something that explains why they appear to all behave differently or something that is common between them all that we cannot yet see.�

The analysis of Chiron’s gases and ices opens new frontiers and opportunities for exciting research, she says.

“We’re going to follow up with Chiron,� Pinilla-Alonso says. “It will come closer to us, and if we can study it at nearer distances and get better reads on the quantities and nature of the ices, silicates, and organics, we will be able to better understand how seasonal insolation variations and different illumination patterns can affect its behavior and its ice reservoir.�

The JWST is the world’s premier space science observatory, and it is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe. The JWST is an international collaboration led by NASA with its partners the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Researchers’ Credentials

Pinilla-Alonso was a professor at FSI who joined Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in 2015. Most of her work on this project was conducted while she was at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½. Pinilla-Alonso also holds a joint appointment as a research professor in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s  and has led numerous international observational campaigns in support of NASA missions, such as New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx and Lucy. Pinilla-Alonso is a distinguished professor at the Institute for Space Sciences and Technologies in Asturias, within the Universidad de Oviedo. She received her doctoral degree in astrophysics and planetary sciences from the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain.

Schambeau is an assistant scientist who received his doctoral degree in physics with a concentration in planetary sciences in 2018 from Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½. He subsequently joined FSI where he expanded upon his work examining comets and centaurs as part of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s .