My favorite take away is if you think you need to ram a car, ram the car...

This is my favorite training!!! No one believes me about it until the take it. But it is so memorable...

Team #tugtupite

Word cloud of titles of papers. 2018 (left) vs. Today (right). So much of my scientific focus has changed and expanded in the last 7 years.

The “Analogs for VENus' GEologically Recent Surfaces” (AVENGERS) Initiative: Using Terrestrial Analogs to Study Recent Volcano‐Tectonic Activity on Venus and Inform the Characterization of Terrestrial... The AVENGERS initiative selects and analyzes terrestrial analog sites with ongoing volcanic activity to support Venus exploration Beyond terrestrial analog studies, the AVENGERS initiative also u...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

"This review describes the scientific context of AVENGERS, details the selection criteria for terrestrial analog sites, and summarizes a set of suitable locations. Methodological approaches in analog studies that support the interpretation of Venus observations are also discussed."

To quote piero: "In a world often divided, I hope that iniatives like AVENGERS can remind us of the power of science to unite people across borders, disciplines, and generations — all in the shared quest to understand our place in the universe."

The initiative also aims to act as a bridge across scientists around the world and teams for the upcoming fleet of missions.

Our newest paper lead by piero d'incecco was published today about The Avengers Initiative. The paper investigates active volcanoes on Earth to use as analogs for investigating potentially active volcanoes on Venus and exoplanets.

Lazy weekend for the pups

NASA to Share Details of New Perseverance Mars Rover Finding - NASA NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 10, to discuss the analysis of a rock sampled by the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover

What's more newsworthy: a NASA briefing about analysis of a Mars rock sampled by Perseverance, or that the briefing will include Sean Duffy, who has not participated in any NASA pressers since being named acting administrator 2 months ago?

www.nasa.gov/news-release...

Its the best time of the year...#mincup25

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cartoon (not to scale) detailing the progressive alteration (left to right) of a basalt (grey) in contact with a Venus-atmosphere (yellow) based on experimental and geochemical modeling studies (Berger et al., 2019; Esvan et al., 2022; Filiberto and McCanta, 2024; Johnson and Fegley, 2002; McCanta et al., 2014; Radoman-Shaw et al., 2022; Santos et al., 2023; Semprich et al., 2020; Zhong et al., 2023; Zolotov, 2018). Labels (white boxes) shown between unaltered and altered basalt represent the regions, from top down, atmosphere (yellow), surface environment, basalt (grey). The increase in the alteration zone after experimentation (left to right) into the rock's interior is shown by the vertical white to grey gradation transition, which increases with alteration (labeled oxidation and cation mobility). Cation mobility based on diffusion coefficients experiments (e.g., D(Na) > D(Mg)) in basaltic samples reacting with a CO2 and SO2-bearing atmosphere (e.g., Reid et al., 2024) is shown in the left panel (in decreasing order of mobility: Na➔K➔Ca➔Fe➔Mg) by the dashed arrow moving towards the surface. In the right panel, white crystals at the surface environment represent Na-, K-, and/or Ca-sulfates. Black hexagons represent iron oxides – magnetite changing to hematite with progressive alteration (e.g., Knafelc et al., 2019). Iron oxides form on the surface and within the interior of a sample –along cracks and within crystal structures (e.g., Berger et al., 2019; Knafelc et al., 2019; Zhong et al., 2023). Arrows (dotted lines) point out the iron oxides forming within the sample. Specific details, including the exact minerals to form, and the alteration rate, are dependent on numerous factors as described in the text.

In the process of writing, I gained a bunch of coauthors and shifted the topic. BUT in the end, it is an integrated look at the evidence for active volcanism on Venus with important lessons learned for future missions and investigations. (2/4)

New Paper Published. I am incredibly proud of this one. I agreed to this review when I was the branch chief of research and thought I could get the paper done in about 6 months....then multiple job shifts happened and the paper was submitted just over a year and 6 months after I said yes. (1/4)

Bright colored trees with different colored crystals growing on them.

Plastic case with 5 soaps shaped as gemstones. Blue, green, red, blue, and purple - clockwise from the far left.

Dinosaur display with a small volcano in the center and a blue pond on the bottom right. The ground is currently dirt with plants expected to grow in.

Took the day off work to spend with my daughter and ended up doing science kits all day. Crystal trees, gemstone soaps, and a dinosaur display (plants will grow in soon)

This pillow princess turns 9 today. Happy birthday, Roxy 😀

🍿

NASA Study Reveals Venus Crust Surprise - NASA Science New details about the crust on Venus include some surprises about the geology of Earth’s hotter twin.

Venus is awesome. New feature story about our recent paper:

science.nasa.gov/science-rese...

A small black and tan dog lays on a pile of pillows with her paws crossed.

A proper lady crosses her paws

I stopped submitting there a few years ago as I had a series of papers that the ae and reviewers all liked but the editor rejected it with a similar reason to your experience. All papers got published in other similarly ranked journals. Go find a different journal 😀

Yup. Julia has a PhD student finishing up on that. He presented at lpsc in 2024 and we have a paper almost ready to submit.

Venus is awesome and weird. We did not expect this when we started modeling. It was an supposed to be a simple intern project to calculate metamorphic mineralogy. But the surface of Venus is so hot and high pressure that under any reasonable geothermal gradient, weird things happen quickly at depth.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper out today showing that the crustal thickness of Venus is likely constrained by metamorphism. Too thick and the crust either remelts or delaminates. 30 to 40 km works best with the models. 🧪⚒️🌋⛏️🛰🚀

Lead Astromaterial Curation Engineer Salvador Martinez III smiles at the camera wearing a plaid shirt inside the OSIRIS REx Lab. Credit: NASA/James Blair; NASA/Thalia Patrinos

Sep 24, 2024: Salvador Martinez III shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings to leading the OSIRIS-REx mission at NASA.

www.nasa.gov/image-article/lead-astromaterial-curation-engineer-salvador-martinez-iii/

I loved teaching phase diagrams. They are sooooo much fun 😁

Yes we do state that...almost in those words :-)

Submitted. It's been a while since I've done that. But I submitted a first author paper today. It's an invited review that's about a year delayed. But it feels great to have it submitted. 15 coauthors, 14 figures, and about 50 pages single spaced. All about whether Venus has active volcanoes. 🌋 ⛏️⚒️🧪