TREX

Impact Stories @ Boise State

Boise State University invited TREX’s Dr. JA Grier to visit January 2-4, 2002 as part of their “First Friday” Astronomy Lecture series.  Dr. Grier’s presentation was titled “The Stories of Impact Craters: How Scientists Learn to Tell Them” and was given to an audience of about 100 students and members of the general public.  To promote the event, and to talk about lunar crater science to listeners, Dr. Grier was interviewed on Boise State Public Radio NPR (KBSX).  During the visit, Dr. Grier met with Boise State physics undergraduate students to discuss general research topics, as well as careers in lunar science.  There was also a tour given by the undergraduates of the Boise State Observatory to review the facility and talk about public outreach with the telescope.

Dr. Grier’s talk included stories, research, anecdotes, and facts around the science of impact craters, and how it is that scientists engage in that study.  Not as glamorous an occupation as it might be imagined, impact crater scientists spend a lot of time with their hands dirty with rocks, getting vehicles stuck in the mud, and visiting rustic locales.  But this all leads to collecting the evidence necessary to tell the story of impact craters – how and when they formed, how big and energetic the impacts were, and how the target environment changed from the impact.  This ground-based evidence is then compared to remote sensing data from spacecraft, allowing us to leverage our knowledge of craters on Earth to craters on the Moon and other worlds.  Dr. Grier’s work with TREX investigates how we can use remote sensing data to tell the story of lunar craters, and helps us to understand current processes as well as potential challenges to exploration.