Yearly News

  • December 11, 2017
    A race back to the moon: Why 2017 was a year of lunar milestones
    It’s far from the pace of a space race, but as more agencies gear up to visit the moon as a stepping stone to Mars, there’s a sense that “someone is readying for a sprint,” said a leading member of Canada’s space community. “All international space agencies and the broader scientific community agree that Mars is the ultimate destination in 20 or 30 years,” said Gordon Osinski, who holds the National Science and Engineering Research council chair in Earth and space exploration at Western University in London, Ont.

  • October 18, 2017
    Researcher crashes into Moon mystery solution
    Western researcher Philip Stooke may soon get his own television series – CSI: The Moon – if he keeps uncovering mysterious crash sites on the omnipresent astronomical body. The Geography professor’s latest finding closes a decade-old mystery about the final resting place of SMART-1, the European Space Agency’s first lunar mission sent into a controlled impact with the Moon in 2006, three years after its launch in 2003.

  • October 04, 2017
    Western researcher unearths hottest rock on record
    It was a stroke of serendipity that led to Michael Zanetti’s discovery of the hottest rock on Earth. In 2011, Zanetti, now a postdoctoral researcher in Earth Sciences at Western, was on an analog mission with Earth Sciences professor Gordon Osinski at 28-kilometre-wide Mistastin Lake crater in Labrador – a Canadian Space Agency (CSA)-funded endeavour using the impact structure as a test bed for exploration strategies and field equipment for use on the moon and Mars.

  • September 22, 2017
    Western rocks the crater in unique Sudbury field course
    Thirty-two students from Western and around the world will be journeying almost two billion years back in time in a unique, intensive one-week field course to study the planet’s second-largest impact crater. Prof. Gordon (Oz) Osinski, acting director of Western’s Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX), will lead a graduate class to the Sudbury Crater, a terrestrial motherlode for space enthusiasts, in a field school to study impact craters.

  • June 27, 2017
    CPSX PhD student Christy Caudill awarded the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
    Christy Caudill, a CPSX PhD candidate in Geology & Planetary Science, wins prestigious Vanier Scholarship. Christy is one of the four Western PhD candidates that have been named among 167 nationwide recipients of the 2017-18 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships. Christy studies 'Formation and Evolution of Impact Melt Deposits with Insights into Martian Soil Production and Past Environments'.

  • May 04, 2017
    Professor Gordon Osinski Explores the Human Condition
    The Human Condition; a concept that is intimately intertwined with every single one of our lives. All of us subscribe to the human condition and the diversity of what that means makes humanity the enigma that it is. Together we will try to navigate its definition from the perspectives of a variety of professionals. From implications on healthcare to business to human rights, TEDxWesternU 2015 will explore what it means to be human.

  • May 02, 2017
    PhD student Jon Kissi is keeping a sharp eye on the Red Planet
    Western Engineering Student, Jon Kissi, keeping a sharp eye on the Red Planet

  • April 28, 2017
    Three Western students name Martian craters
    Three CPSX students Kayle Hansen, Arya Bina and alumnus Scott Hutchinson, BSc’16 (Earth Sciences), along with Earth Sciences professor Livio Tornabene, proposed names for two Martian craters on Mars- Kankossa and Bam. On April 3, the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System approved names for two craters on Mars.

  • April 28, 2017
    Western students help name craters on Mars
    On April 3, the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System approved names for two craters on Mars – names proposed by Western Science students Kayle Hansen, Arya Bina and alumnus Scott Hutchinson, BSc’16 (Earth Sciences), along with Earth Sciences professor Livio Tornabene.

  • April 19, 2017
    Gordon Osinski to sit on Canadian Space Advisory Board
    CPSX Director Dr. Gordon Osinski has been chosen to sit on Canada's Space Advisory Board.

  • April 18, 2017
    Keeping an eye out for meteors
    CTV interviews Dr. Peter Brown about his research on meteors.

  • April 11, 2017
    Space Day at Western University Reveals Out of the Silo Thinking
    The event highlighted current research by undergraduate and graduate students from the faculties of Science, Engineering, and Social Science who work with the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration.

  • April 10, 2017
    Western-Based Team Beginning a new HiRISE Imaging Campaign of Mars- Cycle 273
    Our Western University-based team is gearing up once again to help plan a 2-week set of HiRISE images of Mars starting this week (HiRISE is a high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – MRO).

  • April 07, 2017
    Space Day @ Western 2017 a great success
    Space Day @ Western was celebrated for 2017 on Wednesday, April 5. Event included poster presentations by undergraduate and graduate students, oral presentations by graduate students and keynote talk by Dr. Bernard Foing of the European Space Agency.

  • March 30, 2017
    CPSX scientists reveal the first retrograde co-orbital asteroid in 30 March 2017 issue of the journal Nature
    In the March 30 2017 issue of the journal Nature, astronomers reveal that an as-yet-unnamed rare asteroid with the provisional designation 2015 BZ509 (nicknamed 'BZ') travelling in the opposite direction to all the planets and 99.99% of the other asteroids in our Solar System — a state referred to as retrograde motion— is also safely sharing the orbital space of the giant planet Jupiter.

  • February 07, 2017
    The moon is closer to campus than you think
    Western Gazette talks to CPSX graduate student Patrick Hill about his research using the Apollo samples.

  • February 01, 2017
    Western professor's book on Mars exploration receives national award
    Congratulations to Dr. Phil Stooke who’s book "The International Atlas of Mars Exploration: From Spirit to Curiosity" has been recognized by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) as an outstanding academic title.

  • January 16, 2017
    Focus on Mars sharper than expected
    The Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) — also known as The Mars Camera aboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter — is surpassing expectations, according to Western University’s Livio Tornabene, a co-investigator on the project.

  • January 13, 2017
    Alumna hunts DNA on Red Planet
    Astrobiologist alumna Alexandra Pontefract, PhD’13 (Geology), knows finding DNA on the Red Planet will be no easy feat. But it is possible. What’s more, if DNA is found, it’s not far-fetched to think it would be proof of shared ancestry between Earth and Mars.

  • March 22, 2024
    285th HiRISE Cycle: Western imaging Martian Spring