Colombian scientist Laura Chavez at the Astromaterials building at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in … [+]
Michelle Thompson
Colombian scientist Laura Chaves fell in love with geology but did not want to get into extraction industries, so she moved the look of her career above: she is now studying microscopic mineral particles collected by space missions.
Chaves, a PhD student in planetary sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, is currently working with samples from the near-Earth Itokawa asteroid returned to Earth by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and their Hayabusa 1 trip.
It studies a process called spaceflight, that is, the chemical and microstructural changes of minerals located on the surface of non-atmospheric planetary bodies, for example the effects of micrometeorites that can reach distances of up to tens of kilometers. tick and irradiation. from the wind of the sun.
“I use various electron microscopy techniques to identify microstructural and chemical signatures that may be evidence of space weather in those samples,” she said.
In mid-December, JAXA confirmed that a sample from the Hayabusa 2 mission has received samples from the Ryugu asteroid and Chaves hopes to work with those samples as well.
Space samples
“Working with individual asteroid particles is as challenging as it gets,” she said, “I work with micron-sized particles, and handling, sample preparation, and microscopy analysis may be the biggest challenge. important during my career as a scientist. ”
Fortunately, Chaves had the opportunity to train in the handling and manipulation of small particles outside of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“I had a great opportunity to handle lunar microparticles collected at Apollo missions where I learned the techniques I use in my current research,” she said.
Laura Chaves hopes to work on samples returned from the Ryugu asteroid by Hayabusa 2 at JAXA.
AFP through Getty Images
From Geology to Astrominerology
Chaves was born in Bogotá, Colombia and despite wanting to pursue a career in modern languages, she decided to study geology because at the time, the success of oil offered attractive salaries.
“That’s how I finished my BS study in Geology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Sede Bogotá,” she said, “In the first semester, I fell in love with geology, but at the same time, I realized that I did that to get involved in the oil industry. “
“While looking for graduate school opportunities that include mineralogy (mining study), I found a book on astromineralogy, and became interested in the subject,” she said.
In a sense, Chaves ’work could come to full circle: meteorological studies allow better identification of an asteroid’s surface, which may be relevant for future asteroid mining, as well as the discovery of objects. which could affect the Earth and a deeper knowledge of the solar system. .
Dreams Space
“One of my biggest dreams is that Colombia, one day, found its space agency to develop projects in the various aerospace engineering, planetary sciences, and astronomy fields,” Chaves said.
She says many Colombian scientists and engineers around the world could contribute to the establishment of a Colombian space agency, ”she said,“ I would be interested in starting a field of astronauts in Colombia. “
But Chaves says without the government’s commitment to increase funding for science and especially for space sciences, it is challenging to hire Colombian professionals who are currently overseas.
“I believe that the Colombian space agency can bring many technological, industrial and economic benefits to the country,” she said.
Colombian scientist Laura Chaves handles lunar samples at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in October … [+]
Michelle Thompson
Chaves is one of a growing number of Latin American women contributing to the fields of geology and astronomy. Another is the geologist Millarca Valenzuela Picón who was raised in the heart of the Chilean Atacama Desert and has spent decades unraveling the space mysteries of ancient dragons – even an asteroid has been named after her in recognition of her work.
Colombian researcher Andrea Guzman Mesa also started with a desire to pursue a modern degree but is now a PhD student in Astrophysics at the University of Bern, studying the atmosphere of distant planets outside our solar system .
Guzman Mesa compares thousands of atmospheric models to the incoming observational data from distant telescopes, to predict what the atmospheres of these planets might do.