Center for
Planetary Sciences
Mark Robinson
Director, Research Associate Professor

Carmen Salas
Grant Administrator

1850 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL   60208-2150
Phone: 847-467-0127

Northwestern University
Center for Planetary Sciences


The Northwestern University Center for Planetary Sciences is dedicated to promoting and supporting research directed towards a more complete understanding of the formation and evolution of our Solar System.

The Center for Planetary Sciences is supported through the NU Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Geological Sciences, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA). NASA funding is provided through the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, CRISM spectrometer onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program and Discovery Data Analysis Program.

On campus research programs involve the Departments of Geological Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and the IT Academic Technologies. The Center is also involved in research programs with Johns Hopkins University, Univ. of Colorado, National Air and Space Museum, and Univ. of Hawaii.

Highlights of current work include quantification of the effects of high temperature (~500C) on reflectance spectra of silicate materials, investigation of light scattering effects due to mineral grain size, nature and extent of regolith on the Moon and the asteroid 433 Eros, and detailing the volcanologic history of Mercury through multispectral imaging.

Center for Planetary Sciences personnel are actively involved in the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury to be launched in July of 2004, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to be launched in 2005.