Daniel Turner Britt is Pegasus Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

(UCF). He studies the composition and mineralogy of bodies within the Solar System including the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

and the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s. He has worked on four NASA missions and has an asteroid named after him: 4395 Danbritt. In 2022, the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

awarded him their Outstanding Technical Contribution Award for his work at the Exolith Lab at UCF which has produced tons of "space dirt" – synthetic

regolith Regolith () is a blanket of unconsolidated, loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock. It includes dust, broken rocks, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, Mars, some asteroids, and other terrestria ...

which reproduces the properties of the surface material on other worlds such as Mars.

References

1950 births Brown University alumni Fellows of the Meteoritical Society Planetary scientists University of Central Florida faculty University of Washington alumni Living people {{geologist-stub