![Dante Lauretta OSIRIS-REx Prelaunch News Conference](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Dante_Lauretta_OSIRIS-REx_Prelaunch_News_Conference.jpg)
Dante S. Lauretta (born 1970) is a professor of
planetary science and
cosmochemistry
Cosmochemistry (from Greek κόσμος ''kósmos'', "universe" and χημεία ''khemeía'') or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. This is done ...
at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
's
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) is a research center for planetary science located in Tucson, Arizona. It is also a graduate school, constituting the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. LPL is one of the wo ...
. He is currently serving as the
principal investigator
In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...
on
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's
OSIRIS-REx
OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission. The mission's primary goal is to obtain a sample of at least from 101955 Bennu, a carbona ...
mission.
Education
He received a B.S. in physics and mathematics and a B.A. in Oriental Studies with focus in Japanese from the University of Arizona in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences from
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
in 1997. He was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Geological Sciences at Arizona State University from 1997 through 1999. He was an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona State University from 1999 through 2001. He was hired on to the faculty at the University of Arizona in 2001.
Work
His research interests focus on the chemistry and mineralogy of
asteroids and
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
s as determined by ''in situ'' laboratory analyses and spacecraft observations. This work is important for constraining the chemistry of the
solar nebula, understanding the origin of complex
organic molecule
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. Th ...
s in the early
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
, and constraining the initial chemical inventories of the
terrestrial planet
A terrestrial planet, telluric planet, or rocky planet, is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets accepted by the IAU are the inner planets closest to the Sun: Mercury, ...
s. He is an expert in the analysis of
extraterrestrial materials
Extraterrestrial material refers to natural objects now on Earth that originated in outer space. Such materials include cosmic dust and meteorites, as well as samples brought to Earth by sample return missions from the Moon, asteroids and comet ...
. In particular, he uses
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a type of mass spectrometry that uses an inductively coupled plasma to ionize the sample. It atomizes the sample and creates atomic and small polyatomic ions, which are then detected. It is ...
(ICP-MS),
scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
transmission electron microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...
(TEM), electron microprobe analysis (EPMA), and
X-ray diffraction (XRD) to study meteorites, lunar samples, and particles returned by the
''Stardust'' mission. Lauretta is known for his experimental work on the formation of iron-bearing
sulfides in the
solar nebula. He also worked on the cosmochemical behavior of various elements, such as
mercury,
boron and
beryllium
Beryllium is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form m ...
in
meteorites.
[5819 Lauretta (1989 UZ4)]
at a Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
webpage Asteroid
5819 Lauretta was named in his honor.
He is currently serving as the Principal investigator
In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...
on NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's OSIRIS-REx
OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission. The mission's primary goal is to obtain a sample of at least from 101955 Bennu, a carbona ...
mission to return 60 g of 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 terrestr ...
from carbonaceous asteroid 101955 Bennu
101955 Bennu (provisional designation ) is a carbonaceous asteroid in the Apollo group discovered by the LINEAR Project on 11 September 1999. It is a potentially hazardous object that is listed on the Sentry Risk Table and has the highest cumul ...
in 2023. He is also a member of the Comet Research Group
The Comet Research Group, Inc. (also known as the CRG) is non-profit organization whose members promote their research focused on cosmic impact events or meteor air bursts on Earth in the distant past, including events of biblical significance. ...
.
Awards
Lauretta was the recipient of the 2002 Nier Prize of the Meteoritical Society
The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of the ...
, and the 1995 Nininger Meteorite Award
The Nininger Meteorite Award awarded by the Center for Meteorite Studies recognizes outstanding student achievement in the “Science of Meteoritics” as embodied by an original research pape In 1965, Dr. Harvey H. Nininger and Mrs. Addie D. Ni ...
. He was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008. He was a member of the 2002-2003 Antarctic Search for Meteorites and received the Antarctica Service Medal
The Antarctica Service Medal (ASM) was established by the United States Congress on July 7, 1960, under Public Law 600 of the 86th Congress. The medal was intended as a military award to replace several commemorative awards which had been issu ...
of the United States of America in 2010 for his service.
Publication
* He is the co-author (with M. Katherine Crombie (his wife), Chris Gholson, and Erik Melchiorre) of ''Rich Hill: The History of Arizona's Most Amazing Gold District''.
* He is the co-author (with Marvin Killgore) of ''A Color Atlas of Meteorites in Thin Section'' (2005).
* He is lead editor of the University of Arizona's Space Science series book ''Meteorites and the Early Solar System II'' (2006, University of Arizona Press) .
* Lauretta is the co-editor (with Daniel Apai) of the ''Protoplanetary Dust'' volume (2010) in the Cambridge University Press Planetary Science Series.
References
External links
Dante Lauretta
home page at Lunar and Planetary Lab, University of Arizona
Dante Lauretta's blog
*, 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lauretta, Dante
21st-century American chemists
Planetary scientists
1970 births
Living people
OSIRIS-REx
University of Arizona alumni
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
University of Arizona faculty