ISSTI Research Associate Professor and NASA Planetary Scientist Dr. Lucas Paganini led a team of researchers who have detected plumes of water vapor emitted from Jupiter’s moon Europa. The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy , supports the hypothesis that there is an ocean of water below the moon frozen surface. The possibility of liquid water makes Europa one of the current leading candidates for life in our solar system, outside of Earth. For more on this exciting science, check out the NASA video and space.com article, The Weird Plumes of Jupiter's Moon Europa Are Spewing Water Vapor.

Our Vision

ISSTI supports over 30 researchers both on campus and at leading laboratories including NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. ISSTI researchers are working on many of the 21st centuries most interesting questions and important challenges, including investigating the origins of life and role of comets in delivering water and organic materials to planets in our solar system, developing techniques to remotely study planetary atmospheres, designing sensors and instruments that play critical roles on prominent NASA missions, simulating solar dynamics and space weather, and utilizing premier observatories including the Hubble Space Telescope to explore our universe.

ISSTI promotes student interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through engagement in exciting discoveries in fundamental science, and participation in the development, testing, and utilization of new technologies deployed both in space and on earth. AU students work on ISSTI projects both on campus and at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. ISSTI partners closely with AU’s Department of Physics, which is also home to the DC NASA Spacegrant Consortium. AU Physics, ISSTI, and DC NASA Spacegrant have recently partnered with Virginia Space and the Mid-Atlantic Space Port in Wallop’s Virginia on the ThinSat program to send student-built small satellites into space.