Dr. Reggie L. Hudson, Professor of Chemistry at Eckerd College for 30 years, has recently secured more than $1 million dollars in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research grants for solar system exploration. Dr. Hudson is receiving two grants for research into the chemistry of the outer solar system and he is co-investigator on a third grant to study the organic chemistry of meteorites.

Research funded by these grants will be conducted both at Eckerd College and at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Funding will cover expenses for the operation of the NASA Goddard radiation facility for several months each year, the assistance of an experienced NASA scientist and technician, and costs for Dr. Hudson and Eckerd College students to conduct experiments, travel and present their results at scientific meetings, and to publish their data.

"The Eckerd undergraduates involved will have research opportunities at a world-class, state-of-the-art laboratory shared by few students in the nation, and almost none at small colleges," says Dr. Hudson. "Students in my chemistry and astronomy classes will benefit from learning about new science as it develops and Eckerd College will benefit from the enthusiasm, skills, and knowledge brought to the campus."

The grants are as follows: a 3-year grant for $404,000 from NASA's Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program will support research into the complex sulfur chemistry of Europa, one of the four large moons around the giant planet Jupiter; a 2-year grant for $205,000 from NASA's Cassini Data Analysis Program for studies of the atmospheric chemistry of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn; and a 3-year grant, of which Dr. Hudson is the co-author and co-investigator, for $408,000 from NASA's Exobiology Program for the study of amino-acid formation in meteorites. Dr. Hudson's co-author on the third grant is NASA's Dr. Marla Moore.

Extraterrestrial Chemistry

Jupiter

It has been known since the seventeenth century that large moons orbit both Jupiter and Saturn. Of Jupiter's moons, Europa is the most attractive from the astrobiological vantage point since it has surface ice, energy from Jupiter's radiation belts, and, quite likely, the only sub-surface ocean beyond the Earth. Results from NASA missions already have revealed both hydrogen peroxide and the sulfate ion embedded in Europa's surface, but beyond this little is known of the chemistry of Europa and other Jupiter worlds, a hindrance in the planning of future space missions. Will a spacecraft landing on Europa be consumed by large amounts of corrosive sulfuric acid? If Europa is accidentally contaminated by Earth bacteria, will the conditions there allow them to survive and evolve?

This 3-year grant will fund investigations of sulfur-containing molecules in environments relevant to Europa and the Jupiter system. Low-temperature spectroscopy will be the main tool for this work. The new data acquired will allow the complex sulfur chemistry of Europa and other Jupiter moons to finally be unraveled.

Saturn

Titan, Saturn's largest moons, is unique in the solar system because it has the only thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere beside the Earth's. Titan's overall atmospheric composition resembles that thought to have been present about 4 billion years ago on our own planet. Such a composition was what early life first encountered, and so Titan serves as a present-day window into Earth's ancient past when life first appeared.

This 2-year grant will examine the evolution of organic and inorganic molecules on Titan. The research will assist in making firm predictions of new, yet unseen molecules near Saturn, to aid in future NASA missions to the outer solar system.

Meteorites

Meteorites are also keys to the past because they contain molecules from which our solar system formed. Among these chemicals are organic molecules such as amino acids, including ones essential for present-day biology. Meteorites, both past and present, are one way in which the Earth's inventory of organic material has been influenced.

This 3-year grant will be a study of how amino acids form and survive in the relatively harsh conditions of outer space. Funding will cover studies of the so-called left- and right-handed forms of meteoritic amino acids.

* The photograph at the top of this page is of the Spring Semester 2008 class for Astrobiology and Life in the Universe. The students are holding the world's largest solar spectrum, assembled at Eckerd College.

About Professor Hudson

Since arriving at Eckerd College in 1978, Dr. Hudson has conducted research in conjunction with scientists at University College London and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. His work has been published in over 50 peer-reviewed papers and he has received grants from both NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Hudson's main research activities involve solar system and interstellar chemistry, particularly the influence of high-energy radiation on cometary surfaces, icy satellites of the outer planets, and interstellar matter. He teaches the junior-year physical chemistry courses at Eckerd, freshman chemistry courses, and Eckerd's astronomy and astrobiology courses.

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