{"id":6459,"date":"2013-06-28T14:47:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T21:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/?p=6459"},"modified":"2021-01-18T01:36:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T09:36:33","slug":"graduate-student-jessica-watkins-studies-landslides-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/?p=6459","title":{"rendered":"Graduate student Jessica Watkins studies landslides on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For third-year UCLA graduate student Jessica Watkins, the \u201cbig picture goal\u201d has always been to travel to space as an astronaut.\u00a0 To achieve her dream meant intense physical training (she was part of Stanford\u2019s 2008 international collegiate rugby championship team) and earning a Ph.D. in a research area relevant to space. Beginning her education as a mechanical engineer, she soon realized it wasn\u2019t for her.\u00a0 Turning to a course bulletin for inspiration, she found classes about planets and atmospheres in Stanford\u2019s Geological and Environmental Sciences department that would prove to suit her well.<\/p>\n

Presently, Watkins works with her advisor, UCLA Professor An Yin, to understand massive landslides in Mars\u2019 Valles Marineris, a network of canyons the size of the continental United States.\u00a0 Using images and data from NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and satellite images of Earth for comparison, she attempts to determine whether the cause of Martian landslides is tectonic activity, flowing water, glaciers, or something else.\u00a0 Accordingly, Watkins is trying to determine if any of the minerals in her landslides are hydrated, or wet.\u00a0 Although she is not studying the astrobiological aspects of the minerals, she said her work is \u201cone small study that could tell us a lot,\u201d including information about the habitability of Mars.<\/p>\n

Watkins also examines landslides up close to understand how to best interpret images of Mars\u2019 landslides. During a recent field investigation of a Mars-like landslide in Death Valley National Park, Watkins was surprised that some of her preliminary image interpretations were incorrect. \u201cThere are many things about other planets that we might not be able to truly understand just from images,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing able to walk around and get your hands on it really makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what drew Watkins to planetary geology.\u00a0 \u201cUCLA merges geology and planetary science really well,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cI can use my Earth geology background to study other planets.\u201d This summer, Watkins will collaborate with Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California in hopes of improving our understanding of Mars\u2019 surface.\u00a0 In retrospect, Watkins realizes she has always been interested in Mars. \u201cMy earliest memory of being interested in Mars was in fifth grade,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to make illustrated books \u2013 I wrote mine on Marty the Martian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch a video profile of Jessica Watkins here<\/a>.\u00a0 Learn more about her research here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For third-year UCLA graduate student Jessica Watkins, the \u201cbig picture goal\u201d has always been to travel to space as an astronaut.\u00a0 To achieve her dream meant intense physical training (she was part of Stanford\u2019s 2008 international collegiate rugby championship team) and earning a Ph.D. in a research area relevant to space. Beginning her education as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Graduate student Jessica Watkins studies landslides on Mars”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[327,328,288,315],"class_list":["post-6459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-jessica-watkins","tag-landslides","tag-mars","tag-ucla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6459"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13167,"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions\/13167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/planets.ucla.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}