Saanika Choudhary, Aiden Zelakiewicz, and Dmitry Savransky all presented posters at this year’s SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Congratulations Dr. Merrill!
On June 18th, 2026 Colby Merrill successfully defended their B exam, completing the requirements for the PhD program. You can see a recording of their talk below.
Congratulations Dr. Genszler!
On December 19th, 2025 Grace Genszler successfully defended her B exam, completing the requirements for her PhD program. You can see a recording of her talk below.
Controlled Periodic Orbits Reachability Paper Published!
Our paper “Forced Periodic Trajectory Reachable Set Analyses in the Earth-Moon System” was recently published in The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. In this work, we explored two methods to approximate the set of forced periodic orbits relative to a naturally periodic orbit in the Earth-Moon system. We found that our sampling method was better-suited for approximating this set than the analytical method we use.
SIOS Lab Contributes to Dinkinesh-Selam Formation Study
SIOS Lab graduate student, Colby Merrill, contributed to work that models the formation scenario of Dinkinesh’s strange satellite, Selam! The contact binary shape of Selam is likely a result of smaller moonlets merging at speeds near their escape velocities. This multi-moonlet formation scenario also has implications for binary asteroid satellites in general, and sheds light on the poorly constrained shapes of asteroid moons. The paper detailing these results, Multiple moonlet mergers as the origin of the Dinkinesh-Selam system, was published in Nature Communications on December 11.
JASS Article Published
Event-Based Sensor Noise Modeling for Space-Based Space Domain Awareness, led by Dr. Rachel Oliver, has been published in the Journal of Astronautical Sciences. This work presents the most detailed, physics-based, end-to-end model for event-based vision sensors observing space objects created to date.
Congratulations Dr. Li!
On July 14th, 2025 Duan Li successfully defended her B exam, completing the requirements for her PhD program. You can see a recording of her talk below.
SIOSlab Contributes to Studies of Dimorphos’s Ejecta Features
As a member of the NASA/DART team, SIOSlab graduate student Colby Merrill contributed to work that was recently published in Nature Communications! The two articles focus on the morphology and evolution of ejecta created by the DART impact and how those features can be used to inform observations and future kinetic impact missions. The article “Elliptical ejecta of asteroid Dimorphos is due to its surface curvature” examines how momentum transfer into asteroids works as a function of surface curvature and provides recommendations for future asteroid deflection missions. The article “Morphology of ejecta features from the impact on asteroid Dimorphos” constrains the size distribution of ejected particles by the DART impact and finds that the complex multi-tail and spiral features in the ejecta are diagnostic features of a binary system.
SIOSlab at the 2024 Astrodynamics Specialist Conference
SIOS Laboratory grad student Colby Merrill and recent SIOSlab graduate Dr. Jackson Kulik presented their research at the Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Broomfield, CO. Colby presented research on creating new periodic trajectories in the Cislunar environment. Jackson presented research on comparing relative reachable sets around some spacecraft state.
Congratulations to Colby Merrill on Passing their A Exam
Colby Merrill successfully passed their A exam on 7/30/2024, marking the entrance into the dissertation phase of their degree program. A recording of their talk can be viewed below.