Beth Clark Joseph's research in astronomy is about asteroids and meteorites. Specifically, she is interested in meteorite-asteroid links. Her research asks the question "Which meteorites (small rocks that fell to Earth) are samples of which asteroids (big rocks floating in interplanetary space)?" To answer this question she uses a variety of techniques, such as reflectance spectroscopy, multi-spectral imaging, thermal modeling, and compositional modeling.
Her observations have been conducted from the laboratory (meteorites under the microscope and spectrometer), from ground-based telescopes (primarily infrared telescopes in Hawaii), and from spacecraft (the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, Galileo, Deep Impact, PhobosII, and MUSES-C missions). Someday, she hopes to understand meteorite-asteroid links well enough to comprehend what our detailed knowledge of meteorites tells us about the solar system and the history of the formation of the rocky planets, such as Earth.
Enjoy viewing these research photos:
January 2004: Trip to Mauna Kea with Sweta Shah
