Research Highlights

Recent Research Highlights

  • Discovery of water-ice and organic molecules on two asteroids: 24 Themis and 65 Cybele (publications #4 and #1 below)
  • Member of the Science Team of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission to an asteroid. This mission was selected in 2011 by NASA as the next New Frontiers mission.
  • Determination of the origin of asteroid 101955 (1999 RQ36), the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex sample-return mission (publication #5 below)
  • Publication of  book chapter on “Sources of Terrestrial and Martian Water” (publication #3 below)
  • US member of the European Space Agency’s Marco Polo-R mission, which was selected in 2011 by ESA for the assessment study phase of M3 missions.

Recent Prizes and Awards

  • Research Award, University of Central Florida. April 2011.
  • Don Quijote Award, Professional of the Year, Orlando, Florida. Dec. 2010.
  • Fulbright Senior Award, 2008-2009.

Recent Invited Lectures

  • Water-ice and organic molecules on asteroids: implications for the origin of water and life on Earth. Invited Speaker at Paris Observatory, May 12, 2011
  • Colors of Asteroid Families. Invited Speaker at “Solar System science before and after Gaia”. University of Pisa, Italy, May 4-6, 2011
  • The Puzzling Icy Nature of Asteroid 24 Themis. University of Florence, Florence Italy. June 2011
  • Water Ice Nature on Asteroid 24 Themis. Vatican Observatory Summer School. Albano, Italy. June 2010
  • Water Ice on Asteroid 24 Themis. International Conference on Meteorite Detection Analysis and Recovery Techniques. Barcelona, Spain. May 2010
  • The Puzzling Icy Nature of Asteroid 24 Themis. Organic Materials in Planetary Systems. Meudon, France. May, 2010
  • Water Ice and Organics on Asteroids 24 Themis and 65 Cybele. Boston University, Boston, Mass. USA

Selected Refereed Publications

  1. “(65) Cybele: Detection of Small Silicate Grains, Water-ice, and Organics” by Licandro, J., Campins, H., Kelley, M., Hargrove , K., Pinilla-Alonso, N., Cruikshank, D., Rivkin, A. S., and Emery, J. (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525, A34
  2. “Near-infrared spectroscopy of primitive asteroid families” by Ziffer, J., Campins, H, Licandro, J., Walker, M. E., Fernandez, Y., Clark, B. E., Mothe-Diniz, T., Howell, E., Deshpande, R. (2011) Icarus, Vol. 213, p. 538-546
  3. “Sources of Terrestrial and Martian Water” by Campins, H. and Drake, M. (2010) in “Water & life: the unique properties of H20” Eds. R. Lynden-Bell et al. CRC Press, pp. 221- 234.
  4. “Water ice and organics on the surface of the asteroid 24 Themis” by Campins, H., Hargrove, K., Pinilla-Alonso, N, Howell, E., Kelley, M., S., Licandro, J., Mothe´-Diniz, T., Fernández, Y., and Ziffer, J. (2010) Nature, vol. 464, 1320-1321.
  5. “The Origin of Asteroid 101955 (1999 RQ36)” by Campins, H., Morbidelli, A., Tsiganis, K., de León, J., Licandro J., and Lauretta, D. (2010) Astrophys. J. Lett., vol. 721, L53.