Roanoke Valley
Astronomical
Society
Roanoke coordinates: 37o 16' 04" N, 79o 56' 26"W Altitude is about 1050 feet (320
meters)
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M31 Andromeda page background photo by Clem Elechi
RVAS Monthly Meeting: RVAS Monthly Meeting: The next meeting will be on Monday, July 20 at 7:30pm, and are held at the VWCC STEM building ST314.
Our speaker for the meeting will be Dr. Juan Martin de Blas. His topic will be: “Searching for Lava Tubes: From Earth to Mars”.
Dr. Juan Martin de Blas earned a Master’s degree in Geophysics from the University of Granada (Spain) and completed a PhD at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) under a prestigious "la Caixa" fellowship. Today, he is a postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, specializing in the processing and analysis of magnetic data. Specifically, he utilizes fluxgate and scalar magnetometer data from volcanic regions on Earth, like Hawaii and the Canary Islands, to detect hidden subsurface structures such as lava tubes. The goal is to apply these methods to other planetary bodies, particularly Mars, where aerial platforms like helicopters could perform magnetic surveys to map the Martian subsurface. He also studies the Martian crustal magnetic field to estimate the heat flow on Mars and determine when the planet's ancient magnetic field disappeared.