[Baps] Sign up to meet with this week's PLS speaker, Julia Miller (Brown University)

[Jason Soderblom]

All,
Please take a moment to sign up<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ITs3VseoRBcW29BQs9GN69VQBRj8Cb7ff5x0G8QyZg8/edit?usp=sharing> to meet with this week’s PLS speaker, Julia Miller.

Julia studies a range of topics from volatile transport and loss in comets and KBOs (topic of her talk); the relationship between interiors and surface processes on icy worlds; and how clathrates and other volatile ices affect both subsurface heat transport and observed surface morphologies.

Sign up sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ITs3VseoRBcW29BQs9GN69VQBRj8Cb7ff5x0G8QyZg8/edit?usp=sharing

Best,
Jason Soderblom


On Sep 20, 2025, at 2:38 PM, Jason Soderblom <jms4 at mit.edu> wrote:

Dear planet enthusiasts,

We're excited to announce that the next Planetary Lunch Seminar on September 23rd will be given by Julia Miller (Brown University).  Julia will be presenting her work on understanding the how volatiles are preserved in small KBOs.
Her results suggest that even hyper volatiles can be preserved over the age of the solar systems in km-sized objects, which has implications for JWST and Rubin observations.

Join us on Tuesday 9/23 at 12:30 PM in 54-517 or on Zoom. Lunch will be provided, and we encourage you to arrive a few minutes early to get food.


Julia will be on campus for the day and is available to meet with folks. In addition to her research on volatile transport and loss in comets and KBOs, Julia also studies the relationship between interior and surface processes on icy worlds like Pluto and Titan, and how clathrates and other volatile ices affect both subsurface heat transport and observed surface morphologies.
Sign up here to meet with Julia: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ITs3VseoRBcW29BQs9GN69VQBRj8Cb7ff5x0G8QyZg8/edit?usp=sharing



Cheers,
The PLS Organizing Committee


Title: Volatile Retention and Thermal Alteration in Small Kuiper Belt Objects

Small, ice-rich objects in and beyond the Kuiper Belt are likely to have undergone the least amount of processing in the billions of years since their formation, and can be used to form a more complete picture of the conditions and materials present in the early solar system. However, even these objects are unlikely to have remained entirely pristine. Since they would originally have contained substantial amounts of hypervolatile ice, even minor sources of heating may have resulted in significant thermal alteration. To understand the extent to which the presence and quantity of volatile materials in a small body is indicative of when and where an object formed, we have developed a new thermophysical evolution model for small bodies, which includes all physical processes relevant to volatile loss at low temperatures. We find that it is possible for a km-size porous objects in the outer Kuiper Belt to retain CO over the lifetime of the solar system, but that the extent of alteration depends strongly on poorly-constrained interior properties.

Zoom link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97275591700
PW: 54100

To be added to the planetary email listserv, please contact planetary-org at mit.edu.

<https://eaps.mit.edu/events/pls-julia-miller-brown/>
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[PLS] Julia Miller (Brown)<https://eaps.mit.edu/events/pls-julia-miller-brown/>
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