Comet’s Feature Named in Memory of Influential JPL Scientist

The Rosetta Science Working Team has dedicated a prominent feature on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – also known as Rosetta’s comet – to esteemed Pasadena scientist Dr. Claudia J. Alexander, who passed away in July after a long battle with cancer, leaving behind a 29-year-long career with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The feature, found on the smaller lobe of the comet, was named the C. Alexander Gate, according to a blog post by Rosetta Project Scientist Matt Taylor on the European Space Agency blog, blogs.esa.int.

Alexander was an admired scientist who helped lead both the Galileo mission and the international Rosetta comet mission.

Born in Canada and raised in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, Alexander joined JPL soon after completing graduate school, having received her Bachelor’s degree in geophysics from the UC Berkeley in 1983, and a master’s in geophysics and space physics from UCLA in 1985.

Alexander earned a Ph.D. in the physics of space plasma from the University of Michigan in 1993, where she was named Woman of the Year.

Dr. Alexander died on July 11, 2015. At the time of her death, she was serving as project manager and lead NASA scientist in the Rosetta mission.

“As a token of deep gratitude and thanks, the Rosetta SWT has also dedicated the upcoming special issue of scientific papers in Astronomy and Physics to everyone who has worked on the mission, including those who continue to work on the mission, but especially those colleagues who have passed away,” Taylor wrote.

The Rosetta SWT met recently in Göttingen, Germany to discuss a number of new science investigations along with updates on the ongoing studies of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and its environment.

The team also discussed its members who have been outlived by the mission, including scientists like Alexander who did not live to appreciate the main comet phase.

Another prominent feature on the comet’s larger lobe was named the A. Coradini Gate, after Dr. Angioletta Coradini, the former principal investigator of the VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument, who passed away in September 2011.

The two features, according to the ESA blog, were chosen for their prominence on Comet 67P/C-G, and “for their very distinctive and striking gate-like appearances, considered to be highly appropriate monuments for our absent colleagues.”