Dr. Deborah Domingue is an expert in the spectrophotometric properties of planetary regoliths. She has studied such diverse objects as icy satellites, asteroids, Mercury, and the Moon. Her science includes the examination of regolith physical structures and their relationship to regolith formation and alteration processes. Her work includes the study of space weathering on airless bodies, the spectroscopic variability with morphologic terrains, and formation of exospheres.
She served as the Science and Mission Operations Liaison on the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission and the Deputy Project Scientist for the MESSENGER mission. She is a Participating Scientist on the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission and is currently PI on several research projects, and co-investigator on several more (see below). She has expertise in integrating instrument operations, leading science operations, and conducting cutting-edge research involving the analysis of camera and spectrometer data sets.
Active Projects
Photometric Study of How the Physical Properties of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Evolve with the Perihelion Passage
NASA Discovery Data Analysis Program
Principal Investigator
Project Team
Continued Studies of the Impact of Solar Wind Ions on the Surface and Exosphere of Mercury
NASA Solar System Workings Program
Institutional PI
Project Team
Pyroclastic Eruption Conditions on the Moon and Mercury
NASA Solar System Workings Program
Principal Investigator
Project Team
External Partners
- Smithsonian
- USGS
- JHU/APL
TREX: Toolbox for Research and Exploration
NASA Solar System Exploration Virtual Institute
Principal Investigator
Project Team
External Partners
- Columbia U.
- UC Boulder
- U. Winnipeg
- CMU
- GSFC
- USRA
- DLR
- Illinois U.
- JSC
