Dr. Faith Vilas

Faith Vilas’ research has focused on both ground and space-based telescopic reflectance observations of a variety of solar system objects. She has published many leading articles on the spectrophotometric and compositional properties of low-albedo asteroids, dwarf planets (Pluto, 4 Vesta, Eris), Mercury, the Moon, and many of the outer planet satellites. Her work includes the definitive ground-based spectral observations of Mercury (no iron there!) that have been confirmed by the MESSENGER mission’s observations. She has contributed to the first mineral identifications in the MESSENGER imaging data in her examination of Hollows terrains. Dr. Vilas has been a leader in the identification of aqueous alteration on asteroids. She is studying the phenomenon of space weathering of planetary regoliths, and has developed a new soil maturity test for S-complex asteroids.