Michael Velez
Michael Velez has passed his dissertation defense, marking a major milestone toward his Ph.D.
His dissertation, titled “Investigating Europa’s Atmosphere and Surface Composition: Hubble Space Telescope Analysis and Europa-UVS Stellar Occultation Preparations,” was presented on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, under the advisement of Dr. Kurt Retherford.
Velez’s work explored the composition and dynamics of Europa’s atmosphere and surface using data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). His research contributed to three key objectives in preparation for NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission:
-
Developing an algorithm to evaluate stellar occultation quality for the mission’s Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS),
-
Analyzing Europa’s optical aurora while in Jupiter’s shadow, and
-
Using ultraviolet spectra to study trace atmospheric species and FUV surface features.
By compiling high signal-to-noise spectra across Europa’s hemispheres, his research reveals a hemispheric dichotomy likely linked to compositional differences in chaotic terrain.