Robert D. Group, a rising sophomore at Hamilton College, received a stipend from the Ralph E. Hansmann Science Student Support Fund to study and map portions of the surface structure of the planet Venus. The Ralph E. Hansmann Science Students Support Fund is given to support research in all sciences and mathematics during the summer. He will be part of a research group including Hamilton Professor of Geology Barbara Tewksbury and two local high school students.
Group will focus on creating a planet-wide tessera map for Venus. He will collect data from radar composite images from NASA's Magellan spacecraft and synthetic stereo images created at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, to generate the map. He will concentrate on the distribution across the planet of a particular structure known as tessera. Tessera is the oldest and most complex of the terrains on Venus, and understanding the nature and distribution of tessera terrain will provide a window into the earliest known history of the planet.
Group is a gradaute of Oneida High School.
