Alexander Stark

PS Planetary and Solar System Sciences

The 2016 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Alexander Stark for the poster/PICO entitled:

Mercury’s rotational state from combined MESSENGER laser altimeter and image data (Stark, A.; Oberst, J.; Preusker, F.; Margot, J.-L.; Phillips, R. J.; Neumann, G. A.; Smith, D. E.; Zuber, M. T.; Solomon, S. C.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Alexander Stark received his PhD in November 2015 from the Technische Universität Berlin. He obtained his Bachelor and Master of Science in Physics at the Humbold-Universität zu Berlin. The work on his PhD thesis was performed at the Institute of Planetary Research of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Oberst and Dr. Hauke Hussmann. The awarded PICO presentation presents parts of his PhD thesis where he analyzed data from NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) mission. By combining laser altimeter and image data acquired by the spacecraft he and his coworkers provided the first measurement of the libration amplitude of Mercury from orbit. This measurement allowed to draw implications on Mercury’s interior and confirmed previous findings of a molten outer core of the planet. Alexander Stark received a Helmholtz PostDoc Fellowship at DLR and his current research focuses on rotation of planets and satellites.