Faculty Expert Profile

Nancy Chabot is a planetary scientists at the Applied Physics Lab whose research examines the evolution of rocky planetary bodies in the Solar System. At APL, she leads an experimental geochemistry laboratory that is used to conduct experiments at elevated temperatures and pressures to investigate the differentiation and evolution of planetary bodies. She has also been a member of five field teams with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program. Asteroid 6899 Nancychabot is named for her.

She is currently the deputy principal investigator for a special instrument on the Mars Moons eXploration (MMX) mission and Project Scientist for the DART mission.

The special instrument, MEGANE (which means "eyeglasses" in Japanese) will give the MMX the ability to "see " the elemental composition of one Mars's two moons, Phobos, "by measuring the energies energies of neutrons and gamma-rays emitted from the small moon," according to her website.

The elementary particles are emitted naturally as a result of the high-energy cosmic rays and solar energetic particles that continually strike and penetrate the surface of Phobos.