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Jani Radebaugh

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Jani Radebaugh
Born1970 (age 53–54)[1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationBrigham Young University (BS)
University of Arizona (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsPlanetary science

Jani Radebaugh (/ˈdʒeɪni ˈrædəbɔː/; JAY-nee RAD-ə-baw)[2] is an American planetary scientist and professor of geology at Brigham Young University[3] who specializes in field studies of planets. Radebaugh's research focuses on Saturn's moon Titan, Jupiter's moon Io, the Earth's Moon, Mars and Pluto. Radebaugh is a Science Team member of the Dragonfly mission to Titan, the IVO Io mission proposal, and the Mars Median project. She was an Associate Team Member of the Cassini-Huygens RADAR instrument from 2008 to 2017, and was a graduate student scientist for Io for the Galileo mission. She does science outreach through her work as an expert contributor to the Science/Discovery program How the Universe Works and other television and radio programs. In December 2012, Radebaugh and her colleagues on the Cassini mission announced the discovery of Vid Flumina, a liquid methane river on Saturn's moon Titan over 320 km (200 mi) long and resembling the Nile river.[4]

Career

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Jani Radebaugh speaks from podium
Jani Radebaugh at BYU in 2015

Radebaugh received a BS from Brigham Young University in Physics and Astronomy and a PhD from the University of Arizona in Planetary Science.[5] She has been a professor of Geological Sciences at Brigham Young University since 2006 (full professor since 2019). She has conducted field research in terrestrial locations as Earth analogues for geological features on other worlds within the Solar System, including the Saharan, Arabian and Namib deserts to study giant sand dunes similar to those on Saturn's moon Titan, lava lakes in the Afar Valley, Vanuatu, and Kilauea as analogues for the active lava lakes of Jupiter's moon Io. She traveled to Iran's Lut Desert to study wind-carved ridges, termed yardangs, which are found on Mars, Venus and Titan and has spent four seasons (05-06, 08–09, 13–14, 16–17) in Antarctica with the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites, where she helped recover meteorite samples from around the Solar System including the Moon and Mars.[6]

She has analyzed data from the Cassini RADAR instrument and contributed to the formulation of the Dragonfly rotorcraft lander mission proposal.[7][8] She was also involved in the Galileo mission, the Io Volcanoes Observer mission proposal, and the Median project for Mars.[9]

Radebaugh has appeared as an expert contributor on several TV programs, including the Science/Discovery series How the Universe Works, and on BBC TV shows, NOVA episodes, and the Science Channel's, The Planets and Beyond.

Awards and Honors

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In 2024, the asteroid 45690 Janiradebaugh was named after Radebaugh.[1]

Personal life

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Radebaugh lives in Provo, Utah and is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was married in 2020.

Inclusion

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In November 2018, Radebaugh co-authored an article opposed to the American Geophysical Union (AGU) removal of a Brigham Young University job posting, following criticism of the university's hiring policy, which references its honor code, a portion of which prohibits homosexual behavior. Radebaugh supported the controversial posting's inclusion on AGU job boards, arguing that ideological diversity was important to a constructive dialogue about bias in hiring.[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b "JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". NASA. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  2. ^ How the Universe Works, "Strangest Alien Worlds", season 5, episode 9. First aired 2017-02-07. The narrator says Radebaugh's name at about 6:00 into the episode.
  3. ^ "Jani Radebaugh". www.planetary.org. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  4. ^ "Cassini Finds a New Nile River on Titan | DiscoverMagazine.com". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  5. ^ Bauman, Joe (2019-09-19). "BYU professor to help in ambitious search for life or pre-life chemistry on Saturn moon". Deseret News. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  6. ^ "2016 / 2017 Field Season | ANSMET, The Antarctic Search for Meteorites". caslabs.case.edu. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  7. ^ "NASA - Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  8. ^ Chang, Kenneth (2017-12-19). "Finalists in NASA's Spacecraft Sweepstakes: A Drone on Titan, and a Comet-Chaser". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  9. ^ admin (2014-11-15). "Jani Radebaugh – Planetary Scientist – Brigham Young University". Spacefest. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  10. ^ "Does Our Vision of Diversity Include Social Conservatives?". 23 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
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