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Adriana Ocampo: Thule, the most
Ultima
A Leader in Space distant object
Exploration photographed
in space.
4.1 billion
Number of miles (6.6 Her PhD in planetary geology is from the moons of Mars.
billion km) between VU University in the Netherlands.
Earth and Ultima Thule, Today, Ocampo is the head of
the most distant object Ocampo is best known for NASA’s New Frontiers program. This
photographed in space discovering the Chicxulub crater in program is mapping Jupiter using
Mexico. She has also mapped many a solar-powered craft. It is also
• The photos reached Earth
on January 1, 2019. They planets. In 1984, she created the working with the European Space
were captured by the New only photo atlas of Phobos, one of Agency to study Venus.
Horizons spacecraft.
• Ocampo oversees the
New Horizons team,
As a child, Adriana Ocampo which launched the craft
imagined traveling through space in 2006.
with her dog as her copilot. This • After the flyby of Ultima
passion for space exploration guided Thule, New Horizons kept
her to top positions at NASA. going. It is learning more
about the outer solar
Ocampo was born in 1955 in system.
Columbia. She was raised in THE CHICXULUB CRATER
Buenos Aires, Argentina. At 14, In 1988, strange satellite images were presented at a conference.
she moved with her family to In 1983, Ocampo earned her They showed a circle about 124 miles (200 km) across. Ocampo
Pasadena, California. In high school, bachelor’s degree in geology. She was in the audience. She knew it could be evidence of an asteroid.
she started working at NASA’s Jet received her master’s in planetary She studied the site on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Her hunch
geology in 1999. She continued to
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). was right. An asteroid hit that spot 66 million years ago. It killed
work as a research scientist at JPL.
16 over 70 percent of life on earth, including most of the dinosaurs. 17
