Born from the challenge of the Space Race, UCF was created to transform imagination into innovation and prepare people to launch humanity beyond its limits. Today, we are still are a place where our people’s curiosity drives discovery, bold questions shape the future and exploration advances life on Earth.
Founded to reach the moon, we’re already on our way to the next frontier. Built for liftoff, America’s Space University celebrates UCF Space Week Nov. 3-7.
Where Global Leaders Unite to Boldly Forge the Future of Space
There’s still much we don’t understand about our universe, but scientists are uncovering new clues by studying rocks, down to the smallest particles of dust, that reveal the story of how our solar system formed.
UCF Associate Professor of Physics Ryan Ogliore is advancing knowledge of the solar system by analyzing rocks from space.
“Using microanalytical techniques, I study extraterrestrial samples of various forms down to the level of atoms,” Ogliore says. “Samples can include rocks from meteorites that land on Earth, as well as materials collected from asteroids, comets and other planets through robotic or crewed missions.”
One of the main tools in his research is isotopic analysis, which includes measuring the decay of radioactive isotopes to determine the age and history of rock samples.
“Isotopes are fascinating because they can act like natural clocks,” Ogliore says. “They tell us when certain processes occurred, which helps us understand how planets formed from the solar nebula four and a half billion of years ago.”
Why He Joined SpaceU
Originally from Seattle, Ogliore says his fascination with planetary science began in childhood, when images from NASA’s Voyager missions inspired him to pursue a career in physics. Later, joining UCF felt like a natural fit to advance his research.
“My first visit to UCF was for a workshop, and I was immediately struck by the university’s strong identity as SpaceU, from its street names, like Gemini, to its football uniforms (for the annual Space Game),” he says. “Even more impressive is the breadth of multidisciplinary space research happening here.”
Having the technology and tools here at SpaceU is instrumental to the research conducted by Ogliore. He says that samples returned from space can be studied with great precision with tools on Earth.
“That’s the power of bringing samples back home,” he says. “We can study them using highly precise instruments, like large spectrometers that can take up an entire room.”
Findings That Fuel Discovery and Exploration
Among some of his most significant projects, Ogliore highlights his work with NASA’s Stardust mission to comet Wild 2, a nearly 20-year investigation that revealed surprising results.
“We sent a spacecraft to collect microscopic dust from a comet, full of primordial ice, and discovered that its composition was made up of igneous rocks — materials that form during very high temperature events in the solar system,” he says. “That finding suggested the comet wasn’t just a leftover piece of the Solar System’s building blocks, as we first thought, but rather a record of a more complex later stage of solar system formation.”
Discoveries like these keep Ogliore inspired to continue planetary exploration. Now, he’s turning his focus to distant planets in some of the most unique and extreme environments in the solar system.
“I’m interested in the next phase of robotic exploration of the solar system, and I’m involving students with this research,” he says.
Using Robots and Other Tech to Advance Space Studies
To date, Ogliore says that moon, asteroid and comet rock samples have been brought back for analysis, but now, he wants to study samples from the moons of planets like Jupiter, Saturn and beyond.
“The moons of these planets are worlds in their own right,” he says. “Jupiter’s moon Io, is one I’m particularly interested in. This moon is covered in volcanoes and flowing lava, and we’re working on developing a long-term mission concept to return volcanic ash from Io to Earth for study.”
Because of Io’s distance to Earth and intense radiation, Ogliore explains that such a mission would take more than 20 years to complete and rely on a robotic spacecraft. One of his undergraduate students is already modeling what scientists might expect from the samples once they return to Earth.
“Exploring these distant and exotic worlds like Io is something that I, and many of my students, find exciting,” he says.
Looking ahead, Ogliore hopes to develop the next generation of space-based hardware, from sampling technologies to new propulsion systems.
“We need new ways to travel through space,” he says. “Right now, we’re limited in our exploration of distant worlds, including sample returns, by chemical rockets. Developing new forms of propulsion will revolutionize exploration and working on that effort with like-minded colleagues at UCF is very exciting.”
