{"id":114135,"date":"2020-10-05T10:58:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=114135"},"modified":"2020-10-20T11:34:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:34:09","slug":"ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two UCF <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/physics\/\">physics<\/a> students just landed two NASA awards that are giving the pair the opportunity to recreate the harsh cosmic conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brian Ferrari \u201918<\/strong> and Katie Slavicinska are doctoral candidates in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/physics\/bennett-lab\/\">Astrochemistry Lab<\/a> working under Assistant Professor Christopher Bennett. They met in the lab and share a passion about space research. Their close relationship also allowed them to strategize about how to best go after a NASA FINESST grant and a NASA Fellowship to make their experiment a reality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe talked about how me receiving the fellowship and Katie receiving FINESST would be the best possible outcome, but it was not statistically likely,\u201d Ferrari says.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n<p>Ferrari received a three-year, $165,000 NASA OSE Fellowship and is studying the effects of irradiation on ices made from commonly found molecules in space, including water, methane, ammonia, methanol and carbon dioxide. These \u201castrophysically relevant ices\u201d often form around dust grains floating in space and can become the starting material of solar systems. Simulating the conditions of space using a vacuum chamber in the lab allows Ferrari and other researchers to analyze the changes these chemicals undergo in a controlled setting.<\/p>\n<p>The objective is to better understand why organic molecules like amino acids \u2014 the building blocks of proteins \u2014 appear on bodies in space that serve as carriers of these ices. An answer to that question opens up an entire new line of inquiry about the origin of life on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>This fellowship will also support an annual trip to the NASA Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n<p>Slavicinska received a $135,000 NASA FINESST Grant, which also funds three years of research. Her work is related, but it takes a different approach to understanding the characteristics of so-called airless bodies, or bodies in space without an atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Airless bodies like asteroids do not have atmospheres or magnetospheres to shield them from bombardment by galactic cosmic rays, solar wind particles and micrometeorite impacts. This constant \u201cspace weathering\u201d can significantly change the surfaces of asteroids. Such changes caused by space weathering are especially poorly understood in carbon-rich asteroids, the type of asteroids on which molecules like amino acids are found, because a high carbon content makes asteroids dark and unreflective. That hampers astronomers\u2019 ability to study the wavelengths of light reflected by the asteroid \u2014 one of the most common methods for determining an airless body\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\" img-fluid size-medium wp-image-114137\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-300x200.jpg\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\" img-fluid size-medium wp-image-114137 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20300%20200%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20300%20200%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie.jpg 1200w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/brian-and-katie-300x200.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Slavicinska will be simulating space weathering on carbon-rich meteorite and regolith simulant samples in the laboratory, allowing systematic analysis of the samples\u2019 characteristics before, during and after weathering with multiple analytical techniques. Her studies of these carbon-rich bodies are especially timely as NASA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/asteroid-bennu-continues-to-surprise-scientists\/\">OSIRIS-Rex &nbsp;mission prepares to collect sample from Bennu<\/a>, a carbon-rich asteroid, later this month.<\/p>\n<p>Ferrari came to UCF for his undergraduate degree since it was close to home and allowed him to stay near all his friends, but he stayed at UCF for his graduate degree because of his love for working for Bennett and doing astrochemistry research in his lab.<\/p>\n<p>Slavicinska came to UCF because a graduate student she worked with at her undergraduate institution recommended she look into Bennett\u2019s lab for graduate school, as it closely aligned with Slavicinska\u2019s interests in astrochemistry, astrobiology, and developing instrumentation.<\/p>\n<p>The Lab group, which also includes undergraduate students Sarah Swiersz, Remi Cantelas and Riley Havel, uses experimental and theoretical methods to investigate the physical, chemical and biochemical processes that could occur in various astrochemical and planetary environments.<\/p>\n<p>The FINESST recipients were announced first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was bittersweet; I was happy that Katie got the grant but sad I didn\u2019t,\u201d Ferrari says.<\/p>\n<p>However, Slavicinska says she held out hope and believed Ferrari would end up receiving the fellowship, which was announced a couple of weeks later. Both Slavicinska and Ferrari point to their grants as something that has brought them even closer together as a couple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur dynamic is productive, but fun,\u201d Slavicinska says. \u201cWe are both very passionate about our research, so it\u2019s convenient having each other around so much to discuss what\u2019s going on in each other\u2019s projects and develop new ideas together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ferrari has a physics degree with a minor in mathematics from UCF and joined Bennett\u2019s lab in 2016. Slavicinska has a chemistry degree with a minor in physics from Kennesaw State University and joined the lab in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":114136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,23,24],"tags":[11,982,15761,3715,14916],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-114135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-research","category-science-technology","tag-graduate-studies","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-pegasus-briefs","tag-physics","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-05T14:58:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-20T15:34:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zenaida Kotala\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zenaida Kotala\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Zenaida Kotala\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e\"},\"headline\":\"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-05T14:58:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-20T15:34:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":743,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"College of Graduate Studies\",\"College of Sciences\",\"Pegasus Briefs\",\"physics\",\"Research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colleges &amp; Campus\",\"Research\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/\",\"name\":\"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments | University of Central Florida News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-05T14:58:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-20T15:34:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e\"},\"description\":\"The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Artist rendering of asteroids. Credit: NASA\\\/JPL-Caltech\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e\",\"name\":\"Zenaida Kotala\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zenaida Kotala\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/zkotala\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\\\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments | University of Central Florida News","description":"The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments","og_description":"The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/","og_site_name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF","article_published_time":"2020-10-05T14:58:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-20T15:34:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zenaida Kotala","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCF","twitter_site":"@UCF","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zenaida Kotala","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/"},"author":{"name":"Zenaida Kotala","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e"},"headline":"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments","datePublished":"2020-10-05T14:58:55+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-20T15:34:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/"},"wordCount":743,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg","keywords":["College of Graduate Studies","College of Sciences","Pegasus Briefs","physics","Research"],"articleSection":["Colleges &amp; Campus","Research","Science &amp; Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2020","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/","name":"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments | University of Central Florida News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg","datePublished":"2020-10-05T14:58:55+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-20T15:34:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e"},"description":"The doctoral students will recreate the conditions found on asteroids and comets in a lab at UCF to better understand their dynamics.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Artist rendering of asteroids. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UCF Graduate Students Land NASA Awards for Unique Experiments"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e","name":"Zenaida Kotala","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Zenaida Kotala"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/zkotala\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-students-land-nasa-awards-for-unique-experiments\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"University of Central Florida"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/10\/Webasteroids_1024-300x200.jpg","primary_category":5,"primary_tag":982,"author_byline":"Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala &amp; Jordan McGrew","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114195,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114135\/revisions\/114195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114135"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=114135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}