Mikayla Huffman
Impact Physics & Planetary Atmospheres
About Me
I'm currently a third-year Ph.D. Candidate in CU Boulder's Astrophysics and Planetary Science Ph.D. program, working with Dr. David Brain. I have also worked with Dr. Kelsi Singer and Dr. Adam McKay. I did my undergraduate at William & Mary, and graduated summa cum laude, with a physics major (honors), an honorary geology major, and a math minor.
Currently, I am researching impact alteration of planetary atmospheres. I have dipped into comet spectroscopy and secondary impact cratering as well. You can read my most recent paper about why some comets produce more water than should be accounted for by their size here. You can read my undergraduate honors thesis here. Stay tuned for my upcoming paper about atmospheres and impacts!
My hometown is Falls Church, VA, and I currently live in Boulder, CO with my ball python, Beaker, and my bearded dragon, Basil. My goal is to produce science that brings people together and to be a mentor for early-career scientists! Feel free to reach out anytime.
Website last updated: 9/12/2024
Space for everyone
General Audience Summary of Current Research
If you take a cup of water and drop an ice cube in it, you'll end up with more water than when you started. But, if you throw a snowball into the cup really hard, you'll splash out a bunch of water. Whether you end up with less or more water than when you started depends on a lot of things- how big your cup is, how much water was in it to start with, how big your ice cube is, how fast you're throwing it into the cup, how much ice is in your ice cube vs how much dust, etc.
The same thing is true of impacts and atmospheres. Comets are big balls of ice and dust. Asteroids can also have ice in them. When a slow, small comet hits a planet, the ice inside it can turn into gas in the planet's atmosphere (an atmosphere is the shell of gas around the planet). But, if you throw a really big, fast comet at a planet, it can "splash" out gases from the planet's atmosphere.
Of course, impact alteration is actually more complicated than this metaphor! I try to figure out how big and how fast a comet or asteroid would need to be before a planet loses more gas than it gains.
Connect with me
Email | mikaylarhuffman(at)gmail.com, mikayla.huffman(at)colorado.edu
ORCID 0009-0000-2828-2263
In the News
Reach for the stars: Astronomy Club shares its passion for exploring a galaxy far, far away Nov. 2023
The universe, Dungeons & Dragons and self-discovery: An interview with Mikayla Huffman Oct. 2023
Dr. Ellen Stofan Women in Planetary Science Blog Interview Sept. 2022
Mentoring for Careers in Physics Program Feb. 2022
Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy Feb. 2022
NASA Women in Stem Careers Sept. 2021
Dr. Jennifer Whitten Women in Planetary Science Blog Interview Aug. 2021
William & Mary Makerspace Nov. 2019
Timestamp 24:48 - my acceptance speech for the 2022 Thomas Jefferson Prize in Natural Philosophy from William & Mary
My Research
Research Assistant
CU Boulder APS Department, Boulder CO
August 2022 - Present
Part of Dr. Dave Brain's research team, studying how impact cratering affects planetary atmospheres
Presented at the 55th Division of Planetary Science Meeting
Paper in preparation
Graduate Student - Research & Development
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder CO
May 2022 - August 2022
Continued my work from the NASA SUPPR program and honors thesis on secondary and tertiary impact cratering
Presented at the 13th Planetary Cratering Consortium
NASA NIFS Summer Intern
Headquarters/Goddard, Washington DC
June - August 2021
Took data at Apache Point Observatory and MacDonald Observatory
Translated IDL script to Python and expanded its applicability to broader spectroscopic applications
Performed oxygen line ratio analysis of comets 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova and C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) from [OI] observations as a proxy for CO2 abundances
Presented on this research for the broader NASA community, poster presentation at the 53rd Division of Planetary Science Meeting
Paper published in the Planetary Science Journal
SUPPR NASA Summer Intern
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder CO
June - July 2020, Thesis August 2021 - May 2022
Used Integrated System for Imagers and Spectrometers software to analyze LROC & MESSENGER data to then map over 12,000 secondary craters on the Moon & Mercury in ArcGIS
Discovered never before confirmed tertiary craters on the Moon, paper in preparation
Physics Honors Thesis extended these findings and expanded upon current tertiary theory, presented at 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
Performed interviews for the Women in Planetary Science Blog
Presented findings & experience to Head of NASA’s SUPPR Program and mentors
JHU APL Research Assistant
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel MD
Jan 2020
Processed Mini-RF data from the LRO using ArcGIS to successfully identify radar noise
Interpreted the circular polarization ratio and stokes matrix data to map craters on the Moon
W&M Research Assistant
William & Mary Geology Department, Williamsburg VA
Sept 2019 - May 2022
Determined morphological indicators of complex ice shell formations by modeling crater impacts on icy bodies
Worked with iSALE on the high-performance computing SciClone supercomputers on campus
Abstracts accepted & posters presented at 51st & 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conferences
Awarded $8500 through the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, $3000 through William & Mary’s James Monroe Scholar Program, and $3000 through William & Mary’s Charles Center
How Venus's atmosphere would evolve under impact bombardment, using various models from the literature
Results from my spectroscopy code for Hale-Bopp
Secondary crater diameter as a function of distance from primary
One of my impact simulations using iSALE
First Author Papers
Inferring the CO2 Abundance in Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková from [O I] Observations: Implications for the Source of Icy Grains in Cometary Comae
Some comets produce more water ice than should be accounted for by their size. Why? Not sure, but it doesn't have to do with carbon dioxide outgassing.
First Author Conference Abstracts
56th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences
55th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences
13th Planetary Cratering Consortium
2027.pdf53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
SearchforLunarTertiaryCraters.pdf53rd Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences
52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
1663.pdf51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
2186.pdf