M. Darby Dyar

Associate Professor of Astronomy

Specialization
Minerals; minerals and health; Mössbauer spectroscopy; Mars; Moon; planetary science; optical spectroscopy; synchrotron spectroscopy; FTIR spectroscopy; metamorphic geology; water in minerals

The primary goal of Darby Dyar's research is to understand how hydrogen and oxygen are distributed throughout our solar system, particularly in terrestrial bodies such as the Earth, the Moon, Mars, and the parent bodies of meteorites. Dyar uses several different types of spectroscopy to study rocks that originated from 90- to 0-km depth in the Earth, as well as lunar rocks and Martian meteorite samples collected from Antarctica.

Dyar is a frequent contributor to scientific journals and has been awarded numerous grants from the American Chemical Society, the National Science Foundation, and NASA, among other institutions. In 2003, she received a $150,000 grant from NASA's Mars Fundamental Research program to conduct fundamental background research for the space agency's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, set to land a pair of rovers on the red planet. Among the six instruments in each rover's tool kit will be a Mössbauer spectrometer, a device designed to study iron-bearing minerals on the planet's surface. The Mössbauer spectrometer data will be of little use, though, without the key that Dyar will provide. Scientists know how to read spectrometer results taken at normal Earth temperatures, but not at the -208 degrees F temperatures found on Mars. Using Mount Holyoke's Mössbauer laboratory in Clapp Laboratory, Dyar and her student assistants are gathering data on about 60 minerals they might expect to find on Mars, chilling the samples during data acquisition with a liquid helium refrigerator.

News Links:

"MHC's Cool New Course," Office of Communciations, August 9, 2007

"Profesor Dyar Gains NASA Grants," Office of Communications, April 12, 2006

"An Out-of-this-World Interview with Darby Dyar," College Street Journal, December 13, 2002

"It Came from Mars! Geologist Darby Dyar Analyzes Martian Meteorite Fragments for Clues about the Red Planet," College Street Journal, October 30, 1998