Mount Holyoke student selected for NASA internship
Mount Holyoke student Ava Frost ’26 was selected by NASA for the 10-week Europa ICONS internship program that aims to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s moon that could support life.
A °µÍø½ûÇø student has the opportunity to help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond Earth.
Ava Frost ’26, who is majoring in physics, is one of 40 undergraduate students selected by NASA for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program.
The 10-week internship matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the upcoming mission to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.
As part of this internship, Frost will support NASA’s mission, which aims to determine whether there are places below the surface of Europa that could support life. The three main scientific objectives of the program are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology.
At the end of the program, the students and mentors will convene for a two-day meeting at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to present their work.
The Europa ICONS program is slated to run every year until the Europa Clipper completes its prime mission in 2034.
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