UNB News
News and stories from one of Canada’s top universities
Space happens here: The women helping shape the future of planetary exploration
Hilary Creamer
Posted: September 17, 2026 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Space Happens Here , Research , Faculty of Science , UNB Fredericton
Two UNB researchers spotted something unusual on the surface of Mars. What they found is changing what we know about the Red Planet and helping show the next generation of women that they belong in space research. To Dr. Lucy Thompson and Dr. Catherine O'Connell-Cooper, the bright field of Martian rocks stood out like a sore thumb. The geologists, based at the University of New Brunswick's Planetary and Space Science Centre, were helping guide NASA's Curiosity rover through a region of Gale...
UNB researchers contribute to discovery of native sulfur on Mars
UNB Newsroom
Posted: August 21, 2026 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Press Releases , Space Happens Here , Faculty of Science , Research
The University of New Brunswick’s contributions to space exploration continue to stretch across the solar system. In the latest example, two university researchers helped uncover the first confirmed evidence of native, or elemental, sulfur on Mars. Published recently in Science, the findings suggest sulfur-rich fluids were active beneath the planet's surface billions of years ago. Researchers propose the sulfur originated in subsurface ice and later formed elemental sulfur deposits....
Space happens here: Inside UNB's growing role in NASA missions
UNB Newsroom
Posted: August 17, 2026 11:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Space Happens Here , Research
From Mars to the Moon and beyond, discover how researchers and students at the University of New Brunswick are contributing to some of the world's most ambitious space missions When most people picture space exploration, they think of rocket launches in Florida, mission control rooms in Houston, or rovers exploring the surface of Mars. Few would expect a major contribution to those efforts to come from New Brunswick. But at the University of New Brunswick, researchers are helping answer...
We have contact! UNB researchers successfully track signals from NASA’s Artemis II moon mission
Hilary Creamer
Posted: April 9, 2026 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Research , Space Happens Here , UNB Fredericton
High-fives soared as researchers at the University of New Brunswick successfully picked up signals from NASA’s Integrity spacecraft on its journey around the Moon. It’s a major milestone for UNB, the only Canadian university involved in tracking the Orion spacecraft Integrity as it orbits the moon. Dr. Brent Petersen, a professor of communications in UNB’s department of electrical and computer engineering, along with student researcher Megan MacDonald, confirmed detection...