Maree McGregor, a graduate student with the department of Earth Sciences on the Fredericton campus, will be travelling to a remote location east of Yellowknife next summer to explore the site where an asteroid crashed into the Earth more than 380 million years ago.

Maree came to UNB from Australia and looks to work on a thesis with the Director of UNB's Planetary and Space Science Centre, Dr. John Spray, who will also be making the three week trip to the far north.

Having already helped to establish the age of the impact crater through her preliminary research at UNB, Maree hopes her additional research will inform how asteroids interact with planetary bodies such as Earth, Mars and the Moon with widespread implications for earth and space science. 

This exciting research opportunity comes in part as a result of support Maree is to receive as the 19th recipient of the Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award from the Geological Society of America. The award honours the memory of Eugene M. Shoemaker, a founding member of the science of impact cratering who is responsible for bringing geological principles into the emerging discipline of planetary science.

Want to hear more about the journey Maree will be embarking on? Check out her recent radio interview with Terry Seguin.