Teresa Steinke, MSc
As a geophysicist and geodesist, I am fascinated by how geodetic observations of a planetary body can be used to constrain geophysical properties of its interior. Ever since, this fascination has shaped my academic career: I did my Bachelor and Master theses at the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin where I modelled the responses of various planets and satellites to tidal and orbital perturbations, as well as the detection of these responses using laser altimetry. In 2016, I joined the Astrodynamics & Space Missions group at TU Delft where I focus on tidal dissipation within Jupiter’s moon Io.
In keywords: tidal dissipation, interior, Io, heat transport, planetary geodesy
Research: Jupiter’s moon Io is subject to strong tidal forces. These forces deform its body and heat it up due to internal friction. We use observations of Io’s thermal heat output as well as geodynamical models to investigate where the heat is produced in the interior and how Io loses its heat.
For possible thesis topics, please have a look at the Brightspace page of the MSc AE profile Space Exploration.