Welcome to MCSS

A nearly mirror-image pair of red luminescent gas rings encircle the expanding debris of Supernova 1987A, a star which exploded in 1987. This supernova is 169,000 light years away and lies in the dwarf galaxy called Large Megellanic Cloud, visible from the southern hemisphere.

The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences is a consortium of Washington University faculty, research staff and students from the departments of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering. The Center exists to encourage collaborative research efforts among scientists working on space science problems and projects that span traditional departmental lines. The "Mac Center," as it is called, fosters this type of endeavor through the sponsorship of cooperative research and through formal activities such as the Visiting Scientist Program.

Space science, broadly defined as the study of the universe and our relationship to it, is the province of multiple disciplines. Understanding the formation and evolution of the solar system is equally the task of the chemist who measures isotope effects in meteorites, the astronomer who observes planetary atmospheres or interstellar dust, and the theoretical physicist who studies gravitational collapse to form a planet and then its subsequent thermal and mechanical evolution.

Professor Ernst Zinner (center) holds discussions with Senior Research Scientists Scott Messenger and Sachiko Amari in the Ion Probe Lab.

Faculty and students of the McDonnell Center belong to one of the basic, traditional science departments, yet overlap in their research work. They enjoy the stimulation provided by the diversity of research being conducted and consider the eclectic nature of the Center to be one of the most important aspects of the space sciences program at Washington University.

This generation's initial probing beyond our planet with unmanned spacecraft and human explorers is a major turning point in history, fundamentally changing the boundary conditions of human existence. We have taken only the first small steps; the exploration of space will continue as long as humanity exists.

The first American in space and the first American in Earth orbit made their flights in spacecraft designed and built in St. Louis. The McDonnell Center is privileged to help carry on this tradition of space exploration. We look forward to the future with enthusiasm and immense curiosity.