I have done a lot of research over the years but almost all has been planetary or solar system -based. This page has pretty much all formal research that I have done that I am no longer involved with.
Please note that you can contact me for any of the papers if you do not have access to them.
Past Post-Graduate Research: Secondary Craters || Chronology of Large (Martian) Craters and Basins
Past Graduate Research: N-Body Simulations of Saturn's Rings || Io Plasma Torus
Past Non-Graduate Research: Forecasting Solar Wind Speeds with Coronal Holes | Web-Based Interface for Nucleosynthesis Code
Miscellaneous, Affiliated Research
I've been involved with several different areas of research, somewhat peripherally, lately. Here are associated abstracts that don't fit into any other category.
Abstracts:
Bottke, W.F., Vokrouhlicky, D., Ghent, R., Mazrouei, S., Robbins, S.J., and S. Marchi. (2016) On Asteroid Impacts, Crater Scaling Laws, and a Proposed Younger Surface Age for Venus. Lunar & Planet. Sci. Conf., 47, Abstract #2036.
Piatek, J.L., Tornabene, L.L., Barlow, N.G., Osinski, G.R., and S.J. Robbins (2016) Visible and Thermal Characteristics of the Best-Preserved Martian Craters, Part 2: Thermophysical Mapping of Resen and Noord. Lunar & Planet. Sci. Conf., 47, Abstract #2903.
Tornabene, L.L., Piatek, J.L., Hansen, K.T., Hutchinson, S.J., Barlow, N.H., Osinski, G.R., Robbins, S.J., and A.S. McEwen (2016) Visible and Thermal Characteristics of the Best-Preserved Martian Craters, Part 1: Detailed Morphological Mapping of Resen and Noord. Lunar & Planet. Sci. Conf., 47, Abstract #2879.
Bottke, W.F., Ghent, R., Mazrouei, S., Robbins, S.J., and D. Vokrouhlicky (2015) Asteroid Impacts, Crater Scaling Laws, and a Proposed Younger Age for Venus's Surface. American Geophysical Union, 47, #201.07.
Bottke, W.F., Ghent, R., Mazrouei, S., and S.J. Robbins (2015) Asteroid Impacts, Crater Scaling Laws, and a Proposed Younger Age for Venus's Surface. DPS, 47, #201.07.
Bottke, W.F., Marchi, S., Vokrouhlicky, D., Robbins, S.J., Hynek, B.M., and A. Morbidelli. (2015) New Insights into the Martian Late Heavy Bombardment
. Lunar and Planet. Sci. Conf., 46, #1484.
Brugman, K.K., Hynek, B.M., and S.J. Robbins. (2015) Crater-Based Tests Unlock the Mystery of the Origin and Evolution of Arabia Terra, Mars
Dohm, J.M. et al. (2015) Mars Plate-Tectonic-Basement Hypothesis: New Era of Geologic Investigation
Tornabene, L.L. et al. (2015) "Pristine" Martian Craters : Part 1- Criteria and Characteristics
Piatek, J.L. et al. (2015) "Pristine" Martian Craters : Part 2- Initial Visible and Thermophysical Analyses and Results
Gay, P.L., Bracey, G., Antonenko, I., Lehan, C., Moore, J., Foster, T., Robbins, S.J., and D. Huang. (2012) CosmoQuest MoonMappers: A Facility for Learning and Doing Science. Lunar Science Forum, 5.
Kring, D., and 25 coauthors. (2011) Asymmetrical Distribution of Impact Ejected Lithologies at Barringer Meteorite Crater (AKA Meteor Crater). Lunar and Planet. Sci. Conf., 42, #1740.
Kring, D., and 25 coauthors. (2011) Fold Hinge in Overturned Coconino Sandstone and its Structural Displacement During the Formation of Barringer Meteorite Crater (AKA Meteor Crater). Lunar and Planet. Sci. Conf., 42, #1740.
High-Optical Depth N-Body Simulations of Saturn's Rings
2006, 2008-2009
Glen Stewart - Advisor
This work was started back in 2006, where I was to basically explore the properties of Saturn's rings on the scale of ~10-500 meters through N-body simulations and how they changed with distance from Saturn (B ring at 100 Mm and A ring at 130 Mm) and optical depth.
This evolved into a project (after I started working on Mars, and then later when I got a much faster computer for myself that could actually do these simulations in a realistic time frame) where I have explored a large parameter space of over 190 simulations showing different distances from Saturn, internal particle density, different size distributions of particles, and especially different optical depths.
The key, big-picture finding from this is that Saturn's rings are very effective at "hiding" material in self-gravity wakes and clumps. So while I can keep increasing the amount of material (number of particles) in a fixed space, the resulting optical depth hardly increases at all. This has serious implications for the overall mass of the rings, since estimating the mass required to get an observed optical depth is how it's pretty much done. The simulations so far have shown that the mass of the rings is - conservatively - at least 2 times more than has been previously estimated. This then has implications for the age of the rings as more massive rings are more likely to be older (for several reasons, but not ones that I study).
My paper is in the Icarus special edition of "Cassini at Saturn," April 2010. I also have two DPS abstracts from this, one from 2007, and the other from 2008. I may at some point mine the data for enough to get a second paper from this, though that is increasingly unlikely as the months roll on.
Papers:
Robbins, S.J., Stewart, G.R., Lewis, M.C., Colwell, J.E., and M. Sremčević. (2010). Estimating the Masses of Saturn's A and B Rings from High-Optical Depth N-Body Simulations and Stellar Occultations. Icarus, 206, p. 431-445. doi: 10.1016/j.icarus. 2009.09.012.
Abstracts:
Robbins, S.J., Stewart, G.R., Colwell, J.E., and M.C. Lewis. (2008) Self-Gravity Wakes in Saturnian Rings: Effects of Varying Location, Particle Density and Introducing a Particle Size Distribution. Division of Planet. Sci. Meeting, pp. 424, 40:21.05.
Robbins, S.J., Stewart, G.R., Colwell, J.E., and M.C. Lewis. (2007) Simulations of Clumping Effects in High-Optical Depth Rings. Division of Planet. Sci. Meeting, 38, pp. 420.
Stewart, G.R., Robbins, S.J., and J.E. Colwell. (2007) Evidence for a Primordial Origin of Saturn's Rings. Division of Planet. Sci. Meeting, 38, pp. 420.
Io Plasma Torus Analysis
2005
Nick Schneider - Advisor
I worked on this with Nick Schneider the first summer I came to Colorado. I found it less interesting than I had thought I would, but I did at least get an authorship on a 2005 DPS abstract that I think ended up being a poster presentation.
Abstracts:
Schneider, N.M.; Robbins, S.J.; Delamere, P.A.; and A.J. Steffl. Ion Temperature Control of the Io Plasma Torus. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. pp. 758, 37:3 (2005).
Forecasting Solar Wind Speed from Coronal Holes
2004
Carl Henney & Jack Harvey - Advisors
This was done at an NSO REU in the summer of 2004. I worked with Carl Henney and Jack Harvey to determine if there was a way to use coronal holes (on the sun) to predict the velocity of the solar wind at Earth - basically space weather forecasting. I did get a paper out of this, published in the journal Solar Physics. I also got two abstracts and poster presentations out of it, one at the 2005 January AAS meeting and the other at the 2005 SPD meeting.
Papers:
Robbins, S. J.; Henney, C. J.; and J. W. Harvey. (2006). Solar Wind Forecasting with Coronal Holes. Solar Physics, 233, No. 2. doi: 10.1007/s11207-006-0064-y.
Abstracts:
Robbins, S. J.; Henney, C. J.; and J. W. Harvey. Solar Wind Forecasting with SOLIS-VSM. (2005). Click for the Poster.
Robbins, S. J.; Henney, C. J.; and J. W. Harvey. Solar Wind Forecasting with Coronal Holes. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. pp. 1350, 36:5 (2004).
Nucleosynthesis Web-Based Tools
2003
Brad Meyer - Advisors
My REU in 2003, at Clemson University through the SARA REU program. I worked with Brad Meyer and created a web-based Java interface for his nucleosynthesis code. A January 2004 AAS meeting abstract and poster was the result, along with a paper for SARA's own journal, the IAPPP. I learned Java through this, but otherwise I think it was a fairly inappropriate project for an astronomy REU as I learned no astronomy nor tools of the astronomical trade. I was just a programmer.
Papers:
Robbins, S. J.; Meyer, B. S.; and G. C. Jordan, IV. Modeling Nucleosynthesis: Web-Based Tools
Abstracts:
Robbins, S. J.; Meyer, B. S.; and G. C. Jordan, IV. Modeling Nucleosynthesis: Web-Based Tools. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. pp. 1209, 35:5 (2003). Click for the Poster.
