James Tuttle Keane

@jtuttlekeane

planetary scientist 🪐 science illustrator 🎨 trekkie 🖖 dog dad 🐶 Pasadena 🌹 views are my own 🏳️‍🌈 he/him

331 Folgt2.600 Follower277 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir jtuttlekeane.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· 8d

Stephanie Menten—there are some unusual pits and troughs on the satellites of the ice giants. Could thermal erosion—where (cryo)lava flows melt the substrate and leave a depression—be responsible? Modeling works for Triton; less so for Ariel, where tectonics may be required. #AOGS2026

A photograph of my notebook showing a sketch summary of Stephanie Menten’s talk at AOGS. Most of the sketch is summarizing how thermal erosion works with a series of cross sections. Top: a lava flow (in red) erupts on the surface and flows right. Middle: as the lava flows, the turbulent hot lava warms and melts the substrate. Bottom: as the melt cools, it can sink into the eroded depression left from the melting. The result is a pit or trough in the middle of the flow. Beneath this are some simple sketches of Uranus’s moon, Ariel, and Neptune’s moon, Triton. Both exhibit pits. Their modeling suggests this process may be effective on Triton, but less so on Ariel (where tectonics might need to help).

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· 8d

Christos Ntinos—Developing a new “super resolution” Cassini VIMS map of Enceladus. The map can provide insight about physical properties (grain size, crystallinity, etc.) which are useful for both science and future exploration—like the ESA L4 mission concept. #AOGS2026

A photograph of my notebook showing a sketch of Christos Ntinos’s talk at AOGS 2026. The sketch shows a render of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, with the Cassini spacecraft, flying by an imaging the surface with its hyper spectral VIMS instrument. The beam coming from Cassini is shown as a rainbow scanning the surface. On the left-hand side of insults, I’ve shown a false color version of the analysis which shows some interesting patterns associated with the tiger stripes. Beneath the render of Enceladus is a artist concept for the future ESA L4 mission that might one-day land on the surface. Here, I show it with the southern hemisphere of Saturn, peeking over the horizon, and interrupting Tiger stripe with jets coming out of it over to the right.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· 9d

Shuang Yang—Chang’e 7 will land near the Moon’s south pole Shackleton crater later this year and deploy (via tether) a seismometer that is planned to survive for 8 years. This might be the first node of a long-lived *international* geophysical network! #AOGS2026

A photograph of my notebook showing a sketch of Shuang Yang (Chinese Academy of Science) talk at AOGS. It shows a low, oblique shot of the Chang’e 7 lander, landed on the Moon, as it lowers its seismometers (SP + VBB) to the surface of the Moon from the bottom of the lander. The seismometer will survive up to 8 years through use of an RHU.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· 9d

Ralph Lorenz—Huygens showed that Titan can be wet, even at low latitudes. As Dragonfly flies across Titan, the odds it’ll land in mud are low (<1%), and if so, the stickiness will be again to sticky wheat dough (and Dragonfly could still takeoff). #AOGS2026

A photograph of a sketch in my notebook summarizing Ralph Lorenz’s talk at AOGS2026. The pen and pencil sketch shows two spacecraft on the surface of Titan: Huygens and Dragonfly (loosely to scale). The two grey spacecraft sit on a rock littered orange surface with a yellow hazy sky behind them. Next to Hogan’s, I have a zoom in the regular showing how the acoustic sensor suggested that the soil was damp, with liquid sweating out of it. On the right, I show a little insect of some reel, analog dunes, which very rarely can have intradune lakes form in particular particularly rainy seasons. Situations such as this are predicted to be very rare for Titan, but the Dragonfly mission is planned to handle it.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· 20d

Hey #SDCC! You like geology and paleontology? Come see my friend @paleoparadox.bsky.social in their brand new PBS documentary about Pangea! Free premiere tomorrow (Saturday) at 10AM and 11AM. 🌋⚒️ digitalgym.org/movies/eons-...

The cover art for “Eons: Life and Death on Pangea.” The title is in a large white font across the poster, with an ancient creature and erupting volcano in the background.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jun 7

One of the highlights: all of the little pride exhibits noting where nature doesn’t follow the gender binary

A placard next to a seahorse exhibit, noting that the pacific seahorse flip traditional gender roles in terms of carrying eggs and giving birth.

A photo of a jellyfish tank at the aquarium with a placard noting that moon jellies can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jun 7

Had a wonderful afternoon yesterday with Aaron at the Cabrillo Aquarium for #SeaCon2026 and @cosplayforscience.bsky.social

Selfie of me and Aaron at the Cabrillo aquarium. We’re holding cardboard cutouts of two aquatic Pokémon.

Photo of Aaron holding a big cardboard cutout of a Mega Starmie (Pokemon) at the Cabrillo Aquarium. Behind him is some artwork of the museum, plus logos for Cosplay for Science and Sea Con 2026.

Some pink jellyfish, swimming in a void of greenish-blue water in an exhibit at the Cabrillo aquarium.

A photo of the Cosplay for Science banner hanging in front of a tent with tables full of interactive exhibits.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· May 12

Back to where it all began

A photograph of the Pathfinder space shuttle mockup. It’s a full scale mockup of the space transportation system, above the mall of the US Space and Rocket Center. In this view, we’re looking at the aft, seeing the engines and SRBs. It stands in front of a beautiful green landscape and blue sky.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· May 6

Spock visited JPL today 🖖🏻

Photo of me (left) standing next to Ethan Peck (right), at JPL. I’m wearing a gold command uniform (circa Star Trek: Discovery), while Ethan is wearing a black jacket and space shirt. We’re both smiling.

A photograph of Ethan Peck, sitting on a set at JPL’s Pickering auditorium. He’s in the middle, and fidgeting with his Trek badge. To his right, sits Krys Blackwood (JPL human centered designer). Behind them are a variety of space artifacts on shelves, and a projected artist rendering of the surface of another planet, and the outline of the Enterprise.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 25

I got to see Dragonfly in the APL cleanroom, and she’s beautiful! And BIG. No photos from the cleanroom, but here’s a full-scale test article in the lobby of Building 200 at APL. 😍

A photograph of a mock up of the dragonfly spacecraft in the lobby of building 200 at APL. The mock up is only of the right hand side of the spacecraft, and it is brightly colored using a lot of 3-D printed elements. Apparently it was used in some aerodynamic testing. I am standing to the right of the spacecraft and you can clearly see how large it is.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 25

This week we had an *amazing* Io science workshop at APL. It was so great to get together (in person and online) to think about future directions for observations, models, and missions to our solar system is most volcanically active world. 🌋🌖

A photograph of the participants at the Io science workshop at APL in April 2026. You can see three rows of people in person in building 200 at APL, and two projector screens with virtual participants on Zoom behind them. Everyone is excited because Ii is just the best 😊

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 25

Kathrine de Kleer—Io has fast winds (100s of m/s). ALMA show that winds flow towards Io’s direction of motion. This is the same sense of motion as the Io plasma torus, which rams/overtakes Io at 1,000s of m/s. How is momentum being transferred, and what’s the role of the plumes? (Io Workshop 2026)

A photograph of a sketch in my notebook from the Io science workshop summarizing part of Katherine de Kleer’s atmosphere summary talk, focused on atmosphere dynamics. In the sketch, I show Io’s anti-Jupiter hemisphere with Jupiter, distant in the background. On top of Io show vectors, indicating wind, speed and direction in blue. on aisle of the wind, vectors tend to move from the trailing hemisphere towards the leading hemisphere, although there are local scale deviations due to plumes. In the background are horizontal green arrows, which show the relative motion of Io’s plasma torus, which is circling Jupiter much more rapidly. The plasma rams into the trailing hemisphere of Io and overtakes it and travels more than an order of magnitude faster. It is unclear, if and how this plasma torus momentum is coupling into the lower atmosphere where the winds are. That is something to figure out with future observations, models, missions.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 25

Rachel Maxwell—Io doesn’t have a dynamo, but could Io have remnant crustal magnetism? Maybe! Lava flows on Io may freeze in the magnetic field from Jupiter. A low flying spacecraft with a magnetometer might be able to see this. (Io Workshop 2026)

A photograph of a sketch in my notebook from the Io science workshop, showing a summary of a talk by Rachel Maxwell about how I might freeze in magnetic anomalies from Jupiter’s magnetic field. The sketch shows Jupiter in the background with an enormous magnetic field, shown as green and blue magnetic field lines at emanate from the north and south pole of Jupiter. I was in the foreground and is covered in lava flows. i’ve drawn in hypothetical little magnetic anomalies with their own blue and pink magnetic field lines emanating from the surface of Io, along with a small spacecraft that’s flying low near Io that could measure these magnetic anomalies. There are some text boxes near the sketch that note of variety of things, including that the magnetic field strength at Io from Jupiter is about 1.8 micro-tesla, and that large magnet anomalies greater than 50 km in size could be detectable from a 200 km altitude. Magnetite is likely the carrier of thermal remanence.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 25

Francis Nimmo—Io and the Moon are both rocky worlds that have/had extensive melt. Why are they different? Maybe it’s because they have different origin stories. The Moon likely formed very hot; whereas Io could have formed more gently. (Io Workshop 2026)

A photograph of a sketch in my notebook summarizing the talk by Francis Nimmo that he gave at the Io workshop in spring of 2026. The sketches about why Io and the Moon are so different. In the sketch, I show a joint history for the two worlds along a time arrow that runs diagonally from the top left to the bottom right. Above the arrow are cross sections of the Moon, and below the arrow are cross sections of Io. For the moon, it started very hot with a global magma ocean that gradually solidified producing the crust that we see today. There was some late magmatism that kept things going for a little while. for Io it didn’t start completely molten, but had extensive melt from the creation and title heating. That heating on Io was more persistent and led to the aisle that we see today.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 3

A screenshot from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, showing the protagonist, CJ, walking down an alley saying the phrase “ah shit, here we go again.”

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Apr 1

Packed house at JPL as we all watch the Artemis II launch! 🚀🌖

Panoramic photo from the Von Karman auditorium at JPL, packed with JPLers watching the countdown for Artemis II launch. Voyager and Cassini mockups are along the walls.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jan 21

Now that’s a missing element of the Moon-to-Mars architecture: Motorcycles!

A screenshot from the “For All Mankind” Season 5 teaser, showing a suited astronaut ramping off of a dune on a motorcycle on Mars.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jan 21

Back in DC for this year’s Moon-to-Mars architecture workshop! Dr. Lori Glaze kicked it off to a packed room, excited for Artemis II!

A photograph in the large auditorium at the National Academies building in Washington, D.C. Lori Glaze is at the podium. Behind her is a large projector screen showing Artemis II rolling out of the VAB. The room is packed with people, and you can see probably a hundred heads in the photo. The room is beautifully lit in purples and blues, which cascade across the triangular facets of the ceiling.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jan 6

Finally! No more scrounging for PDFs.

A photograph of me holding the book “ new views of the moon 2.” it is a large white book, with a picture of the moon on the front, along with a lot of logos and a long list of editors. I’m holding it up in front of my office window, and you can see the grassy mall of JPL behind the book, along with a pretty sunset.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Nov 14

Beer, Fossils, and the Moon! I’ll be one of the speakers at the next “Science & Suds” on Monday, November 17th, 7pm at Los Angeles Ale Works in Culver City 🍻⚒️🌔 www.scienceandsuds.com

A poster for the event I’m speaking at. The text reads:

SCIENCE & SUDS
NOVEMBER 17TH • 7:00 PM

INSIGHTS INTO EVOLUTION &
DEEP GEOLOGIC TIME FROM OUR 3.5 BILLION-YEAR-OLD MICROBIAL FOSSIL RECORD
Victoria Cassady, Ph.D. Candidate Geobiology, USC

A NEW ERA OF LUNAR EXPLORATION (AND HOW TO PLAN A ROADTRIP ON THE FARSIDE OF THE MOON)
James Tuttle Keane, Ph.D.
Planetary Scientist, JPL

Los Angeles Ale Works
8809 Washington Blva
Suite 132
Culver City, CA 90232
RSVP AT
WWW.SCIENCEANDSUDS.COM

There are also photos of each of us. My photo is of me in a Starfleet uniform on the bridge of the Enterprise.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Oct 13

New paper out! Let’s do a gravity science mission to Mars!

Artist rendering of a GRAIL/GRACE-like spacecraft pair orbiting Mars. Image credit: Hellas Basin from Mars Express (ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / Aster Cowart), GRAIL (NASA / JPL-Caltech / MIT), composited by James Tuttle Keane.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jul 23

Alan Stern & Orkan Umurhan—there are unusual dark streaks and swirls in the northern part of Sputnik Planitia (the giant nitrogen-ice glacier that makes up part of Pluto’s heart). They propose that this is the consequence of melt (liquid nitrogen) rising from the base of the glacier! #Pluto10

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jul 23

10 years ago, the New Horizons mission flew past Pluto. That world, that mission, and the team of people that made it happen—changed my life. Last week was the #Pluto10 workshop. It was amazing to see all of the continuing science from Pluto!

A photograph of a sketch in my notebook, done for the T +10 years Pluto workshop that was held last week at APL. The sketch shows the number 10 drawn out in a very modern font. At the top of the one is the new horizon spacecraft, glistening in gold. The number one is almost a trail left behind the spacecraft, drawn in a blue gradient. Inside of the zero is a sketch of Pluto itself, centered on the encounter hemisphere, and Sputnik Planitia. Pluto is in shades of red, brown, yellow, and gray. Beneath the large number 10 is the title of the conference, “progress and understanding the Pluto system: 10 years after flyby.“ I’ve also drawn some colorful rainbow “swooshes” behind the graphics. The entire drawing is maybe 6 inches across, as you can see the pen just next to the notebook for scale.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jul 19

Fun night at the Alf!

A photograph of me standing at the podium at the elf paleontology Museum. I’m wearing a yellow jacket and khaki slacks and talking into the microphone. Behind me is a large projector screen that shows the title “the dinosaur astronomer“ with some paleo art of a dinosaur looking to the night sky, and my contact information. The projector in the stage are lit up by a purple light.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jul 18

Talking at the Alf Museum of Paleontology tonight! I’m going to talk about what dinosaurs would’ve seen in the night sky, if they had been astronomers! 🔭🦖 @alfpaleo.bsky.social

An artist rendering of a dinosaur looking to the stars, with the text:
MOMENTS OF TIME
THE DINOSAUR ASTRONOMER
& HOW THE NIGHT SKY HAS CHANGED OVER TIME
FEATURING
DR. JAMES TUTTLE KEANE
PLANETARY SCIENTIST
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
FRIDAY, JULY 18 | 7:00 PM
Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

A photo of me with the text:

DR. JAMES TUTTLE KEANE
Planetary Scientist
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. James Tuttle Keane is a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Dr. Keane studies the interactions between orbital dynamics, rotational dynamics, and geologic processes on rocky and icy worlds across the solar system. Dr. Keane has extensive experience with NASA missions, including the GRAIL lunar orbiter, the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt, and the Juno mission to Jupiter. Dr. Keane was recently awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Asteroid (36773)
Tuttlekeane is named in his honor. Dr. Keane is from Cedar Rapids, lowa, has degrees in astronomy and geology from the University of Maryland, and a doctorate from the University of Arizona.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jun 10

“There's a reason why you separate military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jun 6

And there are some bonus stickers 🤩🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

A set of four sticker. On the left is a black and white planet with the trxf “pride is infinite” on the planet. It’s wrapped in rainbow rings. In the middle are pluto and jupiter. Pluto is colored in the trans pride colors; Jupiter is colored in the queer pride colors. On the right is a view of a Mars rover descending, with an inclusive pride parachute, black/brown skycrane, and trans pride colored rover.

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jun 6

Happy pride month! I worked with some LA-based scientists and engineers, and we have a kickstarter for space pride t-shirts! Consider backing! 🛰️🏳️‍⚧️🚀🏳️‍🌈🪐 www.kickstarter.com/projects/spa...

A sketch of a colorful Mars rover holding an inclusive pride flag in its robot arm. It’s very stylized, colorful, and got a little smile. It’s on a starry background.

A sketch of our Solar System, drom Mercury to Pluto. The planets are colored with the colors of an inclusive pride flag. It’s on a starry background. Above the planets is the text “Enough Space for Everyone”

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· Jun 6

What today feels like

The poster from the movie alien versus predator. In the middle of the poster is the tagline “whoever wins… We lose. “

James Tuttle Keane@jtuttlekeane· May 31

how it feels going to pride today