First 50 Years in Planetary Sciences Celebration

Planetary science at Caltech became an option within the Geology Division in 1963. The Division did not change its name until about 1970. In addition to the planetary science option that began in 1963, there were other activities both before and after that have been part of planetary science broadly defined, especially infrared astronomy (Bob Leighton, Bruce Murray, Gerry Neugebauer and Jim Westphal, beginning before 1963) and the geochemical activities centered around lunar samples and meteorites and continuing up to the present with Ken Farley(Mars 2020), Don Burnett (the Genesis mission) and many others. In addition, there are currently several geology faculty who are involved in planetary science, especially Mars exploration.