Bennett Maruca
Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy | University of Delaware
Newark, DE, UNITED STATES
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Biography
After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematical Sciences from Carnegie Mellon and his PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University, Bennett A. Maruca became a Charles Hard Townes postdoctoral fellow at the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Ben now serves as an Associate Professor in the University of Delaware's Department of Physics and Astronomy. His research focuses on the sun, the solar wind and other space plasmas. He is particularly interested in how the solar wind is first heated and accelerated near the sun and then changes and evolves as it expands through the solar system. Ben is a member of the science teams for multiple current and upcoming NASA spacecraft, including Wind, Parker Solar Probe, and HelioSwarm, and he is a recipient of the Antarctic Service Medal and NASA's Silver Achievement Medal. He also serves as an associate director of the Delaware Space Grant Consortium and is currently mentoring over twenty undergraduate students developing experiments to fly into space to observe Earth's ionosphere. One of those projects, the Delaware Atmospheric Plasma Probe Experiment (DAPPEr), is a student-led CubeSat mission that, upon its launch, will become Delaware's first orbital spacecraft.
Industry Expertise (1)
Aerospace
Areas of Expertise (19)
Sun
Solar Wind
Solar Physics
Heliophysics
Space Engineering
Space Education
Space Instrumentation
Langmuir Probes
Faraday Cups
Coulomb Collisions
Sounding Rockets
Kinetic Microinstabilities
CubeSats
Lunar Eclipses
Solar Eclipses
Space Mission Development
Space Plasmas
Ionosphere
Science and Religion
Media Appearances (10)
The best reason to see the imminent total lunar eclipse
Mashable online
2025-02-22
"It's part of the thrill," Bennett Maruca, an astronomer at the University of Delaware who has witnessed a number of total lunar eclipses, told Mashable. "You don't know exactly what you're going to get."
A dramatic total lunar eclipse is coming. You don't want to miss it.
Mashable online
2025-02-15
"They are really dramatic to see," Bennett Maruca, an astronomer at the University of Delaware who has witnessed a number of total lunar eclipses and plans to watch the looming March event, told Mashable.
The space station has a risky leak. How bad is it?
Mashable online
2024-11-19
Some of the main modules of the International Space Station are nearly a quarter-century old. "That's considered classic for a car," said Bennett Maruca, an astronomer and physicist at the University of Delaware.
UD student club building first Delaware spacecraft
Delaware Online online
2024-12-06
The students' mentor and the project's principal investigator, Bennett Maruca, said the U.S. is a spacefaring nation, and the more we know about space, the better.
What is a geomagnetic storm? Why you saw the northern lights
Yahoo! News online
2024-10-11
The geometric storm has diminished some since Thursday night, according to the SWPC. But associate professor of physics and astronomy at University of Delaware Bennett Maruca said seeing the northern lights again tonight is "quite possible."
It won’t be an aurora encore for Philly this weekend, but a rare comet will be visible
The Philadelphia Inquirer online
2024-10-11
Bennett A. Maruca, professor of physics and astronomy, said another aurora light show could take place in the near future. “The sun remains very active — we’re only about halfway through solar maximum — so there are plenty more opportunities for additional storms,” he said.
Out-of-this-world leadership | UDaily
University of Delaware online
2024-06-28
“TJ was a driving force behind this launch proposal,” said Bennett Maruca, associate professor of physics and astronomy and DAPPEr faculty adviser.
Why Earthlings are safe when huge solar storms strike our planet
Mashable online
2024-05-18
"Without those we would be in real trouble," Bennett Maruca, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware who researches the sun, told Mashable.
April 8 solar eclipse: visibility, safety and watch parties
Milford Live online
2024-04-02
“These are really dramatic events because the sun touches every part of our life, it really does,” said Bennett Maruca, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware.
A total solar eclipse will occur on April 8. All the info on path, time and solar glasses
Delaware Online online
2024-03-31
However you plan to celebrate, Bennett Maruca, a University of Delaware professor specializing in physics and astronomy, has some advice for making the most out of this rare experience.
Articles (7)
Anisotropic Heating and Cooling within Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection Sheath Plasma
The Astrophysical Journal2024 This study is the first to comprehensively explore the relationship between heating and cooling, temperature anisotropy, turbulence, and collisional age within ICME sheaths. Using Wind spacecraft data from 333 ICME sheaths observed at 1 au (1995–2015), we found that plasma unstable to proton-cyclotron (PC) and firehose instabilities is significantly hotter—by a factor of 5 to 10—than stable plasma. Additionally, these unstable regions exhibit higher magnetic fluctuations and lower collisional ages, especially at low proton beta (βₚ ≤ 2). Our findings highlight that heating dominates over cooling in producing temperature anisotropy within ICME sheaths, with collisional age and magnetic fluctuations playing key roles in maintaining plasma conditions.
Space-qualifying silicon photonic modulators and circuits
Science Advances2024 Reducing the form factor while retaining the radiation hardness and performance matrix is the goal of avionics. While a compromise between a transistor’s size and its radiation hardness has reached consensus in microelectronics, the size-performance balance for their optical counterparts has not been quested but eventually will limit the spaceborne photonic instruments’ capacity to weight ratio. Here, we performed space experiments of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), revealing the critical roles of energetic charged particles. The year-long cosmic radiation exposure does not change carrier mobility but reduces free carrier lifetime, resulting in unchanged electro-optic modulation efficiency and well-expanded optoelectronic bandwidth. The diversity and statistics of the tested PIC modulator indicate the minimal requirement of shielding for PIC transmitters with small footprint modulators and complexed routing waveguides toward lightweight space terminals for terabits communications and intersatellite ranging.
HelioSwarm: A Multipoint, Multiscale Mission to Characterize Turbulence
Space Science Reviews2023 HelioSwarm (HS) is a NASA Medium-Class Explorer mission of the Heliophysics Division designed to explore the dynamic three-dimensional mechanisms controlling the physics of plasma turbulence, a ubiquitous process occurring in the heliosphere and in plasmas throughout the universe. This will be accomplished by making simultaneous measurements at nine spacecraft with separations spanning magnetohydrodynamic and sub-ion spatial scales in a variety of near-Earth plasmas. In this paper, we describe the scientific background for the HS investigation, the mission goals and objectives, the observatory reference trajectory and instrumentation implementation before the start of Phase B. Through multipoint, multiscale measurements, HS promises to reveal how energy is transferred across scales and boundaries in plasmas throughout the universe.
Regulation of Proton–α Differential Flow by Compressive Fluctuations and Ion-scale Instabilities in the Solar Wind
The Astrophysical Journal2023 Large-scale compressive slow-mode-like fluctuations can cause variations in the density, temperature, and magnetic-field magnitude in the solar wind. In addition, they also lead to fluctuations in the differential flow U p α between α -particles and protons (p), which is a common source of free energy for the driving of ion-scale instabilities. If the amplitude of the compressive fluctuations is sufficiently large, the fluctuating U p α intermittently drives the plasma across the instability threshold, leading to the excitation of ion-scale instabilities and thus the growth of corresponding ion-scale waves. The unstable waves scatter particles and reduce the average value of U p α . We propose that this “fluctuating-drift effect” maintains the average value of U p α well below the marginal instability threshold. We model the large-scale compressive fluctuations in the solar wind as long-wavelength slow-mode waves using a multi-fluid model. We numerically quantify the fluctuating-drift effect for the Alfvén/ion-cyclotron and fast-magnetosonic/whistler instabilities.
The Future of Heliophysics Research through Targeted use of Constellations
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society2023 This white paper seeks to outline the benefits and challenges of constellations, ranging from the Heliophysics System Observatory, to constellations consisting of a small number of spacecraft, to large-number constellations. In moving toward this constellation era, investments are required by our sponsors to best enable our continued scientific advancement in Solar and Space Physics.
The Solar Wind at Mesoscales — Revealing the Missing Link
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society2023 To address the fundamental gap in our knowledge of the heliosphere at mesoscales, new dedicated mesoscale missions are required in the next decade. This white paper outlines the current gaps in our understanding resulting from limited measurements at this critical scale and the need for an asserted effort in addressing these gaps.
The Trans-Heliospheric Survey
Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)2023 Context. Though the solar wind is characterized by spatial and temporal variability across a wide range of scales, long-term averages of in situ measurements have revealed clear radial trends: changes in average values of basic plasma parameters (e.g., density, temperature, and speed) and a magnetic field with a distance from the Sun.
Education (4)
Harvard University: PhD, Astronomy and Astrophysics 2012
Harvard University: AM, Astronomy 2008
Carnegie Mellon University: BS, Mathematical Sciences 2006
Carnegie Mellon University: BS, Physics 2006
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Languages (1)
- English
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