Csaba Palotai, Ph.D.
Associate Professor | Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences | Florida Tech
Melbourne, FL, UNITED STATES
Dr. Palotai's current research focuses on numerical modeling of planetary atmospheres.
Spotlight
Areas of Expertise (5)
Meteor Physics
Planetary Physics
Numerical Modeling
Comparative Planetology
Exoplanetary Atmospheric Dynamics
About
Dr. Palotai's current research focuses on numerical modeling of planetary atmospheres. He is interested in the atmospheric dynamics and cloud physics of the giant planets in our Solar System and study how they compare to their exoplanetary counterparts. He also investigates various phenomena related to terrestrial and jovian comet and asteroid impacts. These studies provide insights into the processes that played crucial roles in the formation and evolution of the Solar System.
Media Appearances (5)
Why landing a spaceship on the moon is still so challenging
Mashable
2022-04-02
"Just because we went there 50 years ago does not make it a trivial endeavor," Csaba Palotai, the program chair of space sciences in the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology, told Mashable.
Security camera in Florida captures mysterious flying orbs of light
New York Post
2021-05-04
Csaba Palotai, associate professor and program chairman of aerospace, physics and space sciences at Florida Tech called the recent spate of sightings a “fascinating phenomenon.”
Space industry grapples with COVID-19-related oxygen fuel shortage
United Press International
2021-09-07
"We are talking about a vast amount of oxygen for a launch," said Csaba Palotai, a physics professor at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. For example, one SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 rocket can use about 40,000 gallons of the supercooled element.
Astronomers Get the Goods on Jupiter-Smacking Space Rock
Space.com
2019-09-17
The impactor was likely 39 feet to 52 feet (12 to 16 meters) wide, with a mass of around 408 metric tons (450 tons), according to analyses conducted by Ramanakumar Sankar and Csaba Palotai of the Florida Institute of Technology.
Stony-iron meteor caused August impact flash at Jupiter
Phys.org
2019-09-17
Over the past month, Ramanakumar Sankar and Csaba Palotai of the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), have made an in-depth analysis of the data. They estimate from the energy released by the flash that the impactor could have been an object around 12-16 meters in diameter and with a mass of about 450 tons that disintegrated in the upper atmosphere at an altitude of about 80 kilometers above Jupiter's clouds. Sankar and Palotai's models of the light-curve for the flash suggest the impactor had a density typical of stony-iron meteors, indicating that it was a small asteroid rather than a comet.
Education (2)
University of Louisville: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering 2006
Technical University of Budapest, Hungary: M.S., Mechanical Engineering 2001
Links (3)
Selected Articles (5)
A new convective parameterization applied to Jupiter: Implications for water abundance near the 24°N region
Icarus2022
The aftermath of convective events near Jupiter’s fastest prograde jet: Implications for clouds, dynamics and vertical wind shear
Icarus2021
Analysis of the April 13, 2021 bolide off the coast of Florida and Grand Bahama Island
Meteoritics & Planetary Science2022
Moist convection in the 24degree N jet: modelling the convective plume formation with the EPIC model
European Planetary Science Congress2021
Moist convection in the 24° N jet: studies using a new convective parameterization scheme in the EPIC model
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts2021
