The Arctic Planetary Science Institute, or APSI ( Finnish: (unofficially) ''Arktinen planeettatutkimusinstituutti'') is an independent organization dedicated to conducting science in

planetary geology Planetary geology, alternatively known as astrogeology or exogeology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of celestial bodies such as planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. Although the geo- prefix t ...

and other closely related fields. APSI focuses on research, public outreach, and collaboration with other similar minded parties. APSI is a virtual and international institute operating through free interaction between scientists. It is run by Finnish planetologists and its headquarters is located at the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland (Finland), Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the Rovaniemi su ...

, Finnish Lapland (hence the name). The institute was formed in 2013 and officially registered in Finland in 2015. Currently (2018) it has 12 scientists operating in three countries.

Science

Research in APSI is not restricted to specific topics. Current projects include: * Age determination of

impact crater An impact crater is a depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...

s in

Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and ; ), or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is a peninsula in Europe which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Scandinavian and Kola Peninsula, Kola peninsulas, mainland ...

; * Interaction between glacial and volcanic activity in the Hellas region on Mars; *

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

ian surface mapping; * Public outreach. The institute has its own scientific contribution series. As of March 2018, there are nine APSI contributions. In 2016 APSI saved

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Nordic Regional Planetary Image Facility by moving the materials to

Lappajärvi Lappajärvi is a municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland's Southern Ostrobothnia region. It is located from Seinäjoki, from Kokkola and from Vaasa. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which , or near ...

. Previously th
NRPIF
was situated at

University of Oulu The University of Oulu () is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...

Insignia

In the APSI insignia design, the lighter sphere represents Earth and the darker one other solid surface bodies in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. The curved line represents information flow towards Earth. The relative sizes of the spheres correspond to those of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, with the bulge at the end of the curved line corresponding to the relative size of the

dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the ...

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

. The line transecting the top of both Earth and the

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

"APSi" represents the northern

polar circle A polar circle is a geographic term for a conditional circular line (arc) referring either to the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle. These are two of the keynote circles of latitude (parallels). On Earth, the Arctic Circle is currentl ...

References

External links

* {{Official, http://planetaryscience.fi Space science organizations Scientific organisations based in Finland