From volcanoes to asteroids, HAMsTER Lab advances planetary science and the origins of life

Alan Whittington recently assisted with measurements of samples from Bennu, a relatively small asteroid and the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission.

This summer, we’re shining a spotlight on Roadrunner researchers and the innovative work they are doing in labs across campus and beyond.

Today, we checked in with a lab focused on the planetary sciences.

AUGUST 18, 2025 — In a science lab on the fourth floor of UTSA’s Multidisciplinary Studies Building, UTSA students engage in meticulous choreography around a glowing furnace, melting rocks to produce lava.

The task helps them survey the vast landscapes of the universe — from the Earth to the moon — in a space known as the Heat and Mass Transfer & Experimental Rheology Lab, HAMsTER for short.

Led by Alan Whittington, professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the lab offers students interested in petrology and planetary sciences the opportunity to apply their interests in a range of research opportunities. While one group may be examining the lava flow of volcanoes on Earth, another is melting down and testing samples of meteorites to chart varying thermal properties.

Whittington became interested in geology while caving and rock climbing in his home country, the United Kingdom. He earned a doctoral degree with his focus on how granite formed in the Western Himalayas, then studied in France and the United States, where he began to specialize in volcanoes, magma and lava flow speeds.

“It’s the most exciting sample that I’ve ever gotten to do anything with.”

— Alan Whittington

Students in the HAMsTER Lab melt rocks to produce lava, a task that helps them survey the vast landscapes of the universe.

The HAMsTER Lab offers students interested in petrology and planetary sciences the opportunity to apply their interests in a range of research opportunities.

Today, Whittington also studies heat flow in rocks and lava, and his interest in planetary science grew and led him to study lava on other planets.

His research also includes work on Bennu, a relatively small asteroid and the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission, which was the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid and deliver them to Earth.

In 2024, Kelly Miller, lead scientist and Cosmochemist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, wrote a proposal that would allow her to analyze a Bennu sample.

As a result, the 9mm asteroid sample was delivered to the HAMsTER Lab and carefully handled by the researchers as they took measurements.

“It’s the most exciting sample that I’ve ever gotten to do anything with,” Whittington said. “We weighed it and measured its density. Bennu had liquid water in it for a bit, a hydrothermal system. So the question is, for how long? And for how long do you need water for life to begin?”

Analyzing a sample from Bennu will help researchers understand the mineral evolution of the asteroid and further their understanding of whether asteroids contributed to the origins of life.

— Ari Castañeda