A NAU professor who died of cancer named a Martian crater after herself

FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — Most teachers hope to leave their legacy to their students. However, one professor Northern Arizona University he left her on the stars in the sky.

Nadine Barlow focuses on NAU craters, so the NAU and Flagstaff astronomy community felt it would be appropriate to forever name a crater on Mars after a beloved teacher who died of cancer.

NAU astronomy professor David Trilling he knew Barlow for nearly two decades as a professor at NAU.

He said that if there was a crater in our solar system, she was interested and wanted to teach her students about it.

“It was about Nadine Craters,” Trilling said. “Wherever there is a crater in the solar system, which is everywhere, she was involved.”

However, Barlow was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and after a two-year battle, she died on August 17, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic.

“We ended up having a memorial at the end of that year that was entirely on Zoom. It was very difficult, but also extremely important because people from all over the world who knew Nadine could participate,” Trilling said.

He said Barlow has connections throughout the scientific community. These friends and colleagues suggested that International Astronomical Union name a 55-mile-wide crater after her.

“I think she would think it was really cool,” Trilling said. “I mean, who wouldn’t do that, who wouldn’t do that, who wouldn’t think it was cool?”

Barlow Crater he’s sitting next to me Valles Marineristhe largest landform on Mars, also called the Grand Canyon of Mars.

The Barlow Crater is located next to Valles Marineris.(Arizona Family)

While this feat is monumental, Tilling said Barlow also had a generational impact on students.

“So several, many generations of students who took classes with her and studied with her are now professional geologists, astronomers and planetary scientists in the world,” he said.

When we are long gone and our ancestors explore Mars, they will stand on Barlow Crater and learn about the legacy of the amazing woman who taught at NAU.

“The legacy that will remain until the end of human time is that people will talk about Barlow Crater, and one day people will walk in Barlow Crater, and that’s pretty cool,” Trilling said.

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