The character arc of Adriana Ocampo

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born 5 January 1955 in Barranquilla, Colombia, raised in Buenos Aires, and taken to Pasadena, California in 1970 at the age of fourteen. Between then and now sit a summer job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at eighteen while still at school, a first degree that did not arrive until she was twenty eight, a ring of sinkholes spotted on a satellite image, and programme executive roles on missions to Jupiter and Pluto. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Adriana Ocampo?

The crater was invisible, and she saw where the water went.

She was born in Barranquilla in 1955, grew up in Buenos Aires, and moved with her family to Pasadena in 1970, when she was fourteen. Pasadena is where the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is, which turned out to matter. In 1973, still at high school and eighteen years old, she got a summer job there, analysing images sent back by the Viking spacecraft. She never really left.

The education took a long time, because she was working while she did it. Her first degree, in geology, came in 1983, when she was twenty eight, and she became a full time research scientist at JPL in the same year. A master's in planetary geology followed in 1997, when she was forty two, and a doctorate later still, in Amsterdam. That is not the shape of a conventional scientific career, and it did not stop her doing the thing she is known for.

Around 1989 and 1990, while looking at satellite images of the Yucatan peninsula for water resources, she noticed that the cenotes, the natural sinkholes people there draw water from, were arranged in an arc. That arc is the only thing visible at the surface of a crater a hundred and eighty kilometres wide, buried under limestone, left by the asteroid associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs. The finding was published in Nature in May 1991. She has since been programme executive for Juno, which went to Jupiter, and for New Horizons, which reached Pluto in 2015. Her line is worth reading because the discovery came from looking at a picture of where people get their water.

The moments

Adriana Ocampo's timeline.

The 1970s

~1970

From Buenos Aires to Pasadena

Milestone, and it changed everything. A new country at fourteen, in the one town in America with a planetary laboratory in it.

Jun 1973

A summer job at JPL

Milestone, and it changed everything. Eighteen, still at school, reading pictures sent back from Mars.

1 Sep 1973

Study full time, or work and study

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: stay at the laboratory, taken, or go to university properly. She was inside the laboratory for the whole of it, and in 1990 she identified the surface trace of the Chicxulub crater from satellite images.

~1978

A degree that took years

Setback, and it changed everything. She was working the whole time, so the qualification everybody else had at twenty one arrived much later for her.

The 1980s

Jun 1983

A degree, at twenty eight

Milestone, and it changed everything. The degree and the proper job in the same year, ten years after the summer she first walked in.

The 1990s

~1990

A ring of sinkholes

Milestone, and it changed everything. She was looking for water and noticed the waterholes were arranged in an arc. The arc is the rim of a buried crater.

May 1991

Published in Nature

Milestone, and it changed everything. The paper that tied a ring of waterholes to the asteroid associated with the end of the dinosaurs.

Jun 1997

A master's at forty two

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Six years after the Nature paper, she went back and took the next qualification.

The 2000s

~2002

Fifty most important women

Milestone. Public recognition, eleven years after the finding.

The 2010s

5 Aug 2011

Juno leaves for Jupiter

Milestone, and it changed everything. From reading Viking pictures as a summer assistant to running a mission to Jupiter.

14 Jul 2015

New Horizons reaches Pluto

Milestone, and it changed everything. The first close look humanity has ever had at Pluto, on a mission she helped run.

The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is in every account of how the dinosaurs ended, and in two spacecraft, one at Jupiter and one past Pluto, that she helped to send.

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Adriana Ocampo: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What is Adriana Ocampo's character arc?

A summer assistant at eighteen who found a crater nobody could see. Born in Colombia in 1955 and raised in Buenos Aires, she reached Pasadena at fourteen, took a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1973, and published the Chicxulub finding in 1991.

What were the turning points in Adriana Ocampo's life?

The family move to Pasadena in 1970 put her in the one town with a planetary laboratory. The summer job in 1973 got her inside it. Spotting the ring of cenotes around 1990 changed everything, and the Nature paper in May 1991 made it permanent.

What did Adriana Ocampo discover?

That the cenotes of the Yucatan, the natural sinkholes people draw water from, are arranged in an arc, and that the arc is the only visible surface trace of the Chicxulub impact crater buried beneath. It is the asteroid strike associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

What was Adriana Ocampo's biggest setback?

Her education took far longer than anyone else's. She was working at the laboratory throughout, so her first degree in geology did not arrive until 1983, when she was twenty eight, and her master's not until 1997, when she was forty two.

How did Adriana Ocampo get into NASA?

Through a summer job. In 1973, aged eighteen and still at high school in Pasadena, she took a summer position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory analysing imagery from the Viking spacecraft, and she became a full time research scientist there in 1983.

What missions has Adriana Ocampo worked on?

She has served as programme executive for the Juno mission to Jupiter, launched in August 2011, and for New Horizons, which flew past Pluto in July 2015, along with other missions in NASA's New Frontiers programme.

Where is Adriana Ocampo from?

She was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, on 5 January 1955, and grew up in Buenos Aires in Argentina before her family emigrated to Pasadena, California, in 1970. She has worked in the United States since.

Where does this timeline of Adriana Ocampo's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Adriana Ocampo isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Adriana Ocampo, English Wikipedia biography.
Ocampo and colleagues, ring of cenotes and the Chicxulub crater, Nature, May 1991.
NASA, Juno and New Horizons mission records.