In the Land of Enchantment: A Decade Exploring Saturn

Since 2004, the Cassini mission has been exploring the giant planet Saturn, its magnificent ring system, and its intriguing moons.   Dr. Porco is the leader of the Cassini Imaging Science Team and one of the most effective interpreters of planetary science in the world.  She will show us some of the wonderful mission images and explain the findings of both the main Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe that landed on Titan, Saturn's enormous moon (and the only moon with a thick atmosphere.)  Come along for the ride, witness the sights, and feel the magic worked by these emissaries from Earth to the distant and enchanting realm of Saturn.

Carolyn Porco is the Director of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado.  She was an imaging scientist for the Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s, and is part of the imaging team for the New Horizons mission at Pluto.  Her specialty is the study of planetary ring and moon interactions, and of the geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus.  She has appeared frequently on national television news and documentaries, and was a consultant on the movie 'Contact'. In 2010 she was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal of the American Astronomical Society for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public. And in 2012, she was named one the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine.