Howndo you get to be an expert on Saturn’s rings?
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nYoundon’t become an astronaut. So far, astronauts have only traveled tonEarth orbit and to the moon—far, far away from Saturn and itsnrings.
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nInstead,nyou join a team of scientists who send robotic spacecraft to thenouter planets. You make sure that those spacecraft are equipped with all sorts of machinesnthat can measure temperatures, radiation levels, and otherninteresting data, and of course cameras. n
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nAndnyou work really hard on analyzing the pictures and data you get back from the spacecraft.
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CarolynnPorco has done all this, working with NASA, JPL, and several universities to study andninterpret images and data from missions such as Cassini and the NewnHorizons spacecraft bound for Pluto. (New Horizons’s planned arrivalndate in the neighborhood of Pluto is July 2015.) Porco has become annexpert on, not just Saturn’s rings, but also on the rings of Jupiter,nNeptune, and Uranus, plus the intriguing Saturnian moon Enceladus.
CarolynnPorco has done all this, working with NASA, JPL, and several universities to study andninterpret images and data from missions such as Cassini and the NewnHorizons spacecraft bound for Pluto. (New Horizons’s planned arrivalndate in the neighborhood of Pluto is July 2015.) Porco has become annexpert on, not just Saturn’s rings, but also on the rings of Jupiter,nNeptune, and Uranus, plus the intriguing Saturnian moon Enceladus. n
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| This painting shows what the surface of Enceladus might look like when geysers of water erupt. |
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nOh…andnalso Triton’s polar caps, spectroscopy of Uranus, heat flow in theninterior of Jupiter, the interstellar medium…
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nNeednI go on? Obviously, Porco knows a lot about all of planetary science!
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nCarolynnPorco has also taken the time to communicate about these discoveriesnto all the rest of us. She has won quite a few awards, including several for her role asnscience communicator—and she even has an asteroid (discovered bynsomeone else) named after her. n
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nWatchna Porco TED talk! Fabulous!
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n“Could a Saturn moon harbor life?”
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n“This is Saturn.”
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nWhatnPorco said to me…
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nInonce heard Carolyn Porco speak, in person. She talked about thengenuinely fascinating discoveries made by Cassini, but what Inremember most is how she ended her talk. Porco showed us the same image she ended her “This is Saturn” talk with: a total eclipse ofnthe sun by the planet Saturn. The rings showed up in glorious backlitnsplendor. And then Porco showed us the tiny blip on the photo thatnwas our Earth. She said something like, “If you ever getndiscouraged about society, about people, about humans, remember thisnphoto, and remember that we are the species that did this! We are the species that built the machinesnthat took this picture of our planet!”
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nAfternthe talk, I went up to Carolyn Porco. I expressed my gratitude for her work and her talk, and Porco autographed a beautiful colornprint copy of that glorious photo. I absolutely love it!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nIndependence Day in Ghana
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FoundationnDay on Norfolk Island
FoundationnDay on Norfolk Islandn
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nAlamonDay in Texas
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