[Baps] Carolyn Porco on Cassini at Saturn, April 1, Radcliffe

[Paul Withers]

http://www.radcliffe.edu/events/calendar_2010porco.aspx

"At Saturn: Tripping the Light Fantastic"

Carolyn Porco, Director of Flight Operations and Cassini Imaging Team 
Leader, Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS), 
Space Science Institute
Thursday, April 1, 2010

4 p.m., Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street, Radcliffe Yard, 617-495-8600

A glistening spaceship, with seven lonely years and billions of miles 
behind it, glides into orbit around a ringed, softly hued planet. A 
flying saucer-shaped machine descends through a hazy atmosphere and 
lands on the surface of an alien moon, 10 times farther from the Sun 
than the Earth.

Fantastic though they seem, these visions are not a dream. For seven 
years, the Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens probe traveled invisible 
interplanetary roads to the place we call Saturn. Their successful entry 
into orbit; the mythic landing of Huygens on the cold, dark equatorial 
plains of the moon Titan; and Cassini’s subsequent explorations of the 
Saturnian environment are already the stuff of legend. What they have 
shown us is being closely examined in the pursuit of precise scientific 
information on the nature of this very alien planetary system.

Come along for the ride, and witness the sights captured and magic 
worked by these emissaries from Earth to the enchanting realm of Saturn.

This event is free and open to the public.