All About the Rings of Saturn

Join us for this Peninsula Astronomical Society invited lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Cuzzi of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

About the Talk
Dr. Cuzzi will describe the highlights of the Cassini mission, emphasizing the rings of Saturn, which are increasingly believed to be much younger than the planet itself – maybe dating only to the age of fish on Earth (100-200Myr ago). He will discuss what we know about the complex ring structure, their composition, age, and origin, and their associated small mini-ring moons. He will also cover other Saturn system highlights such as its Mars-sized moon Titan, whose atmosphere is denser than ours, and its retinue of icy moons including at least one that harbors a subsurface ocean.

About Our Speaker
Dr. Cuzzi is a leading expert on both theoretical and observational aspects of planetary rings, in particular the rings of Saturn. He led the Voyager Imaging Team from 1978-1989 in planning the ring image sequences for Voyager 1 and 2 Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune flybys. He was selected as Interdisciplinary Scientist for Rings and Dust for the NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens mission in 1990, and led a team of ring experts from all the instrument teams in planning ring science through the mission, which included 294 orbits and ended in 2017. He has also studied the initial formation of the precursors of all our planets - the ‘planetesimals’ such as asteroids and comets. For his work on rings and planetesimal formation he has received several awards from NASA and different scientific societies.

Meeting Logistics
This meeting will take place in person and over Zoom.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88495948739?pwd=bwxcZRmLNW5j7z7hqiNepY263sPUD7.1
Meeting ID: 884 9594 8739
Passcode: 711911