Public Lecture
“The Cassini Mission to Saturn: The End of an Era”
By Professor Carl Murray of Queen Mary University of London
December 11th 2017
Physics Building Trinity College Dublin
About the Lecture
A new approach to the science of archaeoastronomy is presented and a practical prehistoric calendar has been rediscovered.
The Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturn system came to an end on 15th September 2017 when, short of fuel, the Cassini spacecraft was deliberately sent into the atmosphere of the planet and destroyed. This was the culmination of a 20-year journey of exploration that was one of the most successful planetary missions ever launched. As a member of the Cassini Imaging Team, Carl Murray has been directly involved in the mission from its inception and has using Cassini images to study Saturn's rings and their interaction with small moons. In his lecture Carl will give an insider's view of the mission's incredible successes and talk about his experiences exploring Saturn with Cassini.
About the Lecturer
Carl is a planetary astronomer from Belfast. He obtained his BSc in Applied Mathematics with Astrophysics from Queen Mary College (Univ. of London) in 1977 and stayed on at Queen Mary to do his PhD entitled "Aspects of the Dynamical Evolution of Small Particles in the Solar System". At the end of 1979 he started work as a postdoc at Cornell University, one of the major centres for planetary science in the USA. He returned to Queen Mary in 1982 and has remained there ever since. Currently he is Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in the Astronomy Unit which is part of the School of Physics & Astronomy. He has been involved in the Cassini mission since 1990 when he was selected as a member of the Imaging Science Subsystem team on the spacecraft. Carl is also a Science Associate on the JANUS camera team for ESA's JUICE mission to Jupiter and Europa. He is a planetary scientist who has a particular interest in the motion of objects in the solar system, from dust to planets. He is co-author of “Solar System Dynamics”, a standard textbook for anyone interested in how things move in the solar system.
After the lecture there will be a social reception in The Lombard
and we encourage all of you to come along for a chat.
All are welcome to attend and free food will be kindly provided by The Lombard.
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A prize draw will be held after the lecture.
Booking Information
| Date | Monday 11th December Subject to change - please check back later |
| Time | 8:00p.m. |
| Venue |
Physics Bldg, Physics Department , Fitzgerald Building,
Trinity College Dublin. Parking: Mark Street , Marks Lane , Lombard St. East . Free Parking on the above streets after 7pm |
| Admission | €10 (€5 Astronomy Ireland members and concessions) Tickets where possible should be booked in advance. Tickets can also be purchased at the door on the night, please come along 15 minutes early to accommodate. |
| Booking | Call 086 06 46 555 to book tickets over the phone using Debit/ Credit Card
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DVD
This lecture is also available to people nationwide on DVD.
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Acknowledgment: Astronomy Ireland would like to thank the TCD Astrophysics Research Group for hosting AI public lectures in Trinity College Dublin.
