ABSTRACT

The Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn for 13 years, sending back data that revolutionized our understanding of Saturn, its rings and moons. Cassini's findings have fundamentally altered many of our ideas of where life might be found in our solar system and beyond. Project Scientist, Linda Spilker, will present highlights of the Cassini mission's major discoveries.

The robotic spacecraft arrived in 2004 after a 7-year flight from Earth, dropped a parachuted probe named Huygens to study the atmosphere and surface of Saturn's big moon Titan, and commenced making astonishing discoveries as Cassini orbited Saturn until the mission ended with a fiery plunge into the planet's atmosphere on 15 September 2017. Key discoveries include icy jets shooting from the tiny moon Enceladus from a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust, and lakes of liquid hydrocarbons and methane rain on Saturn's giant moon Titan.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Linda Spilker is a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. She has participated in NASA and international planetary missions for over 40 years. As Cassini Project Scientist Dr. Spilker led a team of over 300 international scientists and was also a Co-Investigator with the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer team, focusing on studies of Saturn's rings. She enjoys yoga and hiking in National Parks, including her favorite park, Yosemite.

Dr. Spilker received her PhD summa cum laude from UCLA in 1992 in Geophysics and Space Physics while also working at JPL. Dr. Spilker received her B.A. from Cal State Fullerton, and her M.S. from Cal State Los Angeles, both in Physics. She has received a number of NASA awards including two NASA Exceptional Service Medals and a NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal, as well as numerous Group Achievement Awards.