LPL Evening Lecture Series
by Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
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Description
The Department of Planetary Sciences / Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona periodically hosts community events in conjunction with our current research projects. The LPL Evening Lecture Series include LPL scientists who will present their latest scientific research that include some of the world's most exciting space missions.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VideoRadar on Titan: New Discoveries about Methane Lakes and Streams | Abstract: Instruments aboard the Cassini Orbiter have revealed that Saturn's giant moon, Titan, is a world of lakes, streams, mountains and, possibly, ice volcanoes. This lecture will focus on radar images that are giving scientists first-of-a-kind views of an exotic world that may yield insights about Earth's past and future. In the spring of 2001, Dr. Lunine accepted the position of David C. Duncan Professor of Astronomy at Cornell. Lecture given Jan. 22, 2008. | 3/3/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 2 | VideoScientific Results of NASA's Deep Impact Mission | Abstract: On July 4, 2005, NASA deliberately collided a 700-pound spacecraft with comet Tempel 1 at a speed of 22,500 miles per hour. The object of this kamikaze mission was to find out what is below a comet's surface. Although the dust blown out by the impact obscured the final crater, the mission swept away old ideas about comets and revealed a new vision of cometary structure. This lecture will discuss the mission itself, some old ideas about comets and the new ideas that came from this daring experiment. Feb. 26, 2008. | 3/10/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 3 | VideoNew Vistas of the Moon and Mars | Abstract: The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is returning spectacular high-resolution, color, three-dimensional images of Mars. By late 2008 or early 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be launched, arriving at the moon three days later. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera will return images that are at as high resolution as those from HiRISE. This talk will discuss why scientists want to compare the high-resolution images of the moon and Mars. The moon is like a "control experiment" when it comes to showing the effects of impacts and volcanism on a dry planet, processes which also occur in the ice-rich crust of Mars. April 22, 2008. | 5/22/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 4 | VideoThe Phoenix Mission: A Trip to the Martian Arctic | Peter H. Smith was Principal Investigator of the Phoenix Mars Mission. | 10/10/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 5 | VideoUnmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon | Greenberg was a 25-year member of the Galileo Imaging Team and is currently a member of a science definition team that is planning a possible NASA flagship mission to Europa. He led a small group of graduate students at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in analyzing Galileo's high-resolution views of Europa in the last decade. Galileo showed Europa's surface is anything but smooth. Its surface is covered with vast crisscrossing systems of mountain-sized ridges, jumbled regions of seemingly chaotic terrain and patches that suggest upwellings of new surface materials from below. | 2/13/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 6 | VideoThe Science and Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids | Abstract: Over 5,000 asteroids exist in near-Earth space. Many of these objects are more easily accessible than the surface of the moon. These bodies record the ancient history of our solar system and represent the largest potential natural disaster facing mankind. In addition, they represent significant natural resources for space exploration in the form of water, hydrocarbons, metals and building materials. Over the coming decades, these objects may be the target of intense exploration to discern their ancient history and pave the way for large-scale human settlement of space. | 2/13/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 7 | VideoThe Search for Hazardous Asteroids from Mt. Lemmon | The mission of the Catalina Sky Survey is to contribute to the inventory of near-earth objects (NEOs), or more specifically, the potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) that pose an impact risk to Earth and it's inhabitants. The identification of the iridium anomaly at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (Alvarez et al., 1980), associated Chicxulub impact crater (Hildebrand et al., 1991) and the Permian- Triassic "great dying" possibly being associated with Australian Bedout crater (Becker et al., 2004) strongly suggest that impacts by minor planets play an important role in the evolution of life. Oct. 20, 2008. | 2/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 8 | VideoOSIRIS-REx: NASA Sample Return Mission from a Primitive Asteroid | The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will orbit and explore asteroid 1999 RQ36 for more than a year before closing in and collecting a sample of pristine organic material that may have seeded Earth with the building blocks that led to life. NASA has selected the University of Arizona to lead a sample-return mission to an asteroid. The team is led by Michael Drake, director of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. will manage the mission for NASA. Lockheed Martin will build the spacecraft. | 2/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 9 | VideoExploring Mercury: The Iron Planet | Robert Strom, Professor Emeritus, gave a talk titled "Exploring Mercury: The Iron Planet." The "MESSENGER" mission now orbiting Mercury is sending back data that shows Mercury is far different than anything else in the solar system. The composition is very different from the moon and other terrestrial planets, indicating it did not form at its present distance from the sun. There are new bizarre surface features, some of which are much younger than previously believed possible. Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011. | 1/19/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 10 | VideoMars: Active and Icy | Mars has long been thought to be currently cold, dry and geologically dead. However, high-resolution images, especially those from the HiRISE camera, have shown the martian surface to be unexpectedly active. Dunes are on the move, marching over the martian landscape at the same time that gullies are being formed on their slopes by some mysterious wintertime process. Avalanches of snow and frost in the polar regions are common in certain seasons where icy landforms also evolve in shape and size from year to year. Most recently, HiRISE has also observed dark streaks that lengthen downhill in the summer, probably caused by flow of liquid water. Focusing on the things that are active on Mars today, Dr. Byrne will provide a high-resolution tour of a planetary neighbor that looks more Earth-like than ever before. Presented Wednesday, Nov 16, 2011 | 1/19/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 10 Episodes |
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