"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

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.

For more information about Caroline Porco's work, see the New York Times article "An Odyssey from the Bronx to Saturn’s Rings."