Exploration: The Globe and Beyond

Discovering the riches of our outer solar system with robotic spacecraft has been one of humankind's great scientific accomplishments in the last 50 years.

Dr. Hansen-Koharcheck began her career planning the Voyager flyby of Jupiter and its moons, and has been involved with missions studying Jupiter ever since. She will discuss how our knowledge of Jupiter has evolved and talk about the latest mission, Juno, in orbit now around Jupiter. Juno carries a visible imager ("JunoCam") on the payload.

Conceived as an outreach instrument, JunoCam has engaged the public in many aspects of the real work of an imaging team. Enhanced color image processing by volunteer citizen scientists brings out subtle detail in the clouds and storms. Contributions by artists yield products suitable for framing and help us all to appreciate the beauty of the largest planet in our solar system.

Dr. Hansen-Koharcheck is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, and she works on NASA robotic spacecraft missions. She has a PhD in planetary science from UCLA. Currently she is a member of the flight teams for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Trace Gas Orbiter, the Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter, and the Europa Clipper (in development).

Reception at 4:30 p.m.
Lecture at 5:00 p.m.