We just got back from Carolyn Porco’s talk in Boulder about the Cassini mission to Saturn (yes, my whole family went — quite the occasion!). It was, as usual, very inspiring and interesting — and this is the third time I’ve seen it. I never get tired of seeing the iconic image of a Saturnian eclipse (click to enlargify):
… which is why I chose it as the best image of 2006. And of course, afterwards there were lots of people talking with her, so I basically just waved hello and got the family home. I actually like that picture of her talking to a woman from the audience; when you take still pictures you capture a moment that is not always perceived by eye. Sometimes you catch people in funny expressions (with their eyes closed or their mouths drooping open and such) but in this one it looks like the woman is making a particularly interesting point, and Carolyn is responding in tune with her.
As usual, I really recommend attending her talks. They’re very uplifting.
A gold star to whoever can tell me what moon she named her coat after.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
So let’s see… there are short tiger stripes on the coat, so I’d say… Enceladus?
April 28th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Bzzzzt. Next!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
It’s not a perfect fit, but I’d have to go with Iapetus, given the strong contrast between black and white.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Iapetus because of the black and white contrast.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Honest that previous answer wasn’t there when I typed it!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Yup, it’s Iapetus. It has weird dalmation-like spotting on it: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/I/Iapetus.html
April 28th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I saw her a few years ago and it was certainly inspiring. Checking in on the Cassini photo sites occasionally for an update is often jaw-dropping. There’s a clip of her speaking at Beyond Belief 2006: http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief/
April 28th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
What about that ghost in the foreground of the second shot?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Grrrr. I’ve been wanting to get you to sign my copy of Bad Astronomy. If I’d know you were going to be there, I would have been an annoying fan found you (though I should have guessed). I was a truly inspiring speech, and my whole family loved it, too. It was also neat that Saturn is so prominent in the sky right now, so that we could walk out of UMC and look up, and see the tiny dot that is the source of all of the wonder we had just seen.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
That should be “It” was a truly inspiring speech.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:49 am
She names her *COAT* !!!?
O-ooo-kkk-aa-aaay …
(But feel sure it was a great talk anyway!
)
Incidentally, that’s my all-time fave astronomy image - Saturn back-lit by our Sun with its superluminous* rings in their full glory and Earth as apinpointof light.
————
* Superluminous ie. beyond the merely ‘brilliant’ as a superlative.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:54 am
The BA confirmed :
“Yup, it’s Iapetus. It has weird dalmation-like spotting on it:”
Hmmm … I’d have guessed Hyperion, for texture (soft coat -soft highly porous moon) & for irregular shape & the dark-floored craters = dark spots theory…
& can Isay again : She named her *Coat*??? What the … !
April 29th, 2008 at 4:39 am
It’s kind of funny, I have been watching the series “The Universe” these days, and now, I feel folks like Carolyn Porco are celebrities, like movie stars.
The show has been portraying these scientists has very personable people. You know what I mean. I have always thought of scientists like astronomers as being unapproachable. I don’t really know why. But with “The Universe”, I get the feeling that if I were to see one on the streets and I walked up to one and asked a question, I wouldn’t get snubbed.
Of course, I’m saying this on a blog of one of these such scientists.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Carolyn Porco is a wonderful and inspiring speaker. Check out her last year talk at TED:
Carolyn at TED
This is the summary of her talk at TED:
“Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco says, “I’m going to take you on a journey.” And does she ever. Showing breathtaking images from the Cassini voyage to Saturn, she focuses on Saturn’s intriguing largest moon, Titan,with deserts, mudflats and puzzling lakes, and on frozen Enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.”
April 29th, 2008 at 8:41 am
So, now it’s “enlargify”? I guess too many people called you out on “embiggen” not being a “real word”?
April 29th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Ken B,
It is a perfectly cromulent word.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:41 am
SO what did Canis Major and Canis Minor think about the talk;-)
You did say the “whole” family after all.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I saw her talk last year at Spacefest. The eclipse picture got an audible gasp from the audience when it was shown and a round of applause…you don’t hear that for pictures very often!
I also got a picture of myself, Phil, Carolyn, and Andy Chaiken that evening (with Phil caught in a rare moment of wearing a tie!)
April 29th, 2008 at 10:05 am
That was a fantastic talk. The images are fantastic. Having Carolyn explain it all, not only the science behind it, but the emotions behind it, just made Saturn and space exploration more personal. I could hear the emotion in her voice when she talked about the Huygens probe landing on Titan, and the hydrocarbons discovered in the plumes of Enceladeus. Liquid methane seas, and liquid water geysers! The ingredients for life! This is why we should be exploring space. This is why the NASA budget shouldn’t be cut, but should in fact be doubled. Don’t people want to put a Spirit or Opportunity on Titan, and Enceladeus and Europa and Iapetus, and all the other interesting bodies out there to find out how we came to be here?
This should be on the TV screens of all americans, not just those interested in science. Take off the images of the stars like Paris and Lindsay and put on the real stars.
This talk should be given to every single high school in Boulder, and then up in my neck of the woods, every single high school in Fort Collins!
April 29th, 2008 at 10:23 am
hale_bopp,
May I say that I hate you?
Thanks!
João
(not true. It’s just pure envy…)
April 29th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
My sin here is Envy.
What’s cool is that I have Pride.
I’m proud of Carolyn and her accomplishments. It’s no small feat to be an ambassador for one of Earth’s most proficient robots!
Our eyes have opened wider in every sense of the term.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Crap, here I was, ready to say Iapetus, but as usual, someone beat me to it. It’s the burdon we carry living in Hawaii. By the time our day begins, yours is at least well on the way. Enjoy the freakin gold star. In all seriousness though, I had a jacket like that as well, but it involved some bleach and inept laundering on my part.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Bean Counter says: “It is a perfectly cromulent word.”
Hey, I grok.
- Jack
April 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
The Bad Astronomer says: “Yup, it’s Iapetus.”
And just how do you pronounce that again?
- Jack
April 29th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
LOL! I didn’t answer this right away because the first time I read, I misread “cat” instead of “coat”. Why is this dude asking us about the lady’s cat?, I though, vaguely annoyed.
There must be a pareido-something word to designate this one…
April 29th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
This blog’s comment system really, really, REALLY needs a “preview” button! :/
That was supposed to be “thought” up there.
April 30th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Wrote # Heliopogenus on 29 Apr 2008 at 2:47 pm :
“Crap, here I was, ready to say Iapetus, but as usual, someone beat me to it. It’s the burdon we carry living in Hawaii. By the time our day begins, yours is at least well on the way. … ”
Think that’s bad? Try being from Australia ..
& said # Jorge on 29 Apr 2008 at 6:44 pm :
“LOL! I didn’t answer this right away because the first time I read, I misread “cat” instead of “coat”. … ”
Oddly enough, that was exactly what I first thought too .. Then when I checked and found coat again itmade me wonder : Who the blazes names their coats? Naming cats OTOH make sense…
I so agree with you on the need for a ‘preview’ or better yet editing ability here too.
April 30th, 2008 at 5:37 am
She named her coat?!?!
I wonder how you’d get that into a casual conversation…
Hi, I’m Carolyn Porco, how are you, have you met my coat? !!!!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Way Late, I’ve been working ….My bride, Lori who endures my ventures out to see the stars better yet, endures me talking about the stars; really enjoyed the presentation by Dr Porco. This is education !!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Another great moment was how the audience “whoooed” at the image of the eclipse of the sun by saturn and earth being the “pale blue dot” at
WNW (in the pic)…..we MUST continue to expand our boundaries in this solar system and beyond.