Subject: Seminar: Dawn Mission to Asteroid Ceres

Description:
On Thursday, March 26, the Department of Astronomy will be hosting a special
event to celebrate approach of Dawn mission to asteroid Ceres. Senior
Research Scientist of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Jian Yang, will
present early Ceres results. The format will be very casual, more like Q&A
session with demonstration of close Ceres images and other results. Event
starts at 2 pm in the conference room PSC 1136 with espresso/tea/cookies
served outside PSC 1136 at 1:45 pm.

Title: Unveiling a Mysterious World - Dawn Approaches Ceres

Abstract: Dawn spacecraft was gravitationally captured by Ceres on March 6,
officially started its year-long mapping activity of this mysterious world.
The recent unequivocal discovery of water vapor on Ceres, which is possibly
the second largest water reservoir inside Jupiter in the solar system,
suggests an active planet. However, we know little about this only dwarf
planet in the inner solar system more than 200 years after its discovery. The
images collected by Dawn during approach at 4 km/pixel have already shown an
object that is more interesting and puzzling than we had originally thought.
I will briefly introduce the background of studying Ceres, discuss the early
images from Dawn.

Event Date: March 26, 2015
Event Start Time: 2:00 pm
Event Location: PSC 1136
Contact Person: Ludmilla Kolokolova
Contact Email: [log in to unmask]