Carolyn Porco
Encyclopedia
Carolyn C. Porco is an American planetary scientist
known for her work in the exploration of the outer solar system
, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager
missions to Jupiter
, Saturn
, Uranus
and Neptune
in the 1980s. She leads the imaging science team on the Cassini mission currently in orbit around Saturn
. She is also an imaging scientist on the New Horizons
mission launched to Pluto
on January 19, 2006. She is an expert on planetary rings and the Saturnian moon, Enceladus
.
She has co-authored over 100 scientific papers on subjects ranging from the spectroscopy
of Uranus and Neptune, the interstellar medium, the photometry
of planetary rings, satellite/ring interactions, computer simulations of planetary rings, the thermal balance of Triton
’s polar caps, heat flow in the interior of Jupiter
, and a suite of results on the atmosphere, satellites, and rings of Saturn from the Cassini imaging experiment.
Porco was responsible for the epitaph and proposal to honor the late renowned planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker by sending his cremains to the Moon
aboard the Lunar Prospector
spacecraft in 1998.
A frequent public speaker, Porco has given two popular lectures at TED as well as the opening speech for Pangea Day
, a May 2008 global broadcast coordinated from six cities around the world, in which she described the cosmic context for human existence. Porco has also won a number of awards for her contributions to science and the public sphere; for instance, in 2008 she was named by Wired magazine as one of '15 People the Next President Should Listen To.' And in 2010 she was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal
, presented by the American Astronomical Society
.
in the Bronx
, in New York City. She earned a BS degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
in 1974. She received her PhD in 1983 from the California Institute of Technology
in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Supervised by dynamicist Peter Goldreich
, she wrote her doctoral dissertation focused on Voyager discoveries in the rings of Saturn.
; the same year she was made a member of the Voyager
Imaging Team. In the latter capacity, she was an active participant in the Voyager encounters with Uranus
in 1986 and Neptune
in 1989, leading the Rings Working Group within the Voyager Imaging Team during the Neptune encounter.
As a young Voyager scientist, she was the first person to describe the behavior of the eccentric ringlets and the "spokes" discovered by Voyager within the rings of Saturn; to elucidate the mechanism by which the outer Uranian
rings were being shepherded by the Voyager-discovered moons Cordelia
and Ophelia
; and to provide an explanation for the shepherding of the rings arcs of Neptune
by the moon Galatea
, also discovered by Voyager. She was a co-originator of the idea to take a 'portrait of the planets' with the Voyager spacecraft, and participated in the planning, design, and execution of those images in 1990, including the famous Pale Blue Dot
image of Earth.
in Boulder, Colorado
.
In the course of the ongoing mission, Porco and her team have discovered seven moons of Saturn: Methone
and Pallene
, Polydeuces
, Daphnis
, Anthe
, Aegaeon, and a small moonlet in the outer B ring.
They also found several new rings, such as rings coincident with the orbits of Atlas
, Janus
and Epimetheus
(the Saturnian 'co-orbitals') and Pallene; a diffuse ring between Atlas and the F ring; and new rings within several of the gaps in Saturn's rings.
Porco's team was responsible for the first sighting of a hydrocarbon lake, as well as a lake district, in the south polar region of Titan
in June 2005. (A group of similar – and larger – features were sighted in the north polar region in February 2007.) The possibility that these sea-sized features are either completely or partially filled with liquid hydrocarbons is significantly strengthened by subsequent observations by other Cassini instruments.
Her team was also responsible for the first sighting of plumes erupting from Enceladus
, Saturn's sixth largest moon. They first suggested, and provided detailed scientific arguments, that these jets might be geysers erupting from reservoirs of near-surface liquid water under the south pole of the small moon.
mission to Pluto
and the Kuiper Belt
. The probe is scheduled for a Pluto flyby in 2015.
from 1983 to 2001, achieving tenured professorship in 1991. She taught both graduates and undergraduates and was one of five finalists for the University of Arizona Honors Center Five Star Faculty Award, a campus-wide student-nominated, student-judged award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.
Porco is a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute
in Boulder
, Colorado, and she is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder
.
advisory committees, including the Solar System Exploration Subcommittee, the Mars Observer Recovery Study Team, and the Solar System Road Map Development Team. In the mid-1990s, she served as the chairperson for a small NASA advisory working group to study and develop future outer solar system missions and she served as the Vice Chairperson of the Steering Group for the first Solar System Decadal Survey, sponsored by NASA and the National Academy of Sciences
.
(2007, 2009). She attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief
symposium on November 2006.
Porco's 2007 TED
talk, "The Human Journey," detailed two major areas of discovery made by the Cassini mission: the exploration of the Saturnian moons Titan
and Enceladus
. In her introductory remarks, Porco explained:
In describing the environment of Titan, with its molecular nitrogen
atmosphere suffused with organic compounds, Porco invited her audience to imagine the scene on the moon's surface:
After describing various features discovered on Titan by Cassini, and presenting the historic first photograph of Titan's surface by the Huygens lander, Porco went on to describe Enceladus and the jets of "fine icy particles" which erupt from the moon's southern pole:
Porco's 2009 TED Talk was "Could a Saturn moon harbor life?".
guest analyst and consultant on astronomy, has made many radio and television appearances explaining science to the lay audience, including appearances on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, CBS
's 60 Minutes, Peter Jennings's The Century, and TV documentaries on planetary exploration such as The Planets on the Discovery Channel
and the BBC
, A Traveler's Guide to the Planets on the National Geographic Channel
, Horizon on the BBC, and a Nova Cassini special on PBS. For the 2003 A&E
special on the Voyager mission entitled Cosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message, Porco appeared onscreen and also served as the show's science advisor and animation director.
Porco served as an adviser for the 1997 film Contact
, which was based on a novel by the well-known astronomer Carl Sagan
. The actress Jodie Foster
portrayed the heroine in the movie, and Sagan reportedly suggested that she use Porco as a real-life model to guide her performance.
Porco was also an adviser on the 2009 film Star Trek. The scene in which the Enterprise comes out of warp drive into the
atmosphere of Titan, and rises submarine-style out of the haze, with Saturn and the rings in the background, was Porco's suggestion.
and the journal The Humanist).
She has been profiled many times in print, beginning in the Boston Globe (October 1989),
the New York Times (August 1999, September 2009),
the Tucson Citizen
(2001), Newsday
(June 2004),
for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
(2006), in Astronomy Now
(2006), in Discover Magazine (2007), and also online on CNN.com (2005) and Edge.org.
Prior to Cassini’s launch, she was a strong and visible defendant of the usage of radioactive materials on the Cassini spacecraft. She is a supporter of a plan for human spaceflight toward the Moon
and Mars
, and in an op-ed piece published in The New York Times, she highlighted the benefits of a deep-space-capable heavy launch vehicle for the robotic exploration of the solar system.
. Her popular science articles have been published in The Sunday Times, Astronomy
, the Arizona Daily Star
, Sky & Telescope
, American Scientist
, and Scientific American
. She is active in the presentation of science to the public as the leader of the Cassini Imaging Team, as the creator/editor of the website where Cassini images are posted. She writes the site's homepage "Captain's Log" greeting to the public.
She is also the CEO of Diamond Sky Productions, a small company devoted to the scientific, as well as artful, use of planetary images and computer graphics for the presentation of science to the public.
(London) as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century, and by Industrial Week as one of 50 Stars to Watch. In 2008 she was chosen to be on Wired magazine's inaugural 'Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.'
Her contributions to the exploration of the outer solar system were recognized with the naming of Asteroid (7231) Porco
which is "Named in honor of Carolyn C. Porco, a pioneer in the study of planetary ring systems...and a leader in spacecraft exploration of the outer solar system."
In 2008, Porco was awarded the Isaac Asimov Science Award by the American Humanist Association
.
On September 15, 2009 Porco was awarded The Huntington Library's Science Writer Fellowship for 2010.
In October 2009, she and Babak Amin Tafreshi
were each awarded the 2009 Lennart Nilsson Award
in recognition of their photographic work. The award panel's citation for Dr. Porco reads as follows:
In October 2010, Porco was awarded the 2010 Carl Sagan Medal
for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public, presented by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.
In May 2009, Porco received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
, of which she is an alumna. And in 2011 she won the Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology
, the highest honor regularly bestowed by Caltech.
Porco is fascinated by the 1960s and The Beatles
and has, at times, incorporated references to The Beatles and their music into her presentations, writings, and press releases. The first color image released by Cassini to the public was an image of Jupiter, taken during Cassini’s approach to the giant planet and released on October 9, 2000 to honor John Lennon
’s 60th birthday. In 2006, she produced and directed a brief 8-minute movie of 64 of Cassini’s most spectacular images, put to the music of the Beatles, in honor of Paul McCartney
’s 64th birthday. And in 2007, she produced a poster showing 64 scenes from Saturn, which she sent to McCartney.
Porco is also interested in dance and fascinated with Michael Jackson
. In August 2010, she won a Michael Jackson costume/dance contest held in Boulder, Colorado.
Quotes of Porco's were used in the production of "The Poetry of Reality (An Anthem for Science)", "A Wave of Reason", "Children of Africa (The Story of Us)", and "Onward to the Edge!" by Symphony of Science
.
Planetary science
Planetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...
known for her work in the exploration of the outer solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
missions to Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
, Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
and Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
in the 1980s. She leads the imaging science team on the Cassini mission currently in orbit around Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
. She is also an imaging scientist on the New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
mission launched to Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
on January 19, 2006. She is an expert on planetary rings and the Saturnian moon, Enceladus
Enceladus (moon)
Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
.
She has co-authored over 100 scientific papers on subjects ranging from the spectroscopy
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative...
of Uranus and Neptune, the interstellar medium, the photometry
Photometry (astronomy)
Photometry is a technique of astronomy concerned with measuring the flux, or intensity of an astronomical object's electromagnetic radiation...
of planetary rings, satellite/ring interactions, computer simulations of planetary rings, the thermal balance of Triton
Triton (moon)
Triton is the largest moon of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846, by English astronomer William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation. At 2,700 km in diameter, it is...
’s polar caps, heat flow in the interior of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, and a suite of results on the atmosphere, satellites, and rings of Saturn from the Cassini imaging experiment.
Porco was responsible for the epitaph and proposal to honor the late renowned planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker by sending his cremains to the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
aboard the Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector
The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible...
spacecraft in 1998.
A frequent public speaker, Porco has given two popular lectures at TED as well as the opening speech for Pangea Day
Pangea Day
Pangea Day was an international multimedia event conducted on May 10, 2008. Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro were linked to produce a 4-hour program of films, music and speakers. The program was broadcast live across the globe from 1800 to 2200 UTC, culminating in a...
, a May 2008 global broadcast coordinated from six cities around the world, in which she described the cosmic context for human existence. Porco has also won a number of awards for her contributions to science and the public sphere; for instance, in 2008 she was named by Wired magazine as one of '15 People the Next President Should Listen To.' And in 2010 she was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal
Carl Sagan Medal
The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science was established by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society to recognize and honor outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public...
, presented by the American Astronomical Society
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...
.
Education
Porco was born in New York City. She graduated in 1970 from Cardinal Spellman High SchoolCardinal Spellman High School (New York City)
Cardinal Spellman High School is a Catholic diocesan high school located in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is named after Cardinal Francis Spellman, the sixth archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York....
in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, in New York City. She earned a BS degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
in 1974. She received her PhD in 1983 from the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Supervised by dynamicist Peter Goldreich
Peter Goldreich
Peter Goldreich is an American astrophysicist whose research focuses on celestial mechanics, planetary rings, helioseismology and neutron stars. He is currently the Lee DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics at California Institute of Technology. Since 2005 he has also been a...
, she wrote her doctoral dissertation focused on Voyager discoveries in the rings of Saturn.
Voyager
In the fall of 1983, Dr. Porco joined the faculty of the Department of Planetary Sciences within the University of ArizonaUniversity of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
; the same year she was made a member of the Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
Imaging Team. In the latter capacity, she was an active participant in the Voyager encounters with Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
in 1986 and Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
in 1989, leading the Rings Working Group within the Voyager Imaging Team during the Neptune encounter.
As a young Voyager scientist, she was the first person to describe the behavior of the eccentric ringlets and the "spokes" discovered by Voyager within the rings of Saturn; to elucidate the mechanism by which the outer Uranian
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
rings were being shepherded by the Voyager-discovered moons Cordelia
Cordelia (moon)
Cordelia is the innermost moon of Uranus. It was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on January 20, 1986, and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 7. It was not detected again until the Hubble Space Telescope observed it in 1997...
and Ophelia
Ophelia (moon)
Ophelia is a moon of Uranus. It was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on January 20, 1986, and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 8. It was not seen until the Hubble Space Telescope recovered it in 2003. Ophelia was named after the daughter of Polonius, Ophelia, in...
; and to provide an explanation for the shepherding of the rings arcs of Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
by the moon Galatea
Galatea (moon)
Galatea , also known as Neptune VI, is the fourth closest inner satellite of Neptune. It is named after Galatea, one of the Nereids of Greek legend.Galatea was discovered in late July 1989 from the images taken by the Voyager 2 probe...
, also discovered by Voyager. She was a co-originator of the idea to take a 'portrait of the planets' with the Voyager spacecraft, and participated in the planning, design, and execution of those images in 1990, including the famous Pale Blue Dot
Pale Blue Dot
The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of about kilometers from Earth, as part of the solar system Family Portrait series of images. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a tiny dot against the vastness of space...
image of Earth.
Cassini–Huygens
In November 1990, Dr. Porco was selected as the leader of the Imaging Team for the Cassini–Huygens mission an international mission that successfully placed a spacecraft in orbit around Saturn and deployed the atmospheric Huygens probe to Saturn's largest satellite, Titan. She is also the Director of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS (CICLOPS), which is the center of uplink and downlink operations for the Cassini imaging science experiment and the place where Cassini images are processed for release to the public. CICLOPS is part of the Space Science InstituteSpace Science Institute
The Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation formed in 1992. Its purpose is to create and maintain an environment where scientific research and education programs can flourish in an integrated fashion....
in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
.
In the course of the ongoing mission, Porco and her team have discovered seven moons of Saturn: Methone
Methone (moon)
Methone is a very small natural satellite of Saturn lying between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus.It was first seen by the Cassini Imaging Team and given the temporary designation '. Methone is also named '....
and Pallene
Pallene (moon)
Pallene is a very small natural satellite of Saturn. It is one of three small moons known as the Alkyonides that lie between the orbits of the larger Mimas and Enceladus. It is also designated as '.-Discovery:...
, Polydeuces
Polydeuces (moon)
Polydeuces is a very small natural satellite of Saturn that is co-orbital with Dione and librates around the trailing Lagrangian point . Its diameter is estimated to be about 3.5 km....
, Daphnis
Daphnis (moon)
Daphnis is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as '; its provisional designation was '. Daphnis is about 8 kilometres in diameter, and orbits the planet in the Keeler Gap within the A ring.- Naming :...
, Anthe
Anthe (moon)
Anthe is a very small natural satellite of Saturn lying between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. It is also known as Saturn XLIX; its provisional designation was S/2007 S 4. It is named after one of the Alkyonides; the name means flowery. It is the sixtieth confirmed moon of Saturn.It was...
, Aegaeon, and a small moonlet in the outer B ring.
They also found several new rings, such as rings coincident with the orbits of Atlas
Atlas (moon)
Atlas is an inner satellite of Saturn.Atlas was discovered by Richard Terrile in 1980 from Voyager photos and was designated '. In 1983 it was officially named after Atlas of Greek mythology, because it "holds the rings on its shoulders" like the Titan Atlas held the sky up above the Earth...
, Janus
Janus (moon)
Janus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn X . It is named after the mythological Janus.-Discovery and orbit:Janus occupies practically the same orbit as the moon Epimetheus...
and Epimetheus
Epimetheus (moon)
Epimetheus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn XI. It is named after the mythological Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus.-Discovery:Epimetheus occupies essentially the same orbit as the moon Janus...
(the Saturnian 'co-orbitals') and Pallene; a diffuse ring between Atlas and the F ring; and new rings within several of the gaps in Saturn's rings.
Porco's team was responsible for the first sighting of a hydrocarbon lake, as well as a lake district, in the south polar region of Titan
Titan (moon)
Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
in June 2005. (A group of similar – and larger – features were sighted in the north polar region in February 2007.) The possibility that these sea-sized features are either completely or partially filled with liquid hydrocarbons is significantly strengthened by subsequent observations by other Cassini instruments.
Her team was also responsible for the first sighting of plumes erupting from Enceladus
Enceladus (moon)
Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
, Saturn's sixth largest moon. They first suggested, and provided detailed scientific arguments, that these jets might be geysers erupting from reservoirs of near-surface liquid water under the south pole of the small moon.
New Horizons
Porco is a member of the imaging team for the New HorizonsNew Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
mission to Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
and the Kuiper Belt
Kuiper belt
The Kuiper belt , sometimes called the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, although it is far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive...
. The probe is scheduled for a Pluto flyby in 2015.
University positions
Porco served in the faculty of the University of ArizonaUniversity of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
from 1983 to 2001, achieving tenured professorship in 1991. She taught both graduates and undergraduates and was one of five finalists for the University of Arizona Honors Center Five Star Faculty Award, a campus-wide student-nominated, student-judged award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.
Porco is a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute
Space Science Institute
The Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation formed in 1992. Its purpose is to create and maintain an environment where scientific research and education programs can flourish in an integrated fashion....
in Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, Colorado, and she is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
.
NASA advisor
Porco has been an active participant in guiding the American planetary exploration program through membership on many important NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
advisory committees, including the Solar System Exploration Subcommittee, the Mars Observer Recovery Study Team, and the Solar System Road Map Development Team. In the mid-1990s, she served as the chairperson for a small NASA advisory working group to study and develop future outer solar system missions and she served as the Vice Chairperson of the Steering Group for the first Solar System Decadal Survey, sponsored by NASA and the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Public speaking
Porco speaks frequently on the Cassini mission and planetary exploration in general, and has appeared at renowned conferences such as Pop!Tech (2005, 2006) and TEDTED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
(2007, 2009). She attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief
Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival
Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival, the first of The Science Network's annual Beyond Belief symposia, held from November 5 to November 7, 2006, was described by the New York Times, as "a free-for-all on science and religion," which seemed at times like "the founding convention...
symposium on November 2006.
Porco's 2007 TED
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talk, "The Human Journey," detailed two major areas of discovery made by the Cassini mission: the exploration of the Saturnian moons Titan
Titan (moon)
Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
and Enceladus
Enceladus (moon)
Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
. In her introductory remarks, Porco explained:
In describing the environment of Titan, with its molecular nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
atmosphere suffused with organic compounds, Porco invited her audience to imagine the scene on the moon's surface:
After describing various features discovered on Titan by Cassini, and presenting the historic first photograph of Titan's surface by the Huygens lander, Porco went on to describe Enceladus and the jets of "fine icy particles" which erupt from the moon's southern pole:
Porco's 2009 TED Talk was "Could a Saturn moon harbor life?".
Television and film
Porco has been a regular CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
guest analyst and consultant on astronomy, has made many radio and television appearances explaining science to the lay audience, including appearances on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's 60 Minutes, Peter Jennings's The Century, and TV documentaries on planetary exploration such as The Planets on the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, A Traveler's Guide to the Planets on the National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
, Horizon on the BBC, and a Nova Cassini special on PBS. For the 2003 A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
special on the Voyager mission entitled Cosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message, Porco appeared onscreen and also served as the show's science advisor and animation director.
Porco served as an adviser for the 1997 film Contact
Contact (film)
Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....
, which was based on a novel by the well-known astronomer Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
. The actress Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
portrayed the heroine in the movie, and Sagan reportedly suggested that she use Porco as a real-life model to guide her performance.
Porco was also an adviser on the 2009 film Star Trek. The scene in which the Enterprise comes out of warp drive into the
atmosphere of Titan, and rises submarine-style out of the haze, with Saturn and the rings in the background, was Porco's suggestion.
Interviews and articles
Porco has given numerous interviews in print media on subjects ranging from planetary exploration to the conflict between science and religion (for example, NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and the journal The Humanist).
She has been profiled many times in print, beginning in the Boston Globe (October 1989),
the New York Times (August 1999, September 2009),
the Tucson Citizen
Tucson Citizen
The Tucson Citizen was a daily newspaper in Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by Richard C. McCormick with John Wasson as publisher and editor on October 15, 1870 as the Arizona Citizen....
(2001), Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
(June 2004),
for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is a national, non-profit, charitable organization devoted to the advancement of astronomy and related sciences. At present, there are 29 local branches of the Society, called centres, located in towns and cities across the country from St. John's,...
(2006), in Astronomy Now
Astronomy Now
Astronomy Now is a monthly British magazine on astronomy and space. It features a mix of articles ranging from how to observe the night sky to the latest discoveries in the Solar System and in deep space. The first issue of Astronomy Now was published in April 1987 by Intra Press, initially as a...
(2006), in Discover Magazine (2007), and also online on CNN.com (2005) and Edge.org.
Prior to Cassini’s launch, she was a strong and visible defendant of the usage of radioactive materials on the Cassini spacecraft. She is a supporter of a plan for human spaceflight toward the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
and Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, and in an op-ed piece published in The New York Times, she highlighted the benefits of a deep-space-capable heavy launch vehicle for the robotic exploration of the solar system.
Other
In 1994, Porco was a member of a committee (chaired by Carl Sagan) entitled Public Communication of NASA's Science, and in 1999, she reviewed a biography of Sagan for The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Her popular science articles have been published in The Sunday Times, Astronomy
Astronomy (magazine)
Astronomy is a monthly American magazine about astronomy. Targeting amateur astronomers for its readers, it contains columns on sky viewing, reader-submitted astrophotographs, and articles on astronomy and astrophysics that are readable by nonscientists....
, the Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star
The Arizona Daily Star is the major morning daily newspaper that serves Tucson and surrounding districts of southern Arizona in the United States. The paper was purchased by Pulitzer in 1971; Lee Enterprises bought Pulitzer in 2005....
, Sky & Telescope
Sky & Telescope
Sky & Telescope is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following:*current events in astronomy and space exploration;*events in the amateur astronomy community;...
, American Scientist
American Scientist
American Scientist is the bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi. Each issue includes four to five feature articles written by scientists and engineers. These authors review research in all fields of science...
, and Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
. She is active in the presentation of science to the public as the leader of the Cassini Imaging Team, as the creator/editor of the website where Cassini images are posted. She writes the site's homepage "Captain's Log" greeting to the public.
She is also the CEO of Diamond Sky Productions, a small company devoted to the scientific, as well as artful, use of planetary images and computer graphics for the presentation of science to the public.
Awards and honors
In 1999, Porco was selected by The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
(London) as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century, and by Industrial Week as one of 50 Stars to Watch. In 2008 she was chosen to be on Wired magazine's inaugural 'Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.'
Her contributions to the exploration of the outer solar system were recognized with the naming of Asteroid (7231) Porco
7231 Porco
7231 Porco is an asteroid named after Carolyn C. Porco.It was discovered by American astronomer Edward L. G. Bowell....
which is "Named in honor of Carolyn C. Porco, a pioneer in the study of planetary ring systems...and a leader in spacecraft exploration of the outer solar system."
In 2008, Porco was awarded the Isaac Asimov Science Award by the American Humanist Association
American Humanist Association
The American Humanist Association is an educational organization in the United States that advances Humanism. "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that...
.
On September 15, 2009 Porco was awarded The Huntington Library's Science Writer Fellowship for 2010.
In October 2009, she and Babak Amin Tafreshi
Babak Amin Tafreshi
Babak Amin Tafreshi is an Iranian amateur astronomer, photographer, and science journalist. He is the creator and director of The World At Night , an international program in which photographers from around the world capture images of night skies as seen above notable landmarks of the planet...
were each awarded the 2009 Lennart Nilsson Award
Lennart Nilsson Award
The Lennart Nilsson Award recognizes outstanding contributions to scientific photography. It is administered by the Lennart Nilsson Foundation and awarded annually by Karolinska Institutet. The award sum is SEK 100,000...
in recognition of their photographic work. The award panel's citation for Dr. Porco reads as follows:
In October 2010, Porco was awarded the 2010 Carl Sagan Medal
Carl Sagan Medal
The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science was established by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society to recognize and honor outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public...
for Excellence in the Communication of Science to the Public, presented by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.
In May 2009, Porco received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
, of which she is an alumna. And in 2011 she won the Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, the highest honor regularly bestowed by Caltech.
Musical interests
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and has, at times, incorporated references to The Beatles and their music into her presentations, writings, and press releases. The first color image released by Cassini to the public was an image of Jupiter, taken during Cassini’s approach to the giant planet and released on October 9, 2000 to honor John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
’s 60th birthday. In 2006, she produced and directed a brief 8-minute movie of 64 of Cassini’s most spectacular images, put to the music of the Beatles, in honor of Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
’s 64th birthday. And in 2007, she produced a poster showing 64 scenes from Saturn, which she sent to McCartney.
Porco is also interested in dance and fascinated with Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
. In August 2010, she won a Michael Jackson costume/dance contest held in Boulder, Colorado.
Quotes of Porco's were used in the production of "The Poetry of Reality (An Anthem for Science)", "A Wave of Reason", "Children of Africa (The Story of Us)", and "Onward to the Edge!" by Symphony of Science
Symphony of Science
The Symphony of Science is a music project created by Washington-based electronic musician John Boswell. The project seeks to "spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through musical remixes." Boswell uses pitch-corrected audio and video samples from television programs featuring popular...
.