Cassini Mission's Carolyn Porco Pushes Our Cosmic Dreams

Carolyn Porco is the leader of the Imaging Science Team on the Cassini mission presently orbiting Saturn, and a lead imaging scientist on the New Horizons Pluto/Kuiper Belt mission to be launched in early 2006.Carolyn Porco is the leader of the imaging science team on the $3.4 billion Cassini mission presently in orbit around Saturn, a veteran imaging scientist of the Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s, and an imaging scientist on the New Horizons mission on its way to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. In late 1999, she was selected by the London Sunday Times as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century, and by Industrial Week as one of “50 Stars to Watch”.

Carolyn Porco Flies Us to Saturn

Her contributions to the exploration of the outer solar system were recognized with the naming of Asteroid (7231) Porco: “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, she was awarded the Isaac Asimov Science Award by the American Humanist Association. She opened the May 10, 2008 worldwide multi-media event known as Pangea Day with a speech illustrating humanity’s cosmic place.

Shadown of Saturn during the Equinox. Photo: NASA.Just yesterday, Carolyn Porco’s Cassini team sent back stunning images of Saturn during its equinox. Scientists are a new research approach, based on the ‘fact’ that they now know that Saturn’s rings are not flat.

Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said “It’s like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time.

Carolyn Porco delivered this 2007 TED Talk about NASA's Cassini project. 

More about Carolyn Porco: Scientist at Work: Carolyn Porco - An Odyssey from the Bronx to Saturn’s Rings NY Times

Carolyn Porco’s website Diamond Sky Productions