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Carolyn Porco
Born (1953-03-06) March 6, 1953 (age 71)
Bronx, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia Institute of Technology
Stony Brook University
Known forLeader of Cassini Imaging Team; Member of Voyager Imaging Team; Expert in Planetary rings and Enceladus; The Day the Earth Smiled; Science communicator & public speaker; Film consultant.
AwardsPorco asteroid; Lennart Nilsson Award (2009); AAS Carl Sagan Medal (2010); Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award (2011); Time 25 Most Influential People in Space (2012)
Scientific career
FieldsPlanetary science
Imaging science
InstitutionsCassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations, University of Colorado at Boulder
Doctoral advisorPeter Goldreich

Carolyn C. Porco, (born March 6, 1953), is an American astronomer, planetary scientist, imaging scientist, and science communicator who was in charge of the imaging team for the Cassini mission. She is an expert on planetary rings and Saturn's moon, Enceladus.

Porco, a frequent public speaker, has received many awards and honors throughout her career, including the Isaac Asimov Science Award, and the Carl Sagan Medal. In 2012 she was named one of the 25 most influential people in space by Time Magazine.

Early life and education

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Porco was born on March 6, 1953[1] in New York City[2] to Italian immigrant parents,[3] and grew up in Pelham Bay in The Bronx with her four brothers.[4][5] She developed an interest in astronomy as a teenager after reading philosophy, studying Eastern religion and looking at the rings of Saturn through a friend's telescope.[2][4][5] She graduated in 1970 from Cardinal Spellman High School.[4][6]

While a student at State University of New York at Stony Brook, she practiced Buddhist Chanting for two years.[5] She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Earth and Space Sciences from Stony Brook in 1974.[7]

She received her Ph.D. degree in Planetary Science and Astronomy in 1983 from the California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.[8] Supervised by astrophysicist Peter Goldreich, she wrote her doctoral dissertation on Voyager 1 discoveries about the rings of Saturn.[9][5]

Voyager 1 and 2

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As a graduate student, Porco analyzed data sent by the spacecraft Voyager 1.[1] Porco was the first person to describe the behavior of the eccentric ringlets and "spokes" discovered by Voyager 1 within the rings of Saturn, connecting them to Saturn's magnetic field.[10][1]

After obtaining her doctorate from Caltech in 1983,[11] Porco joined the faculty of the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, where she stayed until 2003.[12][4][13] She was recommended to be promoted to a full professor at the university by Carl Sagan. The recommendation letter has been archived by the Library of Congress.[14]

When she joined the faculty at the University of Arizona, Porco was invited to join the Voyager 2 camera team.[4][13] She stayed with the project until the end of the mission in 1989.[13][15]

Cassini

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A Farewell to Saturn
Cassini Enceladus NASA
Pan - March 7, 2017
Spiral density wave in Saturn's inner B Ring

In 1990, at the age of 37, Porco was selected to lead the Cassini mission camera team by Dr. Wesley Huntress, the director, at the time, of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA headquarters. Her title was the Principal Investigator of the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS).[16] Porco's 14 member team built the most advanced space camera system of the time consisting of two camera telescopes.[4] The cost of the mission was $3.4 billion.[5]

During the design phase, it became known by the public that the spacecraft would be nuclear powered and that it would not travel directly to Saturn but would travel a circuitous path that would bring it close to Earth two years after launch. Anti-nuclear groups began protesting the mission and Porco was asked to speak at a U.S. government House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. Explaining the necessity of using nuclear power for so much instrumentation, she calmed fears by reassuring the subcommittee that over 50 engineers, scientists and risk analysts had calculated that even if there were an accident, people would receive less radiation than from a single dental X-ray. She continued educating the public about the nuclear issue by writing articles for newspapers and appearing on talk shows.[4]

Cassini was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004.[5] The spacecraft orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, taking more than 500,000 images.[1]

Porco regularly gave online reports of the Cassini mission and labeled them as Captain's Log, reminiscent of Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey.[17][18]

Moons

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Cassini's cameras captured images of the shepherd moons Daphnis, Atlas and Pan.[19][20] New images produced by Cassini showed the ridge around Pan was not as uniform as previously believed, supporting the idea that the ridge was formed from material falling from Saturn's rings onto its equator.[21]

Cassini cameras caught the moon Prometheus "stealing" material from Saturn's F-Ring.[22]

Geyser plumes of water vapor and ice crystals[1] were discovered on the moon Enceladus, and found to be more active when the moon was furthest from Saturn.[23] These geysers were determined to be evidence of an underground water supply, indicating life is possible there.[24] Porco, Christopher McKay and other scientists hope to send a mission to Enceladus to test for life and study the geochemical processes further.[25]

Rings

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Cassini's images of Saturn's rings showed clumps, ripples, spiral patterns, sharp edges, scalloped edges, spikes and waves.[5][26] Porco stated that the variation in patterns was connected to the interactions of the moons near to, or embedded, within the rings.[26] In 1993, fellow astronomer Mark Marley and Porco theorized that Saturn's seismic activity could affect Saturn's rings and that the oscillations within the rings could be used to calculate how fast the planet spins. Cassini's images confirmed the idea.[27][28]

In 2010, the Cassini team was able to learn why there were irregularities on the outer edge of Saturn's B ring. They were found to be spontaneously caused due to the density and the edge of the ring rather than the effect of the moons. Porco stated, "We have found what we hoped we'd find when we set out on this journey with Cassini nearly 13 years ago: visibility into the mechanisms that have sculpted not only Saturn's rings, but celestial disks of a far grander scale, from solar systems, like our own, all the way to the giant spiral galaxies."[29]

The Day the Earth Smiled

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Porco initiated and planned The Day the Earth Smiled event which captured a picture of Saturn with the Earth in the distance on July 19, 2013,[30][31] Porco had been involved with photographing the Earth from the outer solar system on two previous occasions, one being the Pale Blue Dot photo taken twenty-three years earlier. In 2013 it was the first time that the public had advanced notice of the photo.[32][31][33] Porco invited people to look up, wave, and smile the moment the picture was taken.[31]

“... look up, think about our cosmic place, think about our planet, how unusual it is, how lush and life-giving it is, think about your own existence, think about the magnitude of the accomplishment that this picture-taking session entails. We have a spacecraft at Saturn. We are truly interplanetary explorers. Think about all that, and smile.”

Carolyn Porco, EarthSky[33]

Cassini's end

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On September 15, 2017, Cassini was intentionally crashed into Saturn as it ran out of fuel. Porco stated that the break-up as it entered Saturn's atmosphere could be visible from earth, which would allow amateur astronomers to witness the spacecraft's destruction.[34] In an interview on the CBC Radio show Quirks and Quarks, Porco expressed her mixed feelings about the end of the mission. While sad and sentimental, she was also proud of the mission's accomplishments and said, "...we are concluding the longest, the deepest, the most comprehensive scientific exploration of a remote planetary system that was ever undertaken."[35]

Other scientific endeavors

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Porco has co-authored more than 130 scientific papers.[36] She was a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and was adjunct professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.[37]

Porco, along with Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy, followed and studied Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 from March 25, 1993, until it crashed into Jupiter, 16 months later.[38]

Porco was an associate member of the New Horizons mission team to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.[1] The spacecraft was launched in January, 2006 and reached Pluto in July, 2015, taking many images that changed scientists' understanding of the planet.[39]

She is currently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.[37]

Science communication

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Carolyn Porco-Star Talk live 2016

Porco has written articles about science for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, 'London Sunday Times, Astronomy magazine, Sky and Telescope, Scientific American, American Scientist and the PBS and BBC websites.[40] She has spoken twice for TED Talks, in 2007 in a talk titled This is Saturn and in 2009 in a talk titled Could a Saturn moon harbor life?[41][42]

She is the CEO of Diamond Sky Productions, a small company promoting scientific communication to the public through the artful use of planetary images and computer graphics.[43]

Television and film

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Porco was an advisor for the movie "Contact", a 1997 film based on the book by Carl Sagan, in which a young scientist, played by Jodie Foster, is looking for evidence of alien life. In the original script, Foster was to have an affair with her advisor. Porco advised against this since "Young, newly arrived female graduate students don't immediately fall into bed with their thesis advisers..."[4][5] Sagan reportedly suggested that Foster use Porco as a real-life model to guide her performance.[5]

J.J. Abrams, after watching one of her TED Talks, asked Porco to be a consultant on planetary science and imagery for the film Star Trek.[5] One scene, suggested by Porco, in which the spaceship Enterprise appeared through the clouds of Titan, was featured on the cover of the publication Cinefex, which features special effects in movies.[5][44]

Porco was featured in The Farthest-Voyager in Space, a 2017 PBS documentary on the Voyager program.[11]

Porco's voice was featured in several of the Symphony of Science videos, which also featured the voices of prominent science communicators such as Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Richard Dawkins.[45][46]

Other

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After geologist Eugene Shoemaker, who was one of her professors at Caltech,[4] was killed in a car accident in 1997, Porco set about arranging to have his ashes sent to the moon. It had been Shoemaker's dream to go to the moon before he died. Porco designed and commissioned a laser-engraved composite picture of his work in brass foil, which was wrapped around a capsule of his cremated remains and was sent to the moon aboard the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in January, 1998.[47][48][4] His were the first human remains to be placed on the moon.[4]

In 1999, she reviewed a biography called Carl Sagan: A Life by Keay Davidson for The Guardian.[49]

Personal life

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In a 2009 New York Times article, Porco lists Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey as her favorite movie.[5]

Porco (at right) re-enacting the famous Beatles photograph at Abbey Road with the other members of the Cassini Imaging Team.

Musical interests

[edit]

Porco, who is a fan of The Beatles, owns a lot of their memorabilia[4] and often references the group in her presentations and writings. In 2001, while in England, Porco and her team recreated the Beatle's Abbey Road album cover, crossing Abbey Road and having their photo taken.[5] When the first, composite image of Jupiter was released to the public on October 9, 2000, the Cassini Imaging Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) blog wished John Lennon a happy 60th birthday.[50] On June 18, 2006, on Paul McCartney's 64th birthday, Porco produced and directed a movie that showcased 64 of Cassini's pictures with parts of 24 Beatle's songs used for the soundtrack.[51] The songs later had to be removed due to copyright issues.[51]

Porco has been a member of two bands in which she played guitar and sang: The Titan Equatorial Band, made up of scientists and science writers and The Estrogens, made up of three women and one man.[5]

Porco won a Michael Jackson dance and costume contest that was held in Boulder Colorado.[52]

Recognition

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Awards

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“Carolyn Porco combines the finest techniques of planetary exploration and scientific research with aesthetic finesse and educational talent. While her images, which depict the heavenly bodies of the Saturn system with unique precision, serve as tools for the world's leading experts, they also reveal the beauty of the universe in a manner that is an inspiration to one and all.”[55]

Lennart Nilsson award panel, lennartnilsson.com

Honors

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  • 1998: asteroid named: 7231 Porco[2]
  • 1999: selected by The Sunday Times (London) as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century.[59]
  • 2004: selected by Industry Week as one of 50 Stars to Watch.[60]
  • 2008: selected by Wired magazine's inaugural 'Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.'[61][5]
  • 2009: received an Honorary D.Sc. degree in May from Stony Brook University of which she is an alumna.[62][7]
  • 2009: New Statesman named her as one of 'The 50 People Who Matter Today.'[63]
  • 2012: Time magazine named her one of the 25 most influential people in space.[64]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Carolyn Porco". March 6, 2018. doi:10.1063/PT.6.6.20180306a\. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Yount, Lisa (2008). A to Z of women in science and math. Internet Archive. New York : Facts On File. pp. 243–245. ISBN 978-0-8160-6695-7.
  3. ^ "Interview with Madame Saturn: Planetary Scientist, Carolyn Porco". Got a Girl Crush. Archived from the original on September 19, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Niethammer, Carolyn. "Carolyn Porco: Cassini Scientist Yielded to the Seduction of Space". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Overbye, Dennis (September 22, 2009). "An Odyssey From the Bronx to Saturn's Rings". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  6. ^ "Alumni Spotlights". www.cardinalspellman.org. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Retiring SBU President Shirley Strum Kenny Confers Degrees At Her Final Commencement Ceremony". Stonybrook.edu. Stony Brook University.
  8. ^ "Caltech Commencement Program" (PDF). Caltech Campus Publications. June 10, 1983. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  9. ^ Porco, Carolyn C. (1983). Voyager Observations of Saturn's Rings. 1. The Eccentric Rings at 1.29, 1.45, 1.95 and 2.27 Rₛ. 2. The Periodic Variation of Spokes (phd thesis). California Institute of Technology.
  10. ^ Bjorn, Carey (February 14, 2005). "Carolyn Porco: Keeping an Eye in Saturn". Space.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  11. ^ a b "Celebrating 40 Years of Voyager". California Institute of Technology. August 4, 2017. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; October 22, 2021 suggested (help)
  12. ^ "Carolyn Porco". March 6, 2018. doi:10.1063/PT.6.6.20180306a. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ a b c "Carolyn Porco". EG Conference. March 2, 2011. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  14. ^ "Recommendation for the promotion of Carolyn Porco to full professor at the University of Arizona". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  15. ^ "( Carolyn Porco - Professional Activities )". carolynporco.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  16. ^ "The Team | Mission". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  17. ^ Overbye, Dennis (April 21, 2017). "Cassini's Grand Finale: A Dive Between Saturn and Its Rings". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  18. ^ "Ciclops". Ciclops. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  19. ^ Chang, Kenneth (March 10, 2017). "Pan, Moon of Saturn, Looks Like a Cosmic Ravioli (or Maybe a Walnut)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  20. ^ "NASA - Atlas Found!". www.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  21. ^ Thompson, Helen (March 10, 2017). "Saturn's moon Pan looks like ravioli". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  22. ^ Cowan, Ron (January 4, 2005). "Ring Robber". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  23. ^ Crockett, Christopher (December 15, 2014). "Year in review: Ocean may power Enceladus' geysers". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  24. ^ Grant, Andrew (December 12, 2013). "Europa vents water, Hubble data suggest". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  25. ^ Drake, Nadia (September 23, 2011). "Fertile Frontiers". Science News. Archived from the original on April 3, 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  26. ^ a b Cowan, Ron (November 14, 2005). "Groovy Science". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  27. ^ M, Gretchen (March 17, 2019). "Space and Stuff: Saturn's Ring Ripples". Tahanto Times. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  28. ^ Grossman, Lisa (January 22, 2019). "Ring ripples reveal how long a day lasts on Saturn". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  29. ^ "Cassini Sees Saturn Rings Oscillate Like Mini-Galaxy". NASA Solar System Exploration. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  30. ^ "The Day the Earth Smiled mosaic". Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  31. ^ a b c Grant, Andrew (July 25, 2013). "Cassini photo puts Earth in perspective". ScienceNews. Archived from the original on June 23, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  32. ^ Madrigal, Alexis (November 12, 2013). "The Carl Sagan of Our Time Reprises the 'Pale Blue Dot' Photo of Earth". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  33. ^ a b Byrd, Deborah; Anderson, Paul Scott (July 19, 2020). "This day in 2013: The Day the Earth Smiled". EarthSky. Archived from the original on March 7, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  34. ^ Overbye, Dennis (September 8, 2017). "Cassini Flies Toward a Fiery Death on Saturn". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  35. ^ "Cassini's grand finale: 'Like a Jules Verne adventure come true'". CBC Radio, Quirks and Quarks. September 8, 2017. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  36. ^ Kreidler, Marc (August 23, 2021). "Carolyn Porco on the New Era of Space Exploration: Sept. 2 on Skeptical Inquirer Presents | Center for Inquiry". Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  37. ^ a b "Carolyn Porco". Princeton University Public Lectures. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  38. ^ Sagan, C. (1997). Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Ballantine Books. pp. 240–245. ISBN 978-0-345-37659-6.
  39. ^ Strickland, Ashley (July 15, 2020). "5 years after its Pluto flyby, New Horizons spacecraft forges ahead". CNN. Archived from the original on July 17, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  40. ^ "Dr. Carolyn Porco, PhD". StarTalk Radio Show by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  41. ^ Porco, Carolyn (March 2007), This is Saturn, retrieved January 2, 2022
  42. ^ Porco, Carolyn (February 2009), Could a Saturn moon harbor life?, retrieved January 2, 2022
  43. ^ "Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Dr. Carolyn C. Porco". lifeboat.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2011. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
  44. ^ "Ring Around the Planet". Seeker. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; December 21, 2021 suggested (help)
  45. ^ Atkinson, Nancy (November 10, 2011). "New Symphony of Science Video: Onward to the Edge". Universe Today. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  46. ^ "Melodysheep – The Poetry of Reality (An Anthem for Science)". Genius. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  47. ^ Porco, C. C. (February 2000). "Destination Moon" (PDF). Astronomy. pp. 52–55.
  48. ^ Porco, C. C. (April 13, 2006). "Eugene M. Shoemaker: A Tribute". CICLOPS. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  49. ^ Porco, Carolyn (November 19, 1999). "First reach for the stars". The Guardian. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  50. ^ "Jupiter & Europa in True Color". Ciclops.org. October 9, 2000. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  51. ^ a b "Sixty-Four Scenes from Saturn ... The Movie". Ciclops.org. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  52. ^ whyevolutionistrue (March 6, 2021). "Saturday: Hili dialogue". Why Evolution Is True. Archived from the original on March 23, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  53. ^ "Humanists to Honor Lead Imaging Scientist on the Cassini Saturn Project". Americanhumanist.org. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  54. ^ "Carolyn Porco Awarded Huntington Science Writer Fellowship". Diamondskyproductions.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  55. ^ a b "Lennart Nilsson Award 2009 (Tafreshi/Porco) | Lennart Nilsson Photography". Archived from the original on October 14, 2021. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  56. ^ "Cassini Imaging Leader Honored With American Astronomical Society Carl Sagan Award". CICLOPS. Archived from the original on September 20, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  57. ^ Kathy Svitil (May 14, 2011). "Caltech Names Five Distinguished Alumni". Media.caltech.edu. Archived from the original on January 26, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  58. ^ "Carolyn Porco". National Geographic. October 15, 2021. Archived from the original on October 15, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  59. ^ Farrer, Steve (January 10, 1999). "The brains behind the 21st century". The Sunday Times. UK. p. 6.
  60. ^ Pospisil, Vivian (December 21, 2004). "50 R&D Stars to Watch". Industry Week. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  61. ^ "The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To". Wired magazine. September 22, 2008. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  62. ^ "Cassini Imaging Leader Awarded Honorary Degree from Stony Brook University". Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS). May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011.
  63. ^ "The 50 people who matter today: 31-40". New Statesman. September 24, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  64. ^ Bjerklie, D. (Fall 2012). "The 25 Most Influential People in Space" (PDF). TIME. pp. 88–99. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 15, 2013.
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