Surprises from the Pluto System: Better Geology Through Chemistry

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew through the Pluto system in July 2015, after almost a decade en route. Since the encounter, it has transmitted a spectacular trove of data back to Earth, leading to many remarkable discoveries and a new appreciation of the complexities of a system that manages to remain active despite the extreme cold at the outer edge of the solar system. This talk will show some of the scientific highlights and puzzles that the New Horizons science team has been investigating and will also briefly look ahead to January 2019 when New Horizons will get the first ever up-close look at a small Kuiper belt object.

Will Grundy

Dr. Will Grundy’s research involves icy outer Solar System planets, satellites, and Kuiper belt objects, using a broad variety of observational, theoretical, laboratory, and space-based techniques. He is a co-investigator on NASA’s New Horizons mission, heading the mission’s surface composition science theme team.

"What's Up?" in this month will be presented by Chris Butler

Pre-meeting Slide Show (~2 MB)
Club Announcements (~2 MB)