Editor's Note: West High School is located in Denver at 951 Elati St., one block west of Speer Boulevard between West 10th and West Ninth avenues. The event is not open to the public, but reporters and photographers are welcome to attend.
Science students at West High School in Denver on May 18 will hear details about the Cassini Mission to Saturn from one of the mission's lead scientists, Larry Esposito, a professor of planetary science at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Esposito will deliver his presentation at 9:30 a.m. inside the school's main auditorium.
He will talk about the latest information gathered from the mission and will explain the $12 million instrument package on board the spacecraft that was designed and built by CU-Boulder scientists. Called the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, or UVIS, the instrument will study the atmosphere of Saturn, the surfaces and atmospheres of its moons and the structure and dynamics of its amazing ring system.
"The Cassini spacecraft and Colorado's instrument are in good health," said Esposito. "We have actually been viewing Saturn since Christmas and we have been able to take better pictures of the planet and its rings than what we have been able to get with the Hubble Space Telescope."
The $3.3 billion project, the most ambitious planetary mission ever mounted, is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The spacecraft blasted off for Saturn in 1997 and is expected to arrive at the planet June 30.
Esposito also will talk about the history of Saturn's rings and moons, the chemistry of the clouds on Saturn and its moon Titan and the content of Saturn's magnetosphere. Saturn is surrounded by a huge cloud of hydrogen gas that is leaking out of the top of its atmosphere.
CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, where the instrument was built, plans to hold a celebration event when Cassini arrives at Saturn.