[amsat-bb] AMSAT Colloquium: Huygens - A First Look at Titan

["Trevor M5AKA" <m5aka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Huygens - A First Look at Titan

AMSAT-UK is privileged to have Professor John Zarnecki Principal 
Investigator for the Surface Science Package on Huygens giving the keynote 
presentation at the International Space Colloquium to be held at the 
University of Surrey, Guildford, England from 29th - 31st July.

Professor John Zarnecki's presentation on Friday 29th July will describe the 
journey of the Huygens probe as well as its final dramatic plunge to the 
surface of Titan.

Day passes to the event cost £12:50 if required overnigh accomodation at 
meals at the University are available. For further details contact Sophie 
Haigh Email: s.haigh@sstl.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1483 689888

Guildford is close to both London-Heathrow and London-Gatwick airports.

For full details of the programme see:
    http://www.uk.amsat.org/Colloquium/
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Synopsis of the presentation:

After an interplanetary journey of 7 1/4 years, the European Space
Agency's probe Huygens landed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon,
Titan, having been released from NASA's Cassini spacecraft last Christmas
Day. Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury, is the only planetary
satellite in the entire Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere.
Most interestingly, it appears that Titan's atmosphere is the site of a
whole range of chemical reactions which produce increasingly complex
hydrocarbon molecules. Similar reactions in Earth's early atmosphere over 4
billion years ago led to the conditions under which simple life evolved. The
journey of the Huygens probe will be described as well as its final dramatic
plunge to the surface. Very early results will be presented.
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