Exploration Takes Flight on Titan

Description

Sarah M. Hörst, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and an adjunct astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, will give a talk titled "Exploration Takes Flight on Titan" for Hopkins at Home.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is unique in our solar system. Below Titan's thick organic haze layer, rivers of methane carve channels into an icy bedrock and flow into large hydrocarbons seas. Across the landscape, water-ice mountains and extensive organic sand dune fields are simultaneously alien and reminiscent of Earth. Titan's lake-mottled surface and thick, organic-rich atmosphere may be an ideal setting for life as we do not know it, and there is certainly much yet to be learned about our own home from the study of Titan. In this free virtual lecture, Sarah M. Hörst will share how NASA's Dragonfly mission will explore the surface of Titan using a dual quadcopter and reveal the answers to many questions we have about Titan.

Please attend the event by using the Hopkins at Home link.