McDonnell Distinguished Lecture: "PLUTO EXPLORED! NASA's Epic Voyage to the Edge of the Solar System"

Professor William B. McKinnon, Washington University in St. Louis

McDonnell Distinguished Lecturer - Spring 2017

Professor McKinnon is deputy lead scientist with the New Horizons geology and geophysics team and has been a senior member of the science team since the inception of the mission to Pluto.  The main goal of the New Horizons missions was the exploration of the outer reaches of the solar system especially of Pluto and the Kuiper belt objects.  The spacecraft carrying an arsenal of instruments was launched ten years ago on January 19, 2006 and it swung past Jupiter in July 2007 in a precise maneuver for a kinematic boost.  In the year 2015 it completed a long reconnaissance of Pluto and its moons and is on its way to explore deeper into the Kuiper belt, a relict of the birth of the solar system.  These observations are revealing many fascinating and unexpected aspects of these objects and are also providing insights into conditions that prevailed in this part of the Galaxy more than 5 billion years ago.  Professor McKinnon will be our consummate tour guide for this journey through space and time!

Abstract: We have reached Pluto, the last of the classical planets, and the most remote world yet explored by humankind! Far from being dark, cold, and dead, Pluto and its family of moons are bright and variegated, if not gloriously, geologically alive. From giant floating mountains of water ice, to mysterious cryovolcanoes, to valleys carved by now vanished glaciers of solid nitrogen, to towering blades of sun-burnt solid methane, Pluto has expanded the very meaning of geology and the definition of planethood. And while modest in stature, Pluto has played a key role in revolutionizing our understanding of the early history of the Solar System.

Organized by McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University.