Saturn's Moon Titan talk on Wednesday, Mar. 9th

[Melinda L. Weil]

Nontechnical Talk Open to the Public
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On Wednesday, Mar. 9th, 2011, at 7 pm,
Astronomer Chris McKay, from NASA's
Ames Research Center, will give a non-technical,
illustrated talk on:

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Saturn's Moon Titan: A World with Rivers, Lakes,
and Possibly Even Life
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as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.

Free and open to the public.
Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for
more information and driving directions.

No background in science will be required for
this talk.
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Titan, Saturn's largest satellite, is the only moon with a
thick atmosphere.   The Cassini mission, now orbiting
Saturn, has sent back remarkable images and information
from Titan, revealing one of the most intriguing and
surprising worlds in the entire solar system.  In many ways,
Titan is a cold twin of the Earth, with liquid methane
(swamp gas) playing the same role there as water plays
on our planet.  Life on Earth is based on liquid water; could
there be life on Titan based on liquid methane?

Dr. McKay will discuss the new picture we have of Titan,
with its lakes, its rivers, and its rocks made of water ice. He'll
show you a world unlike any that astronomers have
seen so far.

Chris McKay is a planetary scientist with NASA whose research
focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of
life. He has been a co-investigator on the Huygens probe (that
Cassini landed on Titan), the Phoenix Mars lander, and the
upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission.  He has a wonderful
knack for explaining scientific results in plain language and with a
touch of humor.

The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The SETI Institute
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available
in MP3 format at:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html