Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, December 13, 2004 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Don Jennings

"The Composite Infrared Spectrometer on Cassini"

ABSTRACT -- The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft went into orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004, beginning a 4-year tour of the planet, its rings and moons. Cassini carries the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), built and operated by Goddard Space Flight Center with international collaboration. CIRS is mapping the composition, temperature, and dynamics of the atmospheres of Saturn and its largest moon Titan. The rings and smaller icy moons are also mapped in temperature and composition. At this early phase of the mission a richly varied picture of the Saturnian system is already emerging from Cassini.

SPEAKER -- Dr. Donald E. Jennings is an astrophysicist in Goddard's Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, Planetary Systems Branch. He has been at Goddard since 1976. He received his B.S. In Physics at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff (1970) and PhD., also in Physics, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (1974). Don Jennings is experienced in the fields of infrared astronomy, infrared spectroscopy from spacecraft, and laboratory molecular spectroscopy. He has developed instruments to observe molecules and atoms in the Sun, planets, stars, and Earth's atmosphere. He is on teams that have sent spectrometers into space to probe the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan, to map the Earth, and to identify the composition of the space shuttle glow. He is currently working on a spectral imager that will fly to Pluto and beyond.