MARY’S MINUTES

by Mary Dunkley (mary@seds.org)


Hey Everyone,

Our last two meetings have been quite spectacular. The meeting on March25th consisted of a movie. Everyone was treated to ice cream and the movieContact, starring Jodi Foster as the primary character in Carl Sagan’sbest selling book.

On April 1, we had a guest speaker. Dr. Chris Chyba spoke to us aboutEuropa. Some of the points that he covered were that Europa has a densityconsistent with a silicate interior. Also sparse cratering suggests ayoung surface and there is also the hint of a non-synchronous rotation.Galileo found the suggestion of a rocky interior overlain by an icy crust.

The Orbiter that will be sent to Europa in 2003 will detect for thepresence of a subsurface ocean and identify the sites of recent or currentactivity on the moon. After three yerars travel time, it will orbit themoon for 30 days and the Illustrative Payload will consist of gravity,laser altimetry, ice penetrating radar and imaging experiments. TheTerrestrial Radar Sounding