Carolyn Porco
Carolyn Porco
Carolyn C. Porcois an American planetary scientist known for her work in the exploration of the outer solar system, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She leads the imaging science team on the Cassini mission currently in orbit around Saturn. She is an expert on planetary rings and the Saturnian moon, Enceladus...
faces scientist eternity
Being a scientist and staring immensity and eternity in the face every day is as grand and inspiring as it gets,
children comforting age
Let’s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome – and even comforting – than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know.
looking phenomena rings seen since
Since we hadn't ever seen the rings in this kind of detail, we were looking for phenomena we'd never seen before.
discovered extended hope
After what we've discovered with Cassini, if we don't get an extended mission, then there's no hope for anybody.
connection forget planet realized tremendous
I'll never forget when I realized there was this connection -- it was tremendous to know something that no one else on the planet knew,
conditions diversity living might possibly solar system
However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms.
ice produces water
Once the water comes out it freezes, and that produces copious amounts of ice particles.
confident exhausted fairly liquid
So we think we have a Yellowstone-type liquid geyser tens of meters deep. We're fairly confident because we have exhausted all the other models.
existence gun proves smoking
We have the smoking gun that proves the existence of water.
abundance dark expected models realized recent side surprised
Well, in some sense we should have expected, if the recent models are correct, to see them on the dark side where the photoelectron abundance is low. So, I was surprised to see them. But once they showed up, I realized we should have expected them there all along.
body conclusion evidence liquid radical realize small water within
We realize that this is a radical conclusion -- that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold.
children grandma teaching
All the atoms of our bodies will be blown into space in the disintegration of the solar system, to live on forever as mass or energy. That's what we should be teaching our children, not fairy tales about angels and seeing grandma in Heaven.
powerful ocean blue
There is a powerful recognition that stirs within us when we see our little blue ocean planet in the skies of other worlds. In an instant we can see how small, fragile, and alone we all really are.
beautiful dream sublime
We humans, though troubled and warlike, are also the dreams, thinkers, and explorers inhabiting one achingly beautiful planet, yearning for the sublime, and capable of the magnificent.