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SLAS Regular Meeting
Friday, December 20, 2013 7:30pm
McDonnell Hall,
Washington University
Recent Results from the
Opportunity Rover Mission
to Mars
by Edward Guiness
Dr. Edward Guinness of Washington University, will be featured at the December
meeting of the St. Louis Astronomical
Society. The meeting will begin
at 7:30 PM Friday, December 20, in
McDonnell Hall, Room 162, on the
Washington University campus, Saint
Louis, MO 63130. McDonnell Hall is
accessible from Forsyth Boulevard via
Tolman Way.
In January 2004, two roving robot laboratories
dropped through the thin air of
Mars, deployed airbags, and bounced to a
safe landing. Almost ten years later, the
Opportunity rover is still rolling through
Martian desert terrain. The rover has been
exploring the rim of a 13.6 mile wide impact
crater named Endeavour since late
2011. Mars orbiting spacecraft indicate
that the ancient rocks exposed on the
crater rim include mica-like "phyllosilicate" outcrops. These minerals
may have formed under environmental
conditions that were very different from
those that formed the younger rocks on
the surrounding plains. The ancient rocks
may be relics of a time when the air was
thicker, the temperature was much warmer,
and liquid water may have flowed and
pooled on the surface. Dr. Guinness will
talk about recent observations by Opportunity,
and particularly what the robot's
instruments and cameras have told us
about the nature of these phyllosilicate
exposures.
Edward Guinness is a Senior Research
Scientist in the Department of Earth and
Planetary Sciences at Washington University.
He has over 30 years of experience
in studying Mars surface processes.
He is part of the geology team that has
controlled the activity of the two Mars
rovers for the past ten years. An author or
co-author of over 50 scientific articles,
Dr. Guinness also works on many other
NASA planetary missions. He helps to
generate the digital archives that make
data and images from spacecraft instruments
available to scientists all over the
world.
January meeting: Astrophotography
by Dan Crowson
February meeting: Grant Mar tin and
Bill Biermann
March meeting: Bob Criss
April meeting: Matthias Beilicke
May meeting: Pamela Gay
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Meeting Agenda
Welcome
Introduction of Officers
Ed Guiness
Astro 101 - Binocular Mounts -
MSRAL 2014 Update
Sky Puppy Award
Annalise Biermann
Budget Vote
Announcements and Star Parties
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