Researchers Discussing "Titan after Cassini-Huygens" at July 7-11 Symposium

Business Wire, July 1, 2008

Southwest Research Institute:

Event:     <
"Titan after Cassini-Huygens" symposium
Date:      <
July 7-11, 2008
Location:  <
Omni Hotel Bayfront Tower; Corpus Christi, Texas
Contact:   <
Melody Cherry * 210-522-3745 * melody.cherry@swri.org

Just as NASA's Cassini spacecraft to Saturn begins a two-year extension that will take a closer look at the moons Enceladus and Titan, mission participants are preparing for a symposium to exchange research findings and develop a book on the Titan system. More than 200 international scientists are expected to attend the "Titan after Cassini-Huygens" symposium, scheduled July 7-11 at the Omni Hotel Bayfront Tower in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Cassini's four-year mission has provided a wealth of new information on Saturn and its moons and raised intriguing new questions that will be addressed during the two-year extension, which began today. One of the spacecraft's recent findings was that organic aerosols, or tholins, which were believed to have formed on Titan at altitudes of several hundred kilometers, were revealed to form at altitudes greater than 1,000 kilometers through processes significantly different than previously thought.

"Tholins are very large, complex organic molecules thought to include chemical precursors to life," said Dr. Hunter Waite, an Institute scientist at Southwest Research Institute and lead organizer of the symposium. "Understanding how they form could provide valuable insight into the origin of life in the solar system. This topic and others that shed new light on Titan are the focus of next week's symposium." Waite serves as principal investigator of Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS).

The symposium features invited talks on the chapters already selected for the book, as well as poster sessions. Other discussions will focus on the status of future efforts by NASA and the European Space Agency to return to Titan for further exploration. Press conferences and public lectures are also planned.

General topics of discussion will focus on Titan's origin, evolution and geology, as well as the composition and structure of Titan, its atmosphere and its ionosphere. Sponsors include the Cassini-Huygens Project, NASA, ESA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute and others.

Hotel and registration spots are still available. Registration is $450 per person and $50 for guests. For more information, contact Melody Cherry at 210-522-3745 or melody.cherry@swri.org or visit http://titanaftercassini.com. A second symposium, "Saturn after Cassini-Huygens," is scheduled for July 28-August 1, 2008, at Imperial College in London.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organization based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 3,100 employees and an annual research volume of more than $501 million. Southwest Research Institute and SwRI are registered marks in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For more information about Southwest Research Institute, please visit newsroom.swri.org or www.swri.org.