Water in our solar system topic of Coyne Lecture

NASA director to discuss how and where water has been found in our solar system

Event Information
Date: Thursday, Nov. 11
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Place: Tony and Lucille Weasler Auditorium, 1506 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Anne Kinney, director of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Division, will present “The Wet Solar System; Polar Ice on the Earth and Moon, Water on Mars, and Oceans on Europa and Titan” as the 6th annual Rev. George V. Coyne, S. J., Lecture in Astronomy & Astrophysics Thursday, Nov. 11, at 4:30 p.m. in the Tony and Lucille Weasler Auditorium, 1506 W. Wisconsin Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
 
Water takes many different forms throughout the solar system. Kinney will discuss the various forms of water found from Greenland to the moons of Saturn, in addition to water on Mars and the moons of Earth and Jupiter. While the theme of finding water sounds simple, the technologies NASA uses include laser ranging, neutron detection mass spectroscopy and magnetometry. Kinney will discuss how these technologies not only help NASA find the existence of water, but how they can be used to approximate is the water’s depth and salt levels.

Kinney, originally from Wisconsin, is an expert in extragalactic astronomy. She was an instrument scientist on one of the original instruments to fly on the Hubble Space Telescope. She also worked in education and public outreach on the Hubble program, helping to create the Amazing Space website, an education resource for students learning basic principles of science, math and astronomy.

About the Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J., Lecturer in Astronomy and Astrophysics

The lecture series was established in 2005 through a generous donation by Mrs. Mercedes Hurley Hughes, alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences and Marquette Trustee Emerita. As director of the Vatican Observatory, the Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J., has led a team of Jesuit astronomers in conducting cutting-edge astronomical research and in developing new telescopes and other instrumentation for studying the cosmos.  
 
The annual Coyne Lecture honors the tradition of excellence in research exemplified by the Rev. Coyne by bringing an outstanding astronomer or astrophysicist to the Marquette campus to give a public lecture explaining his or her research. The Coyne lecturer is selected annually by faculty members of Marquette’s physics department.

Past presenters of the Coyne Lecture include the Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J. (2006), Edward W. (Rocky) Kolb (2007), James Gates (2008) and Ray Arvidson (2009).

Media wishing to speak to Kinney should contact Andy Brodzeller in the Office of Marketing and Communication, at (414) 288-0286 or andrew.brodzeller@marquette.edu.