A Journey to the Outer Solar System - Eric Wilcots [19 Nov 2014]
Channel: IUCAA SciPOP
Date: 2017-07-03

The Far Regions of the Solar System

Wednesday - November 19, 2014, 6:30 p.m.
Chandrasekhar Auditorium, IUCAA
S. B. Pune University Campus

Prof. Eric Wilcots
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA


Far beyond our local neighborhood of familiar terrestrial planets is the realm of the gas and ice giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - each with its own family of moons and astounding ring systems. Among the moons of the giant planets we find Io, the most volcanic place in the solar system, Europa and Encelaedus whose icy surfaces shield oceans of liquid water, and Titan, whose thick atmosphere and surface lakes of ethane suggest a rich, primordial, organic environment. While these giant planets and their moons capture our imagination the other denizens of the outer solar system offer tremendous clues about the turbulent origin of the solar system and even the struggle for life to arise on the Earth. In this presentation we will also explore the wonders of Pluto and the other dwarf planets, the mysterious Kuiper Belt Objects, and spectacular comets.


Eric Wilcots is a full professor in the Department of Astronomy and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Natural and Mathematical Sciences in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He obtained his bachelors degree at Princeton University in 1987 and Ph.D from the University of Washington in 1992. He was a Jansky Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Soccoro, NM from 1992-1995, before moving to Wisconsin. His primary research interests are the evolution of galaxies, particularly their gas content, the nature and evolution of the intergalactic medium in galaxy groups, and the nature of Magellanic-type galaxies.