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Planetary Sciences Community Meetings Calendar

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Organized by LPI/USRA *

August 2013

1-2	Comet ISON Observer's Workshop, Laurel, MD  The meeting's overarching goal is to maximize the scientific return from ISON's 2013 apparition.
5-7	Analog Sites for Mars Missions II: Past, Present and Future Missions to Mars *, Washington, DC  The Analog Sites Workshop is planned as an interactive process that consists of online discussions that will take place in advance of the in-person meeting and breakout sessions during the workshop with assessment of proposed analog sites against the science objectives. The open online forum will be used to discuss and identify outstanding Mars science questions that might be answered through previous, ongoing, or future missions, including the 2020 rover mission. The discussion will then turn to how our ability to address these questions could be augmented with analog research on Earth. The online discussion will be open in May and will remain open until the end of the workshop. On June 5 the topics discussed will be summarized and identified as science objectives to be addressed through abstracts on analog research.
5-8	Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution V *, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
5-9	The 6th Meeting on Cosmic Dust, Kobe, Japan  This series of Cosmic Dust meetings aims at finding a consensus among experts on the formation and evolution of cosmic dust: where it comes from and where it goes. The meeting is organized by dust freaks who are very enthusiastic not only to make the goal achievable but also to establish a dust community across every scientifically relevant discipline for the development of cosmic dust research. For this reason, the primary objectives of the meeting are to bring together professionals who deal with cosmic dust and to provide an opportunity for participants to develop human relations and interactions between the participants.
12-16	25th Annual NASA Planetary Science Summer School (Session II), Pasadena, California  An intensive one-week team exercise, preceded by several weekly webinars and assignments, to learn the process of developing a robotic mission concept into reality through concurrent engineering.
14-16	4th Planetary Crater Consortium Meeting, Flagstaff, Arizona
14-16	International Conference on Astronomy and Cosmology, Chicago-North Shore, Illinois  OMICS Group invites all the participants across the globe to attend the International Conference on Astronomy & Cosmology during August 14-16, 2013 at Chicago-North shore, USA. Astronomy-2013 is a remarkable event which facilitate the education, development, and participation of atmospheric scientists from developing countries as a conference. It initiates, encourages, facilitates and coordinates international cooperation in scientific research and stimulates discussion, presentation and publication of scientific results. To promote public education and awareness of the role and importance of the atmosphere and atmospheric sciences.
15-18	2013 International Mars Society Convention, Boulder, Colorado
16-25	Summer Course: "Impacts and their Role in the Evolution of Life", Kuressaare, Estonia
19-22	The Annual Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing, Logan, Utah  The Annual Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing provides a forum for scientists, engineers, and managers to present, discuss, and learn. Experts in the calibration community offer relevant knowledge and suggestions about calibration, characterization, and radiometric issues within the microwave, IR, visible, and UV spectral ranges.
22-25	International Meteor Conference, Poznan, Poland  The 2013 International Meteor Conference will be held in Poznań, the capital of the western Poland. This conference will be organized by the Polish Comets and Meteors Workshop (CMW/PKiM) and will take place from 2013 August 22–25. This IMC will be closely connected with Meteoroids 2013 Conference organized a few days later in the same city. Such location of the IMC will help both amateurs and professionals to meet and exchange their scientific results. There are many traveling possibilities to reach Poznań; the city is very easy reachable for all European participants.
23	A Chemist’s Perspective on Modern Lunar Water from Laboratory Experiments and Modeling (Michael Poston, Georgia Tech), Lecture Hall  Recent, unexpected detections of infrared absorptions consistent with hydroxyl and possibly water (Clark 2009, Pieters et al 2009, Sunshine et al 2009) on the sunlit lunar surface provoke questions about the origins and retention mechanisms of volatile species in the harsh lunar environment. Additionally, hints of significant diurnal variation in hydroxyl/water content by IR spectroscopy (Sunshine et al 2009) and neutron depletion (Livengood et al 2012) remote sensing support the likelihood of a dynamic cycle of hydroxyl/water loss, migration, and replenishment each lunar day. Monte Carlo models (e.g. Crider and Vondrak 2000) show that a significant portion of any migrating water will likely end up sequestered in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) at the lunar poles. However, an array of remote detection techniques has shown evidence for only small amounts of water-ice in some PSRs, and little or no evidence for water-ice in others. What is the source of this apparent discrepancy? Experiments and modeling in the Orlando research group are underway to provide critical details to improve our understanding of both thermal and non-thermal processes occurring at the surfaces of lunar grains. This seminar will discuss: 1) laboratory experiments measuring the desorption activation energy of water molecules from lunar surrogates and returned Apollo soils, 2) computer modeling of the chemical and physical processes expected to occur when the solar wind interacts with lunar grains, and 3) laboratory experiments measuring the photon-induced loss mechanisms of thin layers of solid water on lunar rock surfaces. The results of these examinations will be related back to recent lunar observations and the possible implications for modern lunar water. ------------ Michael J. Poston1, A. B. Aleksandrov1, G. A. Grieves1, A. J. DeSimon1, C. A. Hibbitts2, M. D. Dyar3, T. M. Orlando1, 1School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, [email protected]. 2Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723. 3Mount Holyoke College, Dept. of Astronomy, South Hadley, MA, 01075.
25-30	Goldschmidt 2013 Conference, Florence, Italy
26-30	Exploiting the Herschel Science Archive: A Data Processing Workshop, Pasadena, California  The goal of this workshop is to showcase the contents and capabilities of the Herschel Archive, and to provide information and training about how to best exploit it. This workshop is directed to astronomers new to Herschel, interested in exploiting the Herschel archive; beginner Herschel users who want to learn how to reduce their data; and intermediate Herschel users who want to learn about the latest software capabilities. Workshop topics will include an introduction to the Herschel Space Observatory, the contents of the Herschel Archive, and how to reduce Herschel data.
26-30	Meteoroids 2013, Poznan, Poland
27-31	IAG/AIG International Conference on Geomorphology, Paris, France  The main topic of this 8th Conference is “Geomorphology and Sustainability”.
28	Mercury: Global Tectonics on a Contracting Planet (Paul Byrne), Lecture Hall  The surface of Mercury is replete with tectonic landforms interpreted to be products of horizontal shortening that accompanied planetary cooling and contraction, but the number and distribution of such structures and their relation to large-scale variations in topography have not been well understood. Additionally, prior estimates of the amount of global contraction from photogeological studies of shortening structures were far less than predicted by interior thermal history models. In this talk I present a global synthesis of deformational structures on Mercury derived from orbital imaging and topographic measurements by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Lithospheric shortening on Mercury has been accommodated by a substantially greater number and variety of landforms than previously recognized, including by long fold-and-thrust belts as on Earth. These new observations show that Mercury contracted radially by as much as 7 km, well in excess of the 0.8–3 km previously reported from photogeology. This new measure of Mercury's planetary radius change provides a critical constraint for future studies of the planet's thermal history, bulk silicate abundances of heat-producing elements, mantle convection, and the structure of its large metallic core, and our observations offer fresh insight for investigating the Mercury's tectonic and volcanic development.

 

September 2013

2-5	Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs: Mind the Gap, Hatfield, UK  The aim of this meeting is to bring the exoplanet and brown dwarf communities together to explore common science questions, share exciting results, and foster collaboration to overcome shared challenges.
6	Conditions of Basalt Genesis in Mars from Basalts in Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum, Compared with the Martian Meteorites (Justin Filiberto, Southern Illinois University), Lecture Hall  Until recently, the SNC meteorites represented the only source of information about martian igneous chemistry. This changed with the Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Science Laboratory, which have analyzed basalts on the surface of Mars in Gusev Crater, Meridiani Planum, and Gale Crater. Compared to the Martian meteorite basalts, the analyzed surface basalts are thought to be much older (~3.65 vs. 1.0-0.17 Ga) and have distinctly different chemistries. Because of the differences in basalt chemistry, we can constrain how the Martian mantle may have changed through time
8-13	European Planetary Science Conference (EPSC 2013), London, United Kingdom
9-12	LSST @ Europe: The Path to Science, Cambridge, United Kingdom  The meeting will provide an opportunity to review the current status of the LSST, and the key science programmes which are underpinning its development. The conference will include presentations identifying current science challenges where a combination of LSST and major new European facilities and expertise will result in major leaps in understanding. These topics will range from studies of our Solar System and the Milky Way, to the Universe at the largest scales.
9-12	The 11th Hellenic Astronomical Conference, Athens, Greece  The Hellenic Astronomical Conference, organized by the Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.), is the major scientific event of the greek astronomical community. The Conference, which takes place every two years in a different part of Greece, typically brings together over 100 scientists with research interests in Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Space Physics.
9-21	The 2013 VLTI School: High Angular Resolution for Stellar Astrophysics, Bercelonnette, France  The aim of the school is to offer Ph.D. students, post-doctoral and permanent researchers an introduction to the technique of long-baseline optical/infrared interferometry and data reduction in astrophysics, namely, stellar physics including the hot topics of stellar activity, evolution, hydrodynamics, planet-hosting stars, determination of fundamental parameters, circumstellar envelopes, young stellar objects, as well as the role of binaries.
13	Time-Lapse Photography of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: What the Coldest and Driest Place on Earth tells us about the Potential for Liquid Water on the Surface of Present-Day Mars. (James Dickson, Brown University), Lecture Hall  This talk will give an overview of our current understanding of the role of ice and liquid water on and near the surface of Mars in its most recent history. This will provide the context for a discussion of fluvial processes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the coldest and driest terrain on Earth where water can still flow across the surface and support ecosystems. Long-duration, high-frequency, high-resolution time-lapse photography, synchronized with meteorological measurements, allows us to determine how small changes in atmospheric conditions result in significant changes in surface albedo and morphology that are observable from orbit. When Antarctica and Late Amazonian Mars are viewed together, it appears that the regions of contemporary Mars most conducive to liquid water and the regions of Earth least conducive to liquid water behave in much the same way.
16-18	Uranus Beyond Voyager 2: From Recent Advances to Future Missions, Meudon, France  The purpose of the meeting will be to review our current knowledge of Uranus from past measurements, to highlight recent advances and ongoing studies on this planetary environment, and summarize the important unsolved scientific questions together with the key measurements required to address them. The meeting will culminate in discussing the status of future international mission concepts in Europe and in the United States to explore the Uranus System, including updates on feasibility studies and available technologies, together with next Earth-based observing campaigns.
18	Reduction of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides: Mechanisms and Environmental Impact (Tanya Peretyazhko, Rice University), Lecture Hall  Iron (Fe), one of the most common elements on Earth, is frequently found in Fe(III) and Fe(II) oxidation states. Reduction from Fe(III) to Fe(II) has key impact on fate of various contaminants. In soils, sediments and subsurface materials Fe mainly exists in the oxidized form as insoluble Fe(III) (hydr)oxides but under anoxic conditions the reduced Fe(II) is present. The reduction of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides in the near-surface environment in driven by the activity of iron-reducing bacteria. These bacteria can reduce Fe(III) either by direct contact with the oxide surface or by indirect mechanisms not involving contacts. Depending on the conditions ferrous iron, Fe(II), produced by microbial reduction of Fe(III) is present in various forms including dissolved, adsorbed and secondary Fe(II) phases (e.g., vivianite, siderite, magnetite, green rust). Ferrous iron has been shown to provide an effective means for remediation a variety of pollutants including nitrite, nitrate, chromium, selenite, uranium, vanadate, pertechnetate, mercury and nitrobenzene from aqueous solution. In this presentation I’ll discuss mechanisms of microbial indirect reduction of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides. Our studies revealed production of Fe(II) that formed vivianite of complex morphology. I’ll further discuss the role that adsorbed and structural Fe(II) plays in reduction of contaminants such as pertechnetate and mercury.
20	Hunting Intraterrestrials in the Deep Subsurface: Earth’s Last Great Biosphere Frontier (Heath Mills, UHCL), Lecture Hall  Life on planet Earth was viewed very differently during the days of the Apollo missions. As the mission’s namesake would suggest, life was thought to be linked to the sun. However, shortly after the sun set on the Apollo program, this binding connection between life and light was shattered. Researchers aboard a deep-sea submersible in the late 1970’s rewrote our understanding of life on Earth by exposing vast amounts of biological diversity at the bottom of the cold, dark ocean. As many researchers aim to continue looking outward for life, a community of intraterrestrial explorers focus inward, to examine the limits of life in the deep ocean and the marine subsurface. These environments can be as alien as many of the environments being considered for astrobiological analysis. Over the last decade, descriptions of the subseafloor microbial biosphere suggest that it is one of the largest biomes on the planet in spite of low concentrations of carbon and energy, reduced fluid flow, and isolation on the order geologic time-scales. My lab group has been able to identify not only the presence of microbial populations within the subsurface, but also metabolically active lineages capable of altering the surrounding strata and porewater chemistry. Recent efforts have extended our search beyond sediments to crustal materials. Characterizations of active populations within different forms of basalt represent a significant advancement in our understanding of the subsurface biosphere as previous estimates of biomass were limited to sediments alone. In addition, we have been able to isolate and characterize fungal populations from some of the most energy-limited environments on Earth and thus expanding subsurface diversity into the third domain of life. Moving forward, I would like to explore the opportunities to use our tools and techniques developed for nucleic acid-based characterizations of subsurface populations to build collaborations at JSC to foster new understandings of both life on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere. It is our belief that exploration of the deep marine subsurface can unlock many answers about the habitability of Earth while providing clues to possibility for life elsewhere.
21	Bob Lin Memorial Symposium, Berkeley, California  The Robert P. Lin Graduate Fellowship will be used to support outstanding graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley who pursue research related to space sciences, including, but not limited to, students with training in Physics, Astronomy or Engineering.
23-24	Origin of the Moon, London, United Kingdom  Despite widespread acceptance of the giant impact hypothesis for lunar origin, our understanding continues to be challenged by remarkable new geochemical data, improved simulations and theory, and spacecraft exploration. This will be a timely consideration of our current understanding, how this relates to our Earth and planetary systems and an opportunity to identify the directions of future research.
23-26	Polarimetry of Planetary Systems, Florence, Italy  The purpose of the meeting will be to review our current knowledge of Uranus from past measurements, to highlight recent advances and ongoing studies on this planetary environment, and summarize the important unsolved scientific questions together with the key measurements required to address them. The meeting will culminate in discussing the status of future international mission concepts in Europe and in the United States to explore the Uranus System, including updates on feasibility studies and available technologies, together with next Earth-based observing campaigns.
23-27	Improving the Performances of Current Optical Interferometers and Future Designs, Haute-Provence Observatory, France  This workshop is partly dedicated to the technologies that could improve the performances of interferometers: optimized telescope array geometries, solutions with and without delay-lines, fringe tracking optimizations, and « Adaptive Optics » for diluted telescopes, progress in the field of optical fibers and integrated optics, focal recombiner, etc. Experiment reports, new optical designs to improve the sensitivity and the quality of interferometer observables (accuracy on the visibilities, and closure phases), and any new theoretical ideas are particularly welcome. Presentations on new telemetry techniques for very accurate delay-line positioning, in particular for astrometry, are encouraged. Progress in the field of nulling interferometry are also welcome. We plan to discuss the best optical design for a post-VLTI facility. In this context, several talks on astrophysical goals achievable with such an interferometer will be selected.
24-28	Second International Congress of Astrobiology in Columbia, Medellin, Columbia
25-26	Origin of the Moon — Challenges and Prospects, Chicheley, United Kingdom  Our understanding of the origin of Earth’s moon is challenged by recent isotopic data, simulations of physical processes for giant impacts and evolution of the resulting disk, and new spacecraft studies. This meeting follows on from a Royal Society meeting in London on the same topic by focusing on the unsolved problems and assessing the prospects for future directions of research.
25	Geological Impact Crater Chronology (David Page, Oxford University), Lecture Hall  Impact crater chronology is a dating technique unique in geochronology – that surfaces can be dated visually is a powerful tool, quite unlike anything in terrestrial geology (try dating a random, unfossiliferous geological formation on Earth by visual means, and see how far you get!). Yet this chronology usually lacks stratigraphical constraint (in both horizontal and vertical dimensions), and can be more an exercise in physics than the geology of the surfaces that it seeks to date. Stratigraphically-controlled impact crater counts reveal that there is a great deal more information to be had from this chronology when we look with geological eyes, no more so than when dealing with the volatile-rich surfaces that are the focus of much contemporary planetary scientific inquiry.
27	Probing the Pre-Noachian of Mars (J.R. Skok, Louisiana State University), Hess Room  On a geologically active, single plate planet like Mars, the earliest crust would be well preserved at depth but obscured by later processes. Impact craters provide one of the few, and only globally significant, windows into this deep crust. High-resolution spectral analysis of crater central peaks allows an investigation into the composition of this ancient crust and a way to test and refine models for planetary formation and crustal evolution. Spectral investigation suggests an ancient crust dominated by highly differentiated olivine and pyroxene cumulates. We consider this result in context with previous understanding of planetary formation and the probability of an early mantle overturn. This ancient cumulate crust would have important implications for early planetary habitability and the surface environment.
29-Oct 4	Sudbury Field Camp, Sudbury, Canada  The Short Course and Field School at the Sudbury Impact Structure is a week long classroom and field training program based in Sudbury, Ontario. The goal of the program will be to introduce students to impact cratering processes and observe, in the field, the attributes of an immense basin-size impact structure.

 

October 2013

3-4	Workshop on Golden Spike Lunar Human Expeditions: Opportunities for Intensive Lunar Scientific Exploration *, Houston, Texas  Commercial spaceflight is rapidly beginning to impact capabilities for scientific research in numerous ways, including commercial suborbital spaceflight, commercial robotic lunar missions, and commercial near-Earth asteroid (NEA) exploration. In late 2012, the Golden Spike Company, consisting of space professionals and numerous veteran NASA engineers and executives, announced plans to mount a series of commercial human lunar expeditions in the 2020s, primarily for space and science agencies in countries around the world. The goals of this workshop are to provide a detailed overview of Golden Spike expedition capabilities to the worldwide lunar science community, and to seek feedback and input on science and exploration priorities and associated landing sites, surface experiment packages, and sample return requirements. The meeting will also explore desired future capabilities for more advanced Golden Spike missions, and the synergistic roles of Golden Spike human expeditions and robotic exploration missions.
6-11	45th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS 2013), Denver, Colorado
7-11	Astrophysical Turbulence: From Galaxies to Planets, Dresden, Germany  In astrophysics and cosmology, fluid flow occurs on a large range of scales and under very different conditions, from the dense interior of stars and planets to the highly rarefied intergalactic medium. These flows share the fact that they are generally turbulent, i.e. highly disordered both in space and time. Turbulence is one of the key processes for the structure and evolution of a large variety of geo- and astrophysical systems. The universality of astrophysical turbulence interlinks the physics of the interior of planets or stars with proto-planetary or galactic disks, as well as the intergalactic gas outside of galaxies. For example, angular momentum transport by turbulence is a central question that must beanswered to understand how galaxies or stars form, how proto-planetary disks evolve, how metals are mixed in the interstellar and intergalactic medium, or how differential rotation is established in stars and planets. Magnetic field amplification through turbulent dynamo processes is ubiquitous in planets, stars, and galaxies. The onset of instabilities due to dust particles or newly formed planets in proto-planetary disks controls the properties of the evolving structures. We can observe a variety of interactions between stars, planets and galaxies with their environment leading to the exchange of energy and (angular-) momentum. This compilation highlights the enormous potential and perspective of a combined workshop/school to discuss and deepen our knowledge in this very rapidly moving field of research.
7-11	ESO/NUVA/IAG Workshop on Challenges in UV Astronomy, Garching, Germany  The network for UV astronomy (NUVA) has been organizing interdisciplinary meetings every three years where scientists and instrumentalists working in the UV can obtain updated information on the current status of the field. The third meeting of the NUVA will come at a crucial time in UV astronomy. The ESA/NASA programs that created the community are reaching completion and future missions, apart from WSO-UV, are small-class, some operating from balloons. The purpose of this ESO/NUVA/IAG workshop is to bring together the international community interested in UV astronomy to discuss the present and future of the field and in particular to examine and broaden the scientific case of CUBES, the joint ESO-Brazil high-resolution UV spectrograph. Invited talks and reviews will cover the topics of UV astronomy of the solar system, exoplanets, abundances of stars at various stages of evolution, resolved stellar populations in the galaxy and beyond, the star-formation history of the universe, and the properties of the diffuse interstellar and intergalactic medium near and far.
7-11	Third Workshop on Robotic Autonomous Observatories, Torremolinos, Spain  The main focus of the workshop will be on the new and existing astronomical facilities whose goal is to observe a wide variety of astrophysical targets with no (or very little) human interaction. The workshop will become an international forum for researchers to summarise the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis given to the technical and observational results and public outreach (including Citizen Science) and educational applications achieved within the last five years as well as the future strategies foreseen.
12	Io Workshop 2013, Boulder, Colorado  We warmly welcome talks for the 2013 Io Workshop to discuss the newest discoveries concerning Io. Topics include observations and modeling of surface geology and evolution, volcanic plumes and sources, the atmosphere and it’s surface coupling and plasma science.
14-16	Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group *, Laurel, Maryland
14-18	Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2013 (CAP 2013), Warsaw, Poland  CAP2013 will consider challenges in communication of astronomy and space exploration, as well as the influence of these activities on science outreach and education. The meeting will include unconference and workshops sessions as well as interactive planetarium shows and special events.
14-18	Fourth Moscow international Solar System Symposium (4M-S3), Moscow, Russia  Starting in 2010, the Space Research Institute has held annual international symposia on solar system exploration. Main topics of these symposia include a wide range of problems related to formation and evolution of the solar system; planetary systems of other stars; exploration of solar system planets, their moons, and small bodies; study of the Sun, interplanetary environment, exobiology problems. Experimental planetary studies and preparation for space missions are also considered at these symposia. The fourth Moscow international Solar System Symposium (4M-S3) will covers many problems of solar system science with the central topic “Moon and Mars Exploration.” This topic relates to scientific problems of several projects, which are under development in Russia: “Luna-Glob”, “Luna-Resource,” and “ExoMars,” a project that is developed under cooperation between Roscosmos and ESA.
15-18	The (F)IR Universe Three Years Later — The Contributions by Herschel, Noordwijk, The Netherlands  The overall objective of the meeting will be to present and take stock of what has been learned to date based on Herschel observations. The symposium will feature invited and contributed talks, and poster sessions. More information and the formal first announcement will be issued about a year ahead of the meeting date.
16-18	Hayabusa 2013: Symposium of Solar System Materials, Sagamihara, Japan  Since the return of samples from Itokawa by Hayabusa in 2010, the preliminary examinations followed by studies selected in the 1st International Announcement of Oppotunity (A/O) have been performed. Now is the right time to review these results as a whole. Furthermore, multiple asteroid sample return missions are in progress, implying that science of returned samples is becoming one of the key components of planetary science. Now is the right time to set a perspective on the driving force that returned samples will give to the future of solar system science. It in these spirits that the workshop"HAYABUSA 2013: Symposium of Solar System Materials" is designed.
18	Looking inside moons using gravity, topography and tides (Francis Nimmo, University of California, Santa Cruz), Lecture Hall  The satellites of the outer solar system show great present-day diversity and have experienced wildly different histories. How did these differences arise? In this talk I will use spacecraft observations of gravity, topography and tides to investigate the cases of Enceladus and Titan, moons of Saturn with very different characteristics.
20-25	Planet Mars 4, Les Houches, France
21-23	Solar System Formation and Observation Conference (SFO), Bern, Switzerland  The conference is divided in five sessions, covering the topics of planetary interaction with the space plasma, investigating planet atmospheres and exospheres and planetary surfaces. Invited review speakers (see webpage and poster) will open each session. By abstract submission participants can contribute to the program with oral or poster presentations. Abstracts about simulations, observations, investigations, instrumentation and data analysis are welcome.
21-24	Venus Express VIRTIS and VMC Data Workshop, Madrid, Spain  The overall goal of the workshop is to introduce users to the Planetary Science Archive on which data from ESA planetary missions are archived. This workshop will focus on the VIRTIS and VMC instruments of the Venus Express orbiter.
27-29	Workshop on Planetesimal Formation and Differentiation *, Washington, DC  Evidence from meteorites and, increasingly, from asteroids indicates that some early-forming bodies had sufficient heat to melt and differentiate into a core and mantle. Partial or complete melting can allow core formation and silicate differentiation, and can also remove volatiles. Other small bodies are apparently primitive (i.e., undifferentiated). We are now at a point where targeted interdisciplinary work can create a leap in our understanding. What bulk compositions and time frames of accretion would have allowed differentiation? Where in the solar system did these bodies originate? What can we observe of differentiated bodies in the asteroid belt today? Can we link asteroid observations to meteorites from differentiated parent bodies? What was the history and large-scale structure of meteorite parent bodies? These questions bear on the critical transition from a protoplanetary disk to a solar system with rocky planets, on the habitability of those planets, and on resources in our solar system today for future space exploration. Progress in understanding these processes will depend upon communication among the fields of meteorite and asteroid/icy body observations including space missions, theory, and modeling. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers on all these subjects as they pertain to differentiation, asteroid observations, and meteorite compositions.
27-30	2013 GSA Annual Meeting and Exposition, Denver, Colorado
30-31	International Space Exploration Symposium in Japan: Space Exploration for Humanity and the Future, Tokyo, Japan
30	Mimas: Strong forced longitudinal librations and constraints to its internal structure with Cassini ISS observations. (Radwan Tajeddine, IMCCE-Paris Observatory), Lecture Hall  The origin and the evolution of Saturn's satellites are being debated. For a long time, it has been thought that they were formed in Saturn's sub-nebula 4.5 billion years ago, when another model has recently appeared, forming the small and mid sized moons in the rings. At the same moment, another result concerning Saturn's dissipation factor Q appeared implying a fast expansion of the moons, except for Mimas, which is having a secular acceleration, starting a new debate about the Saturn's system dynamics. We used Cassini ISS NAC images to constrain, by photogrammetry, Mimas’ internal structure and origin. A topographic map of 260 surface chosen points has been built. A photogrammetric reconstruction method has been applied using colinearity equations to compute 3-D positions of control points, with a mean uncertainty of about 580 metres. A tri-axial shape of Mimas was built with these points, confirming that this satellite is not in the state of hydrostatic equilibrium. The control point network was also used to measure indirectly the amplitudes of the longitudinal physical librations of Mimas, confirming all the computed theoretical values, except the internal structure depending one, which almost doubles the theoretically predicted amplitude, resulting in a value of (B-A)/C = 0.091. A further analysis shows that Mimas' core was formed in the rings near the Roche limit and moved away keeping its initial shape until today causing the observed strong libration amplitude.

 

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