Press Information

LPSC Press Contact:
Julie Tygielski
Lunar and Planetary Institute
#LPSC2016
@LPIMeetings
https://www.facebook.com/LunarandPlanetaryInstitute
Phone:  281-486-2122
E-mail:  [email protected]

Members of the working press and news media are invited to attend the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at the The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, The Woodlands, Texas, on March 21–25, 2016.

This 4.5-day annual conference brings together nearly 2000 international specialists in petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, geology, and astronomy to present the latest results of research in planetary science. This is the premiere conference for planetary scientists, and has been a significant focal point for planetary science research since its beginning in 1970, when it was known as the Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference.

LPSC Livestream Coverage


News Media Registration Information —

Media representatives providing press credentials will receive a complimentary badge allowing access to all conference sessions. Press credentials will be checked at the registration help desk, where press badges will be issued. Advance registration is open through March 19, 2016. Check-in will be on Sunday, March 20, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., and Monday through Friday beginning at 8:00 a.m.

Register for the Conference

Note:  The registration form is part of the USRA Meeting Portal, and you will be prompted to log in using your existing profile or create a profile. Once logged in to the Meeting Portal, media representatives should select “Working Press” as the registration type to receive a press badge at no charge.

Press Briefing —

Two press briefings will be held in conjunction with this year’s LPSC:

New Horizons:  Peering Into Pluto’s Past
Monday, March 21, 12:00 noon CDT (1:00 p.m. EDT, GMT –5) to
1:00 p.m. CDT (2:00 p.m. EDT, GMT –5) 
Waterway Ballroom 1

Panelists:
Jim Green (NASA Headquarters), Introduction, NASA perspective on New Horizons
Cathy Olkin (Southwest Research Institute), Longest-distance planetary radar experiment Rick Binzel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Pluto's climate zones
Alan Stern (Southwest Research Institute) Evidence for a thicker atmosphere on Pluto
Orkan Umurhan (NASA Ames), Evidence for extensive glacial activity on Pluto
Kelsi Singer (Southwest Research Institute), Age-dating Pluto's satellite system

New Horizons Media Resources:
Images
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/view.php?gallery_id=2
Movies
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?page=4&gallery_id=2&image_id=326
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?page=4&gallery_id=2&image_id=309
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?page=5&gallery_id=2&image_id=267

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Ceres:  Dispatches from a Dwarf Planet
Tuesday, March 22, 12:00 noon CDT (1:00 p.m. EDT, GMT –5) to
1:00 p.m. CDT (2:00 p.m. EDT, GMT –5)
The Woodlands Room

Description:
NASA’s Dawn mission has revealed Ceres to be a world of diverse landforms and rugged topography, and so far it seems to lack evidence of an ancient subsurface ocean. What have we learned about Ceres’ formation, evolution, and current state in the year since Dawn arrived? Members of the Dawn science team will discuss how Ceres has confirmed some of their hypotheses and surprised them in other respects.

Panelists:
Carol Raymond (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Dawn mission deputy principal investigator
Thomas Prettyman (Planetary Science Institute), Dawn mission co-investigator and lead for the Gamma Ray Neutron Detector (GRaND)
Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Dawn co-investigator and VIR leader at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, Italy.
Ralf Jaumann (German Aerospace Center, DLR), co-investigator on the Dawn Framing Camera Team

Public Lecture —

On Tuesday evening, March 22, there will be a Public Lecture held at 7:30 p.m. in Waterway Ballroom 4. Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizons mission, will present a talk entitled “The Exploration of Pluto.” The lecture will be free and open to the public.

Highlighted Events —

Media representatives are invited to make note of the Highlighted Events. More details will be added to this page as it becomes available.

There is also a Plenary Session featuring the Masursky Lecture, “New Horizons: The Exploration of the Pluto System and the Kuiper Belt Beyond,” presented by Dr. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The winners of the 2015 Dwornik Awards and the 2016 LPI Career Development Awards will also be recognized.

Special Sessions —

Special sessions will include:

Highlighted Abstracts —

The technical program and abstracts are now available.