Abstract: Gerard P. Kuiper discovered the atmosphere of Titan by photographic spectroscopy in 1944; in 1946, he turned his attention to planetary spectroscopy beyond the limits of photographic emulsions. Many discoveries were quick to follow. Cruikshank will talk about these discoveries as well as early experiments and observations in the field of near-infrared planetary spectroscopy as it now stands.

Abstract: In the early 1980s, worlds in the outer solar system were being seen up close for the first time. Sykes discovered large new structures in the inner solar system studying data from a small satellite named IRAS. Comet trails (looking for all the world like airplane contrails in space) changed our understanding of the basic composition of comets. Rings of dust around the sun arose from asteroid collisions and revealed an interplanetary dust complex that was highly variable over time....

Colin Dundas is Postdoctoral Research Associate and holds his Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona. His research interests include: planetary geomorphology and surface processes, particularly focusing on the surface of Mars. I use a combination of image analysis (largely using data from the HiRISE camera) and modeling to examine the formation and evolution of surface features. This helps to understand the processes and conditions which have shaped the present surface. I...

Brother Guy Consolmagno is the curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory. He has an extensive academic background and has written more than 100 scientific publications alongside numerous books.

Abstract: The transient population of near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs, represents the largest fraction of the solar system objects that can impact the Earth. For the first time in its history, humankind has the capacity to consider how to prevent a catastrophic collision of a near-Earth object with the Earth, and the audacity to imagine that it can do so. In pursuit of this goal, scientists from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have played a major role in shaping our understanding of the...

William Hartmann is founder of the Planetary Science Institute, where he is now Senior Scientist. Dr. Hartmann is an alumnus of the University of Arizona and of LPL: "I came in 1961,when LPL was located in the Physics, Math, and Meteorology Building, PMM. A group of us were located not in PMM but in a Quonset hut called T6, for Temporary Building Number 6. It was a sort of cylindrical shaped structure, on the present location of the science library. We used to have jokes about Kuiper flying...