ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist
As the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, Carolyn Porco interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons.

Why you should listen

Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco studies and interprets the photos from NASA space missions like the renowned Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. She leads a team of scientists from the US and Europe that has been analyzing the images Cassini has sent back since it left Earth in 1997. At Saturn, they have found new phenomena everywhere they've turned their cameras … in the planet’s atmosphere, within its rings and on the surfaces of its many moons. And they've produced spectacular images and animations of these marvels in the process.

Back in the early-1980s, while still working on her doctorate, Porco was drafted onto the Voyager imaging team to assist in crunching the mountains of data coming back from Voyager’s fly-by of Saturn. Her work on the planet's rings and their relation to its moons cemented her connection with Saturn. After Voyager had flown by Neptune and was nearing conclusion, she worked together with Carl Sagan in planning Voyager’s celebrated Pale Blue Dot picture of Earth.

Her ongoing work at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPs) has two goals: to process, interpret and archive Cassini’s images for other scientists, and to make sure the images -- in all their breathtaking poetry and mystery and sheer Save-Image-As-Desktop awesomeness -- connect with the general public. She is an advocate for the exploration and understanding of planetary space, and her frequent talks (as well as her "Captain's Log" memos on the CICLOPS website) speak to everyone, scientist and nonscientist alike. Her advocacy extends to Hollywood, where she was the character consultant on the 1997 movie “Contact,” and a consultant on the 2009 Paramount Pictures re-boot of “Star Trek.” In 2012, she was named one the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine.

Finally, in a twist on the Pale Blue Dot theme, it was she who conceived the idea to invite the people of the world to smile while Cassini imaged the Earth on July 19, 2013 in an event called “The Day the Earth Smiled.”

For more information: 

Solar System Portrait: Earth as 'Pale Blue Dot'

BBC: Saturn snapped as Earth smiled

The Atlantic: The Carl Sagan of Our Time Reprises the 'Pale Blue Dot' Photo of Earth

The Day the Earth Smiled: Image

Library of Congress: Portraits of the Solar System: Talking with Carolyn Porco About Carl Sagan  

More profile about the speaker
Carolyn Porco | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Carolyn Porco: Could a Saturn moon harbor life?

Carolyn Porco: Pode uma lua de Saturno abrigar vida?

Filmed:
1,054,733 views

Carolyn Porco compartilha novas descobertas do mais recente sobrevôo da nave Cassini sobre Enceladus, uma das luas de Saturno. Amostras coletadas dos geisers gelados desta lua sugerem que um oceano abaixo de sua superfície poderia abrigar vida
- Planetary scientist
As the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, Carolyn Porco interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

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Two years ago here at TED
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Dois anos atrás aqui no TED
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I reported that we had discovered
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eu mostrei que nós havíamos descoberto
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at Saturn, with the Cassini Spacecraft,
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em Saturno, com a nave Cassini
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an anomalously warm and geologically active region
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uma região anormalmente quente e geologicamente ativa
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at the southern tip of the small Saturnine moon
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no extremo da região sul da pequena lua de Saturno
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Enceladus, seen here.
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Enceladus, mostrada aqui.
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This region seen here for the first time
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Esta região foi vista pela primeira vez
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in the Cassini image taken in 2005. This is the south polar region,
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em uma imagem da Cassini tirada em 2005. Esta é a região polar sul.
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with the famous tiger-stripe fractures crossing the south pole.
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Com as famosas fraturas que lembram uma pele de tigre cruzando o pólo sul.
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And seen just recently in late 2008,
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E vistas bem recentemente no final de 2008,
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here is that region again,
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aqui está aquela região novamente,
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now half in darkness because the southern hemisphere
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agora metade na escuridão porque o hemisfério sul
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is experiencing the onset of August
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está no início de Agosto,
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and eventually winter.
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no início do inverno.
00:57
And I also reported that we'd made this mind-blowing discovery --
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E eu também mostrei que nos fizemos esta sensacional descoberta,
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this once-in-a-lifetime discovery
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esta descoberta única,
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of towering jets
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de jatos torrenciais
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erupting from those fractures at the south pole,
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saindo destas fraturas no pólo sul,
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consisting of tiny water ice crystals
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consistindo de finos cristais de gelo
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accompanied by water vapor
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acompanhados por vapor de água
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and simple organic compounds like carbon dioxide and methane.
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e compostos orgânicos simples como dióxido de carbono e metano.
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And at that time two years ago
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E naquela vez, há dois anos,
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I mentioned that we were speculating
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eu mencionei que nós especulávamos
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that these jets might in fact be geysers,
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que estes jatos poderiam ser realmente geisers
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and erupting from pockets
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em erupção de bolsões
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or chambers of liquid water underneath the surface,
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ou câmaras de água líquida sob a superfície.
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but we weren't really sure.
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Mas nós não tinhamos certeza.
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However, the implications of those results --
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Contudo, as implicações destes resultados,
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of a possible environment within this moon
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de um possível ambiente dentro desta lua
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that could support prebiotic chemistry,
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que poderia suportar química pré-biótica,
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and perhaps life itself --
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e talvez mesmo vida,
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were so exciting that, in the intervening two years,
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eram tão sensacionais que, nos dois anos seguintes,
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we have focused more on Enceladus.
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nós focamos mais em Enceladus.
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We've flown the Cassini Spacecraft
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Nós sobrevoamos com a nave Cassini
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by this moon now several times,
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esta lua diversas vezes
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flying closer and deeper into these jets,
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Voando mais próximo e mais fundo nestes jatos,
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into the denser regions of these jets,
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nas regiões mais densas destes jatos,
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so that now we have come away with some
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de modo que agora nós temos algumas
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very precise compositional measurements.
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medições de composição muito precisas.
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And we have found
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E nós descobrimos
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that the organic compounds coming from this moon
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que os compostos orgânicos vindos desta lua
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are in fact more complex than we previously reported.
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são de fato mais complexos do que informamos anteriormente.
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While they're not amino acids,
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Apesar de não serem aminoácidos,
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we're now finding things like
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nós estamos encontrando agora coisas como
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propane and benzene,
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propano e benzeno,
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hydrogen cyanide, and formaldehyde.
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cianeto de hidrogênio, e formaldeídos.
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And the tiny water crystals here
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E os pequenos cristais de água aqui
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now look for all the world
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agora aparecem para todo o mundo
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like they are frozen droplets of salty water,
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como sendo gotas congeladas de água salgada.
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which is a discovery that suggests
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O que é uma descoberta que sugere
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that not only do the jets come from
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que não apenas os jatos vêm de
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pockets of liquid water,
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bolsões de água líquida,
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but that that liquid water is in contact with rock.
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mas que esta água está em contato com rochas.
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And that is a circumstance
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E que isto é uma circunstância
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that could supply the chemical energy
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que pode fornecer a energia química
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and the chemical compounds needed to sustain life.
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e os componentes químicos necessários para sustentar vida.
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So we are very encouraged by these results.
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Então, estamos bem animados com estes resultados
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And we are much more confident now than we were two years ago
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e estamos muito mais confiantes do que estávamos dois anos atrás,
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that we might indeed
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de que realmente podemos,
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have on this moon, under the south pole,
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ter nesta lua, sob o pólo sul,
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an environment or a zone that is hospitable to living organisms.
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um ambiente ou uma zona que é habitável por organismos vivos.
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Whether or not there are living organisms there, of course,
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Se há ou não organismos lá, é lógico,
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is an entirely different matter.
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é uma questão inteiramente diferente.
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And that will have to await the arrival,
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E que terá de aguardar a chegada
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back at Enceladus,
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de volta da Enceladus.
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of the spacecrafts, hopefully some time in the near future,
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Tomara que em um futuro próximo, existam naves
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specifically equipped to address that particular question.
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especificamente equipadas para estudar esta questão em particular.
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But in the meantime I invite you to imagine the day
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Mas, enquanto isto, eu convido vocês para imaginar o dia
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when we might journey to the Saturnine system,
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em que nós poderemos viajar ao sistema Saturnino,
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and visit the Enceladus interplanetary geyser park,
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e visitar o parque interplanetário de geisers de Enceladus,
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just because we can.
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só porque podemos.
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Thank you.
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Obrigada.
03:23
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Gilberto Parreira
Reviewed by Alvino Moreira Netto

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist
As the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, Carolyn Porco interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons.

Why you should listen

Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco studies and interprets the photos from NASA space missions like the renowned Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. She leads a team of scientists from the US and Europe that has been analyzing the images Cassini has sent back since it left Earth in 1997. At Saturn, they have found new phenomena everywhere they've turned their cameras … in the planet’s atmosphere, within its rings and on the surfaces of its many moons. And they've produced spectacular images and animations of these marvels in the process.

Back in the early-1980s, while still working on her doctorate, Porco was drafted onto the Voyager imaging team to assist in crunching the mountains of data coming back from Voyager’s fly-by of Saturn. Her work on the planet's rings and their relation to its moons cemented her connection with Saturn. After Voyager had flown by Neptune and was nearing conclusion, she worked together with Carl Sagan in planning Voyager’s celebrated Pale Blue Dot picture of Earth.

Her ongoing work at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPs) has two goals: to process, interpret and archive Cassini’s images for other scientists, and to make sure the images -- in all their breathtaking poetry and mystery and sheer Save-Image-As-Desktop awesomeness -- connect with the general public. She is an advocate for the exploration and understanding of planetary space, and her frequent talks (as well as her "Captain's Log" memos on the CICLOPS website) speak to everyone, scientist and nonscientist alike. Her advocacy extends to Hollywood, where she was the character consultant on the 1997 movie “Contact,” and a consultant on the 2009 Paramount Pictures re-boot of “Star Trek.” In 2012, she was named one the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine.

Finally, in a twist on the Pale Blue Dot theme, it was she who conceived the idea to invite the people of the world to smile while Cassini imaged the Earth on July 19, 2013 in an event called “The Day the Earth Smiled.”

For more information: 

Solar System Portrait: Earth as 'Pale Blue Dot'

BBC: Saturn snapped as Earth smiled

The Atlantic: The Carl Sagan of Our Time Reprises the 'Pale Blue Dot' Photo of Earth

The Day the Earth Smiled: Image

Library of Congress: Portraits of the Solar System: Talking with Carolyn Porco About Carl Sagan  

More profile about the speaker
Carolyn Porco | Speaker | TED.com
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM