The mythology and scientific discoveries surrounding the planet Jupiter will be celebrated in a free public presentation at Pasadena City College's Vosloh Forum auditorium, on Saturday, Dec. 30 at 7 p.m., sponsored by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in honor of the Cassini spacecraft's flyby of that planet occurring on the same day.
Readings from mythology and scientific observations of Jupiter through the ages will be presented. There will be an appearance by Galileo Galilei (played by actor Mark Thompson), who will describe his view of the sky in 1610 when he first turned his telescope toward Jupiter and recorded his momentous discoveries. Observations of Jupiter made in the modern era by NASA spacecraft and Earth-based astronomers will be included.
The two-hour multimedia event, "Jupiter in Myth, History, & Science," commemorates the Dec. 30 flyby of Jupiter by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, bound for Saturn. At the same time, NASA's Galileo spacecraft, named for the famed astronomer, has been studying Jupiter in depth since it entered orbit around the giant planet in December 1995. Both spacecraft were built at and are operated by JPL. Communications with the interplanetary spacecraft are conducted through NASA's global Deep Space Network, also managed by JPL.
Pasadena City College's Vosloh Forum is located on the east side of the campus. Auditorium seating is on a first- come, first-served basis, and parking is free. For directions to the campus, see
http://www.paccd.cc.ca.us/map/pcccampus.htm .
For more information on the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft observations at Jupiter, see
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby .
JPL, NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system, is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.