Weekly Space Hangout – Oct. 16, 2015: Dr. Carolyn Porco and Cassini Update; Sexual Harassment in Astronomy and Academia

Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain)

Special Guest: Dr. Carolyn Porco is the leader of the Cassini Imaging Science team and the Director of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Guests:
Pamela Gay (cosmoquest.org / @cosmoquestx / @starstryder)
Morgan Rehnberg (cosmicchatter.org / @MorganRehnberg )
Kimberly Cartier (@AstroKimCartier )
Dave Dickinson (@astroguyz / www.astroguyz.com)
Nicole Gugliucci (cosmoquest.org / @noisyastronomer)
Alessondra Springmann (@sondy)
Rhys Taylor (G+: Rhys Taylor)

This Week’s Stories:

Cassini Begins Series of Flybys with Close-up of Saturn Moon Enceladus?

Statistics of gender representation

Online harrassment fascilitates the problem

Marcy Story: Original Buzfeed Article

Marcy Story: Marcy’s open letter reply

Marcy Story: Immediate follow-up by Dr. John Johnson

Marcy Story: CSWA Chair’s Message to the Greater Astronomical Community on Harassment

More on Marcy mess and broader perspective on harassment in astronomy/academia and here

A thousand faint galaxies in the Coma cluster

Why Scientists Are Speculating About ‘Alien Superstructures’ Around an Irregular Star

Venus and Jupiter pairing

Age of the Dragon: SpaceX has ambitious plans for the Red Planet

Sierra Nevada on watch for critical cargo award

SpaceX Wrapping Up Falcon 9 Failure Investigation

Radboud radio telescope to travel with Stratos II+ rocket again

NASA chief says ban on China space cooperation is ‘temporary’

<a href=”http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-how-nasa-wants-get-mars-180956895 “China is building a huge telescope to try and listen to aliens”>Here’s how NASA Wants to get to Mars

Check Out This Drone Footage Of China’s Insanely Huge Radio Telescope and here

New Horizons Sends Back New Images Of Pluto’s Smallest Moon Styx

Hubble sees an aging star wave goodbye

Climate models used to explain formation of Mars valley networks

NASA names John Honeycutt new SLS Program Manager

China has had a telescope on the moon for the past two years

#TWiM Within 80 days Elon Musk should reveal a detailed design for the Mars Colonial Transport Rocket

Young stars’ flickering light reveals remarkable link with matter-eating black holes

Hubble’s Planetary Portrait Captures New Changes in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

VLA Reveals Spectacular “Halos” of Spiral Galaxies

AIMing a light across millions of kilometres (Asteroid Impact Mission)

Rev223 (Preview of Cassini Spacecraft Activities Around Saturn)

Repaired SpaceX rocket to fly by early December, company says

Shedding light on the growth of stars and black holes

NASA, Israel ink space cooperation agreement

Pufferfish planets could explain how hot Jupiters get so big

Comet Encke’s Tail May Shed Light on Solar Wind Heating

Blast waves in the sun’s atmosphere

What smacks into Ceres stays on Ceres, research suggests

NASA Issues New Awards for Planetary Data System

A breakthrough on the mathematical understanding of Einstein’s equations

Media Accreditation Open: Orbital ATK Space Station Resupply Mission

LMA telescope unveils rapid formation of new stars in distant galaxies

Sure, This Star Is Weird. But Aliens?

Robotic Astronomer Finds New Home

Mound near lunar south pole formed by unique volcanic process?

Cassini’s Close Flyby of Enceladus Yields Surprising, Perplexing Imagery

North Pole of Saturn’s Ocean Moon Enceladus?

ExoMars Heads to the Red Planet in 2016

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.

You can join in the discussion between episodes over at our Weekly Space Hangout Crew group in G+, and suggest your ideas for stories we can discuss each week!

7 Replies to “Weekly Space Hangout – Oct. 16, 2015: Dr. Carolyn Porco and Cassini Update; Sexual Harassment in Astronomy and Academia”

  1. Sweet jezus, I come here for science and it is contaminated with this feminists propaganda too. I am done with Universe Today, going to some other sources that actually talks about science.

    1. Get over yourself. You don’t have to be a feminist to acknowledge that a middle aged dude feeling up undergraduate women is a really sketchy.

      1. Right, but I think his point is that this is a website to discus astrophysics and space science, not gossip about sexual harassment and sexism.

      2. And I think it’s perfectly reasonable on an astronomy blog to talk about astronomers and the things, good or bad, that they get up to.

      3. Perhaps. I guess the last thing I will say on this is that this is not the first time I have seen this happen. Well meaning people will, every so often, talk about these issue. However, soon it becomes all they talk about. I do not want to see that happen here. I can, as a result, understand some peoples negative reactions to this.

        I come here and listen to these shows to hear experts talk about science and their research. These are not lawyers, they are also not crime analysts or law enforcement. I’ve no doubt that they are smart or well reasoned individuals, but they are not experts in this field anymore than I am. This does not mean that I think that they do not have a right to share their opinions on these kind of issues. Honestly, I would not mind hearing them. This was just not the venue for that, though.

  2. Never imagined in the wildest of dreams that Geoff Marcy and sexual harassment would be linked in the same sentence.
    But here we go sad days to see the demise of brilliance. Wait a minute all that ingenuity cannot figure out basic etiquette, class and manners especially how a lady should be treated??? What a frikkin toad of a bummer!!!

  3. This has got to be absolutely the best episode yet! Dr. Porco is flat out fascinating! She is so much part of the Saturn exploration legacy no doubt her name will be remembered for centuries if not longer! Thanks you guys for setting up that interview. Thanks Carolyn for making yourself available in this public outreach forum. Good job you guys!

    Thank you so much! The Cassini mission is right up near the top on my ‘favorite mission’ checklist!

    Geoff Marcy a sexist pig? What a let down. OINK you dude!

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