"For years our program has aimed not only to present the progress of astronomy, but to give an opportunity to our members to hear, see, and visit with eminent scientists who actually are contributing to the ever-widening horizon of our knowledge of the universe. ”
1947 CAS brochure by Dr. Jason J. Nassau
The Cleveland Astronomical Society
LECTURE NEWS: MEETINGS:
2024 - 2025
The Cleveland Astronomical Society Lecture Series
has announced the lineup of speakers for the 103rd Season.
LECTURE: Ocean Worlds, Habitability, and NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission
Europa, an intriguing moon of Jupiter, has an icy exterior with a deep salty ocean beneath. Owing to its slightly eccentric orbit, this world undergoes tidal forcing that not only provides heat that maintains its liquid ocean, but which may also cause hydrothermal activity at its seafloor and support a habitable environment there. The Europa Clipper mission, scheduled to launch in October 2024, will investigate Europa to constrain its habitability and seek to further understand its geology, interior, composition, and search for any current activity. If Europa harbors the needed conditions and ingredients for supporting life, potential follow-on missions could search for biosignatures there, and at other ocean worlds in our solar system, potentially making the first discovery of life beyond Earth.
BIOGRAPHY: John Hopkins University and works with JPL on the Europa Clipper Mission
Dr. Kathleen Craft’s work focuses on helping develop NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, which will investigate the moon’s geology, activity, and habitability. She collaborates with the instrument and project teams to develop the science measurement requirements for the mission and assists with science-related project activities. She is also part of the study team for a landed mission on Europa and is the principal investigator for the development of a communication capability for a subsurface Europa cryobot. Dr. Craft’s research interests include modeling fluid intrusions and fracture mechanics on ocean worlds and Ceres and hydrothermal systems on Mars, as well as biosignatures and determining habitability in different environments. Currently, she is working to develop a microfluidics sample preparation device to purify, in situ, amino acids, DNA and RNA, and other biosignatures and protect them from salts and other inhibitors for follow-on detections and characterizations. Dr. Craft pursues fieldwork to validate her models and provide insight into the physics of geological and biological processes on Earth and those that are likely occurring on other worlds.