Aussie (& IIS) link to nasa's Cassini Huygens mission

[Kokatha man]

Hi everyone - just wanted to pass on the link given to me by Trevor Barry for an update on NASA's Cassini Huygens mission:

http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=4963 (http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=4963)

Some of you may remember Trevor as a very new member of IIS who recently posted, under the forum name "Quark."

What most people (one in particular) would not know is that Trevor's own story is a truly remakable one; the stuff of dreams for many of us AA's. Spending most of his adult life working underground in the mines, but with an abiding passion for astronomy; Trevor, after 34 years in the mines, enrolled, studied and then graduated with the honour of top graduate in his degree program of Astronomy from Swinburne University. He was awarded the 2004 Award for Excellence as the top graduating student.

Trevor is part of the worldwide support team for NASA's Cassini RPWS (Radio and Plasma Wave Science) unit, the Australian member supplying images of these amazing electrical storms on Saturn's surface.

The above link gives an insight into these phenomena, as well as information on the Enceladus gas plumes etc: honouring Trevor and his 3 international colleagues specifically by mentioning their contributions to the NASA Cassini Project.

This sort of involvment is an honour for all Australians to be proud of; doubly so for Trevor with his own personal journey and achievements: I feel immensely proud that Trevor saw fit to pass this information on to me.

Regards, Darryl.

[Quark]

Thanks very much Darryl,
And thanks for the wisdom you expressed via the pm

Regards
Trevor

[renormalised]

Trevor, great to see you do so well:)

Wonderful effort with the imaging of the storm on Saturn. Yet another one. One wonders what's going on beneath those upper cloud decks, must be some heavy duty activity in the lower layers of the atmosphere going on. Lots of heating. Given the density of the lower layers, it's probably akin to a deep mantle plume rising through the asthenosphere here on Earth.

Anyway, what degree to course did you do at Swinburne??. Marvelous that you did so well. Ever thought about carrying it further and doing more study??

[h0ughy]

wow what a great story and insight

[Quark]

Hi renormalised,
Thanks.

Interesting things are happening within the atmosphere. The Cassini RPWS team are hoping to gain a greater understanding of these processes by analysing the data from their instrument.

Saturn is a net emitter of energy, it emits more energy than it absorbs from the Sun. It should be cooler than it is. Being smaller than Jupiter it should have cooled quicker. Another interesting point is the levels of helium in the atmosphere are way lower than they should be.

It is thought that Saturn did, in fact, cool down quicker than Jupiter and that this cooling condensed the helium that was originally in the upper atmosphere.

The condensed helium fell deeper into the planet, during this process, the gravitational energy of the raining out of the helium was turned into heat energy, (not to sure about the physics involved in this process) however such a process is thought to be able to account quite well for the amount of heat being emitted by Saturn.

Swinburne accepted my enrolment in their Graduate Certificate of Science in Astronomy program, this is post graduate but I got in based on my 20 years experience as an amateur, at the time. There was also the proviso that to maintain my enrolment I had to achieve a minimum of credit passes.

Initially I was full of trepidation and felt like a fish out of water, however the Swinburne unit instructors and project supervisors that I encountered were very supportive and in the end I really thrived on it and will never forget the experience.

I did one unit per semester and after two years of very hard work graduated with straight High Distinctions, my lowest unit mark being 91.
One day I may return and do my Masters but at the moment my sons education is much more important than that of an old fossil

Regards
Trevor

[Tamtarn]

Great story. Very interesting work you do Trevor and congratulations on your recognition from Cassini's RPWS unit.

[renormalised]

Trevor....yeah, I know about Saturn and it's physical characteristics. The physics involved with the raining helium has to do with thermodynamics and kinetic energy (essentially the gravitational energy converted into energy of motion) generated by the falling helium. As it falls through the rest of the atmosphere, some of the KE becomes converted into heat. That heat becomes transfered into the surrounding atmosphere and generates all the phenomena we see.....which is basically it, rather simply put. Fortunately, the description of the process is far easier to follow than the maths!!!!.

Great to see you did so well in your certificate course and that the lecturers and tutors were so helpful. It can be daunting going to uni, whether it's on campus or external. Especially when you haven't been in that sort of environment for a long time.

You know, you could go back and do your Masters if you want to. You can get FEE-HELP assistance, and it might be fun for your son to know his Dad is at "school" too:D. He could tease you about your homework and having to get it done on time and all.... I can imagine it, your son coming up to you and saying, "Hey, Dad, you done your homework???...no TV for you until you do":P:P

[Quark]

Your right about that. He is 13, takes a size ten shoe and is about 3 inches taller than me. He would delight in keeping his old man honest.

Cheers
Trevor

[davidpretorius]

well done trevor.

[Kevnool]

Hey Trevor you even got your name in Bintells night sky magazine that was posted out to me i,ll drop around and pop it in your letterbox....cheers Kev

[renormalised]

Not doing too bad....so far I'm averaging 93% for my assessed work, but I knew about the raining helium well before I started my course (a Masters degree). I've been an amateur astronomer for quite some time:)

I imagine he would....but he's still not too big to put over your knee:P:)