SWOCC Lecture Series, Nov. 12

SWOCC release – Coos Bay, OR – As part of Southwestern Oregon Community College’s 2020-21 Physics and Astronomy Lecture Series, we are welcoming Dr. Tracy Becker of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas to discuss NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and the search for habitability beyond Earth. The talk will be Livestreamed at 6:30 pm on Thursday, November 12, 2020. The stream can be accessed via https://livestream.com/swocc/physicsandastronomy2020-21, and the college’s Facebook page. Do suitable conditions for life exist in our Solar System outside of the Earth? The primary goal of NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission is to investigate whether Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, could harbor the conditions suitable for life. In this talk, Dr. Tracy Becker will explain why Europa is such an intriguing destination and will discuss NASA’s ambitious plans to assess the habitability of this ocean world. Dr. Tracy Becker is a Group Lead at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. She is a Co-Investigator and serves as the Composition Working Group co-chair for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. Her research interests include studying asteroids, Saturn’s rings, and Jupiter’s moons. Learn more from her website: https://www.tracybecker.space. For additional information contact Dr. Aaron Coyner, Associate Professor of Physics, aaron.coyner@socc.edu, 541 888-7244. Special thanks to the following sponsors and programs: Southwestern Oregon Community College Foundation, Coastline Library Network, NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador Program.