The Sunshine Coast branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada welcomes Catherine Johnson from UBC, whose topic will be The InSight Mission: Journey to the Centre of Mars. She will speak at 7:30 p.m. on April 8 at the Sunshine Coast Art Centre, 5714 Medusa St. in Sechelt.
Orbital and lander missions to Mars over the past several decades have revealed a wealth of information about the planet’s surface geology and raised many unanswered questions about the planet’s past climate conditions. Key to answering many of these questions is understanding the planet’s deep interior, about which we know very little. Mars’ interior is also a fingerprint for the earliest stages of evolution of any of the terrestrial (rocky) planets in the inner solar system.
The InSight mission, planned for launch in 2018, will deploy a seismometer, a heat flow probe and several other instruments on the surface of Mars. Johnson will talk about how InSight will monitor the Red Planet’s “vital signs” – pulse (seismicity), temperature (heat flow) and reflexes (wobbles).
Admission is free. See www.coastastronomy.ca for more information.
