EDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact: Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382

News Release: 2005-163 November 11, 2005

Free Lectures on Exploring Pluto

Two free public programs in Pasadena will offer an overview
of the upcoming NASA mission to Pluto. Pluto is the only planet
in our solar system not yet studied by a robotic explorer, but
not for long.

Dr. Bonnie Buratti, a New Horizons science team co-investigator
from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will
talk about the mission on Thursday evening, Nov. 17, at JPL
and on Friday evening, Nov. 18, at Pasadena City College.
Now at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the spacecraft
is scheduled for launch on Jan. 11, 2006. JPL will provide the
communications coverage for the mission via NASA's Deep Space
Network.

Buratti's major interest is in whether there has been geologic
activity on Pluto in the recent past and whether Pluto has
seasons. She is also interested in the surface composition and
texture of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Objects, millions of
asteroid-like bodies from outside the orbit of Pluto, which
scientists hope to observe.

A native of Pennsylvania, she holds a bachelor's degree in earth
and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and a Ph.D. in astronomy and space
sciences from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. She is currently
a science team member on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.

NASA's New Horizons mission will be the first to visit Pluto
and its largest moon, Charon. The compact spacecraft carries
seven science instruments for examining the geology, composition,
surface, temperature and atmospheric structure of the planet
and its main moon. The science team is studying whether New
Horizons will be able to obtain data on the two recently
discovered smaller moons of Pluto. The Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., manages the mission and will
operate the spacecraft for NASA.

Both lectures will begin at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come,
first-served. The Thursday lecture will be in JPL's von Karman
Auditorium. JPL is at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., off the Oak Grove
Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway. The Friday lecture
will be in Pasadena City College's Vosloh Forum, 1570 E.
Colorado Blvd. For more information, call (818) 354-0112.


Thursday's lecture will be webcast live at

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/nov05.cfm.

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