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Join us for our October lecture in our 2024-25 AAA Lecture Series with speaker Dr. Jean Lilensten, Research Director at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics in Grenoble. The topic will be: The Hunt for Mars Aurorae and High Altitude Clouds.
In 2005, the space mission Mars Express discovered aurorae in the Mars ionosphere. However, these were measured in the UV range and therefore, not all scientists agreed to call them “aurorae” since aurorae are usually meant to be visible to the naked eye. The next opportunity to study these Martian aurorae will be end of 2024/early 2025. The Mars Express group has decided to enlarge drastically the pool of observers in order to cover all latitudes, and all continents, to ensure a positive observation with twofold: to characterize these amazing clouds and to see, for the first time, the aurorae, benefiting from the cycle 25 solar max.
The Amateur Astronomers Association Lecture Series is held on the second Tuesday of each month, from October–May, beginning at 7:00 PM Eastern time.
Lectures are free and open to the public, but registration via Zoom is required.
Dr. Lilensten’s work can be identified under the general title of research on the planetary space environments. At the beginning of the 90s, the scientific community working on the solar terrestrial relationships, had a relatively circumscribed field of research. Two major evolutions have marked it considerably. The first is space weather. This term appeared recurrently in the mid-90s. It aims at extending the scientific knowledge in order to be able to quantify the solar activity and its impacts on our societies. The second is comparative planetology. It became more and more obvious that the space envelopes of the planets play a major role in their history, and that to be interested in them, the Earth specialists were well armed. In the recent years, these currents seem to join together to form a “planetary space weather”. Dr. Lilensten developed his research in both branches, addressing the impact of solar activity on different planets (Earth, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn). His most recent discoveries are the existence of blue auroras at Mars, and the polarisation of the auroral and nightglow emission in the Earth auroras. He created a polar auroras simulator, the Planeterrella, of which there are 38 operational copies in the world. He published 15 books ranging from space weather to epistemology.