| Session Details | |
| Section | PS - Planetary Sciences |
| Session Title | Outer Planets and Their Exoplanetary Analogs |
| Main Convener | Dr. Wing-Huen Ip (National Central University, Taiwan) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Sushil Atreya (University of Michigan, United States) Dr. Linda Spilker (NASA/JPL, United States) Prof. Takehiko Satoh (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan) Dr. Anil Bhardwaj (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, India) Prof. Olivier Grasset (University of Nantes, France) Dr. Norbert Krupp (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany) |
| Session Description | The past four decades have revealed never before seen views of the outer solar system, beginning with the Voyager missions starting in 1977 and continuing with Galileo orbiter and entry probe and the joint NASA-ESA-ASI Cassini Huygens mission that will culminate in a Grand Finale mission in 2017. These explorations have generated a wealth of unprecedented scientific data that have been instrumental in shaping our current understanding of the workings of the solar system. At the same time, exoplanet observations are beginning to yield composition and structure data of extrasolar giant planets, which are providing new insights into the origin and evolution of solar systems. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the highly successful Huygens landing at Titan, an earth-like world. The New Horizons spacecraft will be at Pluto in July 2015. L, ooking to the future, NASA’s JUNO spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter, preparations for ESA’s Ganymede orbiter mission JUICE are on track for launch in 2025, and plans are being developed for the NASA Europa Clipper mission and a Uranus Orbiter with Probe mission in the 2020’s. Following in the footsteps of successful lunar missions of Japan, China and India, and then the wonderful Indian Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan, planetary scientists in Asia may soon join forces with their European and American colleagues in exploring the outer solar system. Thus it is timely to organize an AOGS session on outer planets to review significant scientific achievements in the areas of outer planetary and satellite atmospheres, magnetospheres, icy moons and the rings, including results on the Saturn system obtained by Cassini-Huygens, prior and anticipated observations of other outer planets and moons, and modeling of planetary phenomena. Because of tremendous advances made in the study of extrasolar giant planets, we solicit also abstracts on related topics – with a view to promote interdisciplinary dialog between planetary scientists and astrophysicists, in the international setting of, the 12th annual meeting of AOGS in Singapore. |