Michele Dougherty on Saturn

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2017

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

The Cassini mission into deep space has witnessed raging storms, flown between Saturn's enigmatic rings and revealed seven new moons. And, thanks in no small part to Professor Michele Dougherty, it's made some astonishing discoveries. For the last twenty years, Michele been responsible for one of the key instruments on board Cassini - the magnetometer. In 2005, she spotted a strange signature in the data during a distant fly by of Saturn's smaller moons, Enceladus and became curious. Now,space missions are planned years ahead of time. Every detail is nailed down. But Michele convinced mission control to divert Cassini from its carefully planned route to take a closer look at Enceladus. And her gamble paid off. Cassini scientists soon discovered jets of water vapour and organic material shooting out of the south pole of Enceladus, not bad for a small moon that could so easily have been ignored. It's now thought that this tiny moon might be able to support microbial life underneath its icy surface. In 2008, Michele was awarded the hugely prestigious Hughes medal for her work - an honour last given to a woman in 1906! She's also been voted by the UK Science Council as one of the country's top 100 living scientists. She talks to Jim al-Khalili about growing up in South Africa, moving from mathematics to managing space missions and what they hope will happen when Cassini crashes into Saturn later this year. Producer: Anna Buckley.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific.
0:03.6	First broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
0:06.3	I'm Jumal Kiele and my mission is to interview the most fascinating and important
0:11.0	scientists alive today and to find out what makes them tick.
0:15.0	The Cassini mission to Saturn has witnessed raging storms,
0:20.0	revealed seven new moons,
0:22.0	and sent back some stunning images of Saturn and its
0:24.8	rings up close. And thanks in no small part to Professor Michel Doherty, it's made
0:29.6	some astonishing discoveries. Jets of waterour and organic material shooting out of the
0:34.6	south pole of one of Saturn's smaller moons Enceladus, which generated tremendous
0:39.7	excitement that this tiny moon might be able to support microbial life underneath its icy surface.
0:46.0	For the past 20 years Michelle has been responsible for one of the key instruments on board
0:50.2	Cassini, the magnetometer. In 2005 she persuaded mission control to
0:55.2	divert the spacecraft so that it flew incredibly close to Enceladus. As a
0:59.8	result these remarkable vapor jets were revealed. In 2008 Michelle was awarded the hugely
1:05.6	prestigious Hughes Medal for her work, an honour last given to a woman in 1906. She was also
1:11.3	voted by the UK Science Council as one of the country's top 100
1:15.2	living scientists. Michelle Doherty, welcome to the Life Scientific.
1:18.1	Hello, thank you very much. So Michelle, later this year, Kacini, a mission that was initially planned to last just four years,
1:25.0	will come to an end 20 years after it was launched.
1:28.0	And that grand finale, as NASA's calling it, it does sound like it's going to be pretty spectacular.
1:34.5	It is and I'm a little bit unsettled by at all because what we're planning to do with both
	...

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