The ISAS seminar on Mar 16 (wed) afternoon (1630-1730).
Dr. Jim Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, will provide a seminar titled "Ocean Worlds of the Outer Solar System and Beyond".

Abstract：
One of the great surprises of the late 20th century was the discovery that a saltwater sea lies beneath an icy surface crust that covers Jupiter's moon Europa. Saturn's moon Enceladus has also been discovered to have an icy surface beneath which an ocean of liquid water provides the source of jetting plumes of water ice at the moon's south pole. Jupiter's Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede, Saturn's Enceladus and Titan, and possibly Neptune's Triton are all worlds in the outer solar system that are now known to harbor reservoirs of H20 in solid and liquid form. Inasmuch as life is found wherever there is water on Earth, the search for life at these destinations has become compelling. Any life detected at the remote "ocean worlds" in the Outer Solar System is likely to have formed and evolved along an independent path from life on Earth itself.

The search for water and life in the Universe does not end with our solar system. In just the past decade the existence of scores of planets around nearby stars has been confirmed indicating that there are more planets then stars in our galaxy. It is expected that a class of these planets are ocean worlds. Humanity has surely embarked upon one of the most stirring epochs of exploration in history.