NASA astrophysicist who works on missions to Pluto, Jupiter to speak at Cal Poly

Fran Bagenal — professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences, team member on NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and working group chair for the Juno mission to Jupiter — is scheduled to speak at Cal Poly’s Spanos Theatre at 7 p.m. April 12.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public.

Bagenal “will speak about how New Horizons came to be, how the spacecraft got to Pluto, and how the findings challenge the current understanding of ice worlds in the outer solar system,” according to a Cal Poly news release.

New Horizons was the first spacecraft to provide up-close images of the dwarf planet.

Bagenal also will discuss the Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 4.

More information is available at www.physics.calpoly.edu/space.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 6:31 PM with the headline "NASA astrophysicist who works on missions to Pluto, Jupiter to speak at Cal Poly."