Carolyn Porco

Carolyn Porco is a planetary scientist and explorer, and a popular public spokesperson on science, solar system exploration, and the future of humanity. She was the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission to Saturn from 1990 to 2017, and an imaging scientist on the celebrated Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s. Asteroid Porco 7231 is named in her honor.

Porco and her Cassini team were responsible for many discoveries at Saturn, including geysers of frozen water mist erupting from the small moon Enceladus, the first sightings of lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons on Saturn’s moon Titan, and new phenomena in Saturn’s rings and on its moons. She has co-authored over 130 scientific papers in planetary science.

She worked with Carl Sagan on the renowned Voyager ‘Pale Blue Dot’ picture of Earth and was responsible for the July 19, 2013 ‘Day the Earth Smiled’ image and event, when Cassini captured an image of Earth from afar with Saturn and its rings in the foreground. This was the first time a long-distance photo of our planet was taken with the full advance knowledge of the public, who were invited to take part in a moment of reflection and celebration of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Porco has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to science and the public sphere. For her scientific accomplishments, Porco received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011 from her alma mater, Caltech, and has been recognized with Honorary Doctorates of Science from Stony Brook University, Arizona State University, and Monmouth University. In 1999, she was recognized as one of 18 scientific leaders of the 21st century by the Sunday Times London, and in 2009, as one of ‘50 People Who Matter Today’ by New Statesman. She was presented the Carl Sagan Medal by the American Astronomical Society in 2010 for excellence in the communication of science to the public and the inaugural National Geographic Eliza Scidmore Award for outstanding scientific story-telling. She was named one of the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine in 2012 and was selected for inclusion into the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2019. She is a popular public spokesperson on planetary exploration, science, leadership, and teamwork. She has spoken at TED (2009, 2007) and TEDxBerkeley (2020).

Porco was a consultant on the main character, Ellie Arroway, for the 1997 Warner Bros movie adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel, "Contact," and the science advisor to the 2009 Paramount Picture feature-film reboot of "Star Trek." She has a new Substack subscription newsletter, ‘Coming of Age in the Solar System.’