FOR SCIENCE! Cassini MAG team wins RAS group achievement award

[nanila]

A long and difficult week is ending on a positive note!

The Royal Astronomical Society has awarded the Cassini Magnetometer (MAG) team a Group Achievement Award in geophysics.

From the awards announcement:

The Magnetometer has been one of the most successful instruments aboard the spacecraft, continuously returning data about the fields in the peri-kronian environment, through the ringed planet’s bow shock and magnetopause and deep inside its magnetosphere. One of the key findings of Cassini – and one of the most unexpected and scientifically challenging – was that the small, icy moon Enceladus is pouring a jet of water into Saturn’s magnetosphere. This finding is a direct result of the efforts of the Magnetometer Team and its Principal Investigator, Professor Michele Dougherty.

From Prof. Dougherty* on the Imperial web site news item:

I am very honoured that the Cassini magnetometer team has been recognised by the RAS in this way. It is been an extremely rich and rewarding experience to work closely with such a fantastic group of scientists and engineers** from the magnetometer team, other Cassini instrument teams and the Cassini Project. I look forward to continuing the very fruitful collaboration we’ve all had in the remaining 4-years of the mission at Saturn.

* That's my boss!
** That's me! \o/