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/

Comments

[chickenfeet]

Yay!

[miss_s_b]

w00t!

[duccio]

Congratulations. A wonderful recognition of your team's accomplishment.

What does the Cassini magnetometer look like? Is it small and miniaturized? How can I get one?

[quoththeravyn]

It's great to be recognized!

[mixofsun]

Congratulations! ^_^

[lurkingcat]

Hurrah!

[weaverbird]

Congratulations!! \o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

[ironed_orchid]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[azurelunatic]

Hooray!

[davegodfrey]

Congratulations! Do you get a spiffy medal then?

[nanila]

*happy dance* Woo!

[nanila]

We done good stuff! Yay us!

[nanila]

Thank you!

The Cassini magnetometer is actually two instruments, neither of which is small. There's the vector helium magnetometer and the fluxgate magnetometer. The former was built at NASA-JPL, the latter by us at Imperial College. Each is about the size of a football with the shielding and the electronics box.

High-sensitivity fluxgate ring cores are very expensive, so you probably wouldn't want to buy one for personal use. But you can get reasonably good results in Earth's field from magnetoresistive magnetometers, which are little chips no bigger than a fingernail, and are pretty cheap. The last time I bought some was five years ago, from Honeywell, and if I remember right they were around $5 each.

[nanila]

It is! It's very nice indeed. :)

[nanila]

Sadly, no. There are quite a lot of us on the team, so I believe we must content ourselves with the warm glow of satisfaction.

[qian]

Yay, congrats!

[nanila]

Yes! Yippeee!

[nanila]

Wheee! Thank you!

[nanila]

YESSSSSSS

[nanila]

And there was much rejoicing! (In between frantic iterations of document that is due on Monday, ack.)

[nanila]

Yes! Happy Snoopy dance indeed!

[nanila]

Thank you! Yay!

Also, great to see you here again. :)

[nou]

Ooh, congratulations!

[davegodfrey]

Not even a photocopied certificate? I am disappoint :(

[nanila]

Oh, I don't know, we might get one of those eventually! We talked about getting badges printed, as that would be pretty cheap. I might do a design and see if the boss likes it.

[nanila]

Yay! Thank you!

[lark_ascends]

*massive grin* So very awesome.

[nanila]

\o/ Thank you! Feeling pretty happy this weekend. :)

[pbristow]

"It's one small step for (a) man (with an award plaque tucked under his arm)... But it's a full-on victory-rumba for the Cassini Magnetometer team!"

=:o>

[nanila]

Haha, I think we might be best off with a simple conga line. :P