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Minor Planet Symposium to be held at Dawn Launch

Christopher T. Russell
Dawn Principal Investigator, UCLA

The Dawn Science Team is planning to host a 3-day symposium on the formation, evolution and current state of the minor planets. The symposium will be held Thursday through Saturday, June 28-30, in Cocoa Beach, Florida in conjunction with the Dawn launch that is scheduled in the early evening of June 30th. The nearby beach provides the closest public viewing area and provides an excellent view of the launch pad area. The symposium will feature invited and contributed talks, posters and ample discussion time. Papers from the planetary astronomy, meteorite, cosmochemistry, and small body communities are most welcome.

In order confirm meeting logistics, we request that you indicate your interest in the symposium by email to swaas@igpp.ucla.edu. Please indicate the topic of your presentation, and whether a talk or poster is preferred; a title is not needed at this time. If there is a major slip in the launch date, and the slip is determined early enough, we would consider changing the date of the symposium. The date of the symposium has been arranged to accomodate minor slips with minimum inconvenience for travellers. Cape Canaveral is a family friendly region with plenty of attractions from the beach to the KSC Visitor’s Center to theme parks so you are encouraged to bring your families to the meeting.