The Ringed Planet

Dr Joshua Colwell is a Planetary Scientist and Professor of Physics at the University of Central Florida with a PhD in Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado. His research interests are in the origin and evolution of the solar system with a particular emphasis on planet formation, planetary rings and interplanetary dust. He is a Co-Investigator on the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph on the Cassini mission. He studies the structure and dynamics of Saturn's rings with data from Cassini. He is the Director of the Center for Microgravity Research at UCF. His experiments have flown on the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, suborbital rockets, parabolic airplane flights, and he is developing a CubeSat for launch in 2017. An avid Trekkie, his other interests include running, writing and movies. He produces and hosts the astronomy podcast "Walkabout the Galaxy."