NASA will confer a medal on an astronomy professor at National Central University (NCU) today in recognition of his achievements on a Saturn exploration space project.
Ip Wing-huen (葉永烜), a professor at NCU’s Graduate Institute of Astronomy, is an astronomer and one of the initiators of the Cassini-Huygens space mission, an international collaboration project involving NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency.
Ip, along with two others involved in the project, Daniel Gautier from the Observatoire Meudon and Toby Owen from the University of Hawaii, has been chosen to receive NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal, NCU said in a press release.
Ip’s daughter will accept the award on behalf of her father at a ceremony to be held at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, today, NCU said.
“Everyone has dreams, but realizing them is most important,” Ip said in the press release.
He said that it was because planetary science received scant attention in the early 1980s that a budding astronomer like himself was able to initiate the project.
Studying astronomy is a long path, he said, as he thanked his wife for her support during the time he was committed to the Cassini-Huygens project.
The US$3.26 billion Cassini-Huygens project was launched on Oct. 15, 1997, with the participation of 256 scientists from 18 countries. It is the second-biggest space mission next to the International Space Station program.
The mission comprises the NASA Cassini orbiter and the ESA Huygens probe, and is aimed at studying Saturn and its moons. The Huygens probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan on Jan. 14, 2005, and began transmitting scientific data, which helped scientists in their study of the atmospheric structure of Titan and the origins of life on earth.
NASA announced on April 18 last year a two-year extension of the mission, known as the “Cassini Equinox mission,” because it seeks answers to new questions that arose from the first orbit of Saturn by the spacecraft Cassini.
Ip, who was born in Macau and was employed as the chief scientist at Taiwan’s National Space Organization in 1991, said investment in scientific research was crucial to sustainable development because it encourages scientific creativity.
“Back in the 1980s, there were only two Titan experts in Europe, but they were already planning to go to Titan. That was because Europe had hundreds of years of scientific development and historical heritage and could therefore invest in what seemed unachievable at the time,” he said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS