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By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Dr. Lisa Pratt
Posted 9-28-09
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Dr. Lisa Pratt, a professor of geology at Indiana University, will speak about the search for signs of ancient life on Mars at 8 p.m. Oct. 15 in the Bryan Building, Room 160.
Pratt chairs the NASA science advisory group developing a 2018 mission concept for a Mars rover likely to be the first step in bringing Martian sedimentary rocks back to Earth for laboratory study. She also serves on the Mars Panel for the Planetary Science Decadal Survey, the National Research Council’s process of setting priorities for solar system exploration.
Diverse organic molecules are common in meteorites, comets and interplanetary dust particles, according to recent research. These pre-biotic ingredients rain down on planetary surfaces, providing the molecular building blocks for an origin of life anywhere liquid water is present.
Mars seems to have been particularly well suited for life to appear given evidence of an active water cycle and diverse aquatic environments around 4 billion years ago. Earth organisms are known to occupy habitats with temperature, acidity and salinity similar to what is believed to have existed on Mars.
Pratt has experience retrieving rocks from remote locations. As director of a NASA Astrobiology Institute Team, Pratt has collected samples of water, rock and natural gas in active gold mines at depths up to 2½ miles below the surface in South Africa and in the Canadian Arctic. Her collaborative research with Tullis Onstott on radiolysis of water as a source of energy for microbial metabolism has been highlighted worldwide.
The lecture is sponsored by The Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Geography. For more information, contact Steve Danford, professor of physics and astronomy, at (336) 334-3308.