Associate Professor Lecture: Chemical Physics and the Origin of Life
by
Richard Thomas(Stockholm University, Department of Physics)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FD51
FD51
Description
Is life unique to planet earth? Were the building blocks of life constructed here or were the seeds brought here through cometary/meteorite impact? In this presentation I will examine the important signposts which are considered important for life here on earth, the presence of liquid water, an atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, the presence of carbon and other trace elements, and look at how common these signposts are extraterrestrially, the conditions that have to be met for these building blocks to come together as well as the chemical physics which has to happen.
Is earth even unique in the solar system? Are the building blocks found here on earth also on other bodies in the solar system, locked away in ice or stone just waiting to be discovered? Several important space-exploration programmes are currently either planned, in development, or in progress, to answer such issues. These range from the European Space Agency’s Aurora Programme, involving sample return missions to Mars, and the Rosetta Programme, involving a landing on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to obtain the most detailed structural analysis of a comet yet attempted. The importance of these missions, as well as the goals and implications will be discussed.