UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Alex Hayes, associate professor of astronomy and director of the Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility at Cornell University, will review the current understanding and latest developments in the exploration of the ocean worlds Europa, Enceladus and Titan in his talk "Ocean worlds of the outer solar system: life as we know it or life as we don’t?" at 4 p.m., on Monday, Feb. 6. The talk, which is free and open to the public, takes place in 112 Walker Building.
With the opportunity to search for signs of life in one or more of the ocean worlds of the outer solar system, solar system exploration stands on the verge of a golden age. Discoveries made within the last two decades have demonstrated that there are moons in the outer solar system that may be harboring life. Perhaps even more important is that we now have the technology, means and existing plans to explore them.
Hayes’ talk is part of EESI’s spring 2023 EarthTalks speaker series, “Exploration of our Solar System.” We now live in the golden age of solar system exploration: With a dozen NASA missions currently in development — as well as spacecraft actively on Mars, near Jupiter, and in the Kuiper belt — the current scale of mission activity is unprecedented and brings forth a new era of comparative study of varied worlds at the systems level. The series is intended to provide a venue for the expansion of participant’s horizons into our solar system.
The EESI EarthTalks series is supported by Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. Talks are also available via Zoom. For more information about the spring 2023 series, visit the EarthTalks web page.