As part of the CU on the Weekend lecture series, Professor Stephen Mojzsis from the Department of Geological Sciences will discuss his new research in a free, public presentation titled “Shattered and Steaming Mars: A Recipe for Life?” on Saturday, Dec. 3.
“Ancient Mars was a battered place, pelted by comets and asteroids that melted and fractured its crust and covered large areas with intense heat and shattered rocks,” Mojzsis said. “This may sound pretty inhospitable, but impact-induced heating may have melted near-surface ice and made hot spring systems, forming an environment where life could take hold.”
What: "Shattered and Steaming Mars: A Recipe for Life?"
When: Saturday, Dec. 3, 1 to 4 p.m.
Where: Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, Butcher Auditorium, 3415 Colorado Avenue
Mojzsis directs the Collaborative for Research in Origins (CRiO), which is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME) origins program, and is a member of the CU Boulder Center for the Study of Origins, which is directed by philosophy professor Carol Cleland.
His research seeks to understand the physical and chemical conditions on planets that lead to emergence of a biosphere. Mojzsis is also a distinguished visiting professor at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and has held visiting academic positions in France at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG) and in Japan at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Seating for the lecture is limited to the first 200 people, and doors will open at 12:30 p.m. Advance registration is not required.
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