May 13, 2016 8-10PM

Event Type: Lecture and Stargazing
Title: The Air We (Can’t) Breathe: A History of Air on Venus, Earth, and Mars
Lecturer: Jackie Villadsen
Position: Graduate Student
Institution: Caltech
Abstract:
Air is critical to life. To understand where we come from, and to predict whether planets outside our solar system can support life, we need to understand where our air comes from. Venus, Earth, and Mars are all small, rocky planets at a distance from the Sun that gives them "moderate" temperatures, but only Earth has a hospitable atmosphere and oceans on its surface. We will take a tour of these three planets throughout history. How did Mars lose its air and its oceans? How did Venus lose the water from its atmosphere? How has Earth's atmosphere been changed by the presence of life and can we use this information to detect life on planets outside our solar system?