Michelle Thaller: Cosmic Treasures – Chasing Asteroids for Clues to the Origins of Life

Join Michelle Thaller, former NASA science communicator, for an evening exploring the origins of life. Thaller, in conversation with Eric Wilcots, Dean of the College of Letters & Sciences and Professor in the Dept of Astronomy, will talk about th e OSIRIS-REx mission – an audacious project to return a sample from an asteroid. No problem, right? Just chase down a small rock 200 million miles away, traveling literally faster than a speeding bullet, vacuum up a sample of its surface, and shoot it back to Earth. The story turned out to be more difficult, dramatic, and rewarding than anyone expected. Join us to find out why we went to so much trouble to bring back an ancient sample of our solar system and what was waiting inside that absolutely blew our minds.

This event will take place in the DeLuca Forum in the Discovery Building.

No cost event, but registration requested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michelle-thaller-cosmic-treasures-tickets-1739042826909?aff=oddtdtcreator