VIRTUAL Lecture – 24th June, 7pm: “ExoMars: The Search for Life in Martian Clays” by Amy Dugdale (NUI Maynooth)

With so much uncertainty around when we will be able to host gatherings again, we’ve decided host a virtual lecture! We will be doing this through a platform called Zoom, which is favored by many across the industry and has been used to host conferences and talks around the world so it should do the job!

Amy Dugdale is a final year undergraduate student at NUI Maynooth and will be speaking about her work looking for life on Mars! Amy has kindly agreed to be our inaugural virtual speaker and we’re very much looking forward to her talk!

You can download the Zoom app on your device, or their software on your PC, but you can also just access the talk via the link we provide you with (Which we will be sending around on the day of the lecture). I will also send a how-to guide along with this in case you need it!

Please e-mail us at irishgeologicalassociation@gmail.com if you wish to register to attend and we will make sure the details you need will get to you on Wednesday 24th June.  

If you have any questions or you haven’t used zoom before, just let us know and we’d be happy to help you out or do a test run! 🙂

Abstract:

Mars has many similarities to planet Earth and therefore may harbour life. But what are the conditions needed for life and how can signs of past life be detected? In this talk Mars’ potential to support life will be discussed in addition to its Geology. These topics are particularly relevant to ESA’s ExoMars mission due to launch in 2022; The key objectives of the ExoMars rover are to search for signs of life (biosignatures) and characterise the geochemical and water environment. To achieve this, Oxia Planum, a clay-rich plain, has been selected as the landing site due to its abundant mineralogical evidence of aqueous activity and its astrobiological potential. The mineralogy of this site and the rover instruments that will investigate it will be discussed.

Biography:

Amy Dugdale is an undergraduate student at Maynooth university studying Biology and Chemistry in final year. She has a strong interest in astrobiology and planetary Science having completed internships at the Open University and the  University of Kent.

Photo Credit: Nasa.gov