AoT Valley of the Sun: The Search for Life- From Ancient Rocks to Alien Atmospheres

We are back for a new semester, and we are starting big. How do you find life on a planet you cannot visit? On Earth, the answer is written in the rocks. Everywhere else, it is written in the light.

Ariel Anbar (President’s Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at ASU) will walk us through the history of life on this planet as told by the rocks, and he is bringing real fossils and specimens for you to get your hands on! We are also stretching a 10-foot timeline of Earth’s entire history across the room and letting the audience decide where the big moments go. Fair warning: the answers are always more surprising than people expect.

Then Matt Nixon (51 Pegasi b Fellow, ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration) takes us off-world to ask what a sign of life would even look like from light-years away. Oxygen may be the classic answer, but Earth’s own history shows why it is neither the whole story nor a sure thing.

Ancient rocks to pass around, a timeline to argue over, cold drinks, and four billion years of the search for life. Bring a friend, get there early, and let’s kick off the semester right. Can’t wait to see you there!