Free Public Lecture in Adelaide - BOOKED OUT!

NOTE - This lecture has now been booked out. Reservations are still available for the SA branch's September lecture. 

"LOOKING FOR ICE IN UNLIKEY PLACES' by Dr Graziella Caprarelli

Join us on an interplanetary trip to experience how scientists explore Mars to find buried ice and ancient frozen lakes

Sunday 14th August 2016 at 6 pm at Nova Systems, 27-31 London Road, Mile End South SA  5031

The present day Martian surface is cold and hyper-arid. Currently water ice is present at polar and sub-polar latitudes, and various models show that an ice ground-table is globally stable at variable depths. Geological, geomorphological and astronomical evidence however, indicate that ice was likely much more ubiquitous on Mars. In this presentation Graziella will highlight the physical conditions for ice and water stability on the surface of Mars and at depth, illustrate the astronomical and geological processes responsible for the existence of ice on the surface of the planet during different periods of its geological history, and present new insights into the likelihood and distribution of cold and wet microenvironments of astrobiological potential.

Dr Graziella Caprarelli, Associate Professor in Space Science at the University of South Australia (Adelaide, South Australia), and Research Professor (Adjunct) at the International Research School of Planetary Sciences (Italy), is a former NRC Fellow at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the current Co-Director of the International Space University – Southern Hemisphere Summer Space Program, held yearly in January/February at the University of South Australia.

Her research in geological processes on terrestrial planetary bodies has most recently focused on the use of NASA and ESA space mission data sets to investigate Martian impact craters, volcanoes and tectonic activity, and underpinning physical processes at planetary scales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continent: 
Oceania
Country: 
Australia
State: 
South Australia