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Friday, September 8, 2:10-3:00 p.m, CUE 203
Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Life in the Solar System and Beyond
Abstract
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Liquid water is ubiquitous in our Solar System and likely occurs in various
extraterrestrial locations such as the Martian subsurface, water-rich clouds
at Venus, the putative subsurface ocean of Jupiter's satellite Europa, and in
ammonia-water puddles on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Given the
presence of a suitable solvent (such as liquid water), an energy source, and
the availability of organic molecules, all of these localities are potentially
habitable zones that could be associated with microbial life. Titan is of
special interest because its environment resembles early Earth conditions in
many ways, and because the presence of liquid hydrocarbons on its surface
opens up the possibility for the existence of organisms that are based on a
biochemistry that is very different from the one case of life with which we
are familiar with.
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