Series: Astronomy Colloquium
Date: Wednesday 17-Nov-2021
Time: 16:05-17:00 (4:05-5:00 pm)
Location: ATL 2400
Speaker: Dr. Edwin Bergin (University of Michigan)
Title: Making a Habitable Planet
Today we stand on the cusp of characterizing potentially living worlds, or habitable planets, planets with orbits where liquid water would exist on a rocky surface. This concept of habitability implicitly assumes water in some form is present on rocky planets – but is it? More broadly are rocky planets generally “chemically habitable” – do they contain the elements needed for life, such as carbon and nitrogen, on their surfaces? In this talk, I will review what we know about the chemical habitability of forming planets. I will follow the most abundant volatile elements needed for life (C, H, O, N) from the vast cold and low pressure environs of the interstellar space to their presence on planetary surfaces of worlds such as our own. I will outline our current understanding of star and planetary birth while discussing the fate of primary carriers of life’s elements, both volatile species (e.g. H2O, CO, CO2) and more refractory materials (e.g. silicates, aliphatic/aromatic hydrocarbons). Some of these carriers can be characterized via existing facilities (e.g. the Atacama Large Millimeter Array), planned facilities (the James Webb Space Telescope), with others require future options (such as the Origins Space Telescope). Finally, within a young planet, the ultimate fate of delivered material is not set until the hot young terrestrial world solidifies and core formation ceases – thus the process of planet formation and evolution itself influences whether a mature planet is habitable or uninhabitable. Looking forward, the astrochemical study of life’s materials in space, and the astronomical characterization of terrestrial exoplanets, must be intimately linked to grounding knowledge from the planetary sciences. A fascinating interdisciplinary future awaits, where we will seek to ascertain the origin of our own biosphere and provide crucial chemical context for habitability. Final note: if time allows I will share new results from the ALMA large program “Molecules at Planet-forming Scales”.
Colloquia for the Fall 2020 semester will be held on zoom. Contact Dr. Leslie Sage for details.
Colloquium Organizer:
Dr. Leslie Sage
Special accommodations for individuals with disabilities can be made by calling (301) 405-3001. It would be appreciated if we are notified at least one week in advance.
