The University of Colorado at Boulder's Center for Astrobiology will hold its fourth annual public symposium Sept. 17 when a panel of experts examines the origin and changes in life on Earth and the possibility of life beyond our planet and solar system.
The symposium was organized by Bruce Jakosky, director of CU-Boulder's Center for Astrobiology. Jakosky is a professor in the geological sciences department and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics who has worked as a project scientist on several NASA Mars missions.
"The question of whether there is life elsewhere in the universe or whether we are alone is one that likely has interested people since the time humans first existed on our planet," said Jakosky, who will moderate the event and participate on the panel. "For the first time in history, we have the knowledge to understand the nature of life and the conditions required to be able to support life."
The free event, open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in room 100 of the Math Building, located south of the intersection of Folsom Street and Colorado Avenue. Admission to the 425-seat auditorium will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking is available in lot 436 at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Regent Drive.
Other panelists from CU's astrobiology center include Professor Norman Pace of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, Professor William Friedman of environmental, population and organismic biology and Professor John Bally of astrophysical and planetary sciences. CU-Boulder was selected in 1998 as one of 11 initial members of NASA's new Astrobiology Institute to focus on interdisciplinary research regarding life in the universe.
Pace, an internationally known microbiologist and expert on life in extreme environments, will speak on the origin and diversity of life on Earth. Although some scientists believe two likely places life might be found in the solar system outside of Earth -- Mars and Europa, a moon of Jupiter -- Pace is less optimistic.
His research, which has taken him from deep-sea environments to thermal vents in Yellowstone National Park, indicates requirements for life exist in a "very narrow window." The key to abundant and diverse life likely requires significant photosynthesis, the trigger for a plethora of life forms that modify the surface of a planet, he said.
Friedman -- who has delivered over 100 invited lectures around the world in the past 15 years -- will look back on the history of life on Earth and the impact of rare yet far-reaching evolutionary events that have helped shape life forms on the planet, including the evolution of photosynthesis. He will explore our current "biological reality," one with an incredible diversity of land-based animals, plants and fungi, and show how this may have resulted from a single and essentially rare set of events that played out after nine-tenths of the history of life already had occurred.
He also will examine evolutionary events that created oxygen in the air we breathe and probe whether life as we know it was inevitable, "or are we just lucky."
Bally, also a fellow at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, will talk about planets around other stars -- about 100 of which have been discovered in the past few years -- as well as the hazards encountered by forming planetary systems.
He and others now believe giant planets like Jupiter must form rapidly in terms of geological time scales -- in less than a million years -- because most Sun-like stars and planetary systems form near luminous, hot and massive stars which quickly can strip planet-forming environments of their icy, gaseous and possibly life-creating cocoons.Ìý
In addition, he will present evidence that the architecture of solar systems can be very diverse as evidenced by newly discovered giant gaseous planets orbiting very close to their parent stars.
Jakosky will speak about what it takes for a planet to be able to support life, what the potential is for life on other planets or moons in our own solar system and the potential for life on planets around other stars. "We are on the verge of finding life elsewhere if it exists, and we have the potential to answer some of these questions within our lifetimes," he said.Ìý
"CU's astrobiology program is one of the top programs in the country for both research and teaching, and I'm thrilled that we can bring some of the excitement and information to the people in the community," said Jakosky. NASA's Astrobiology Institute is a major component of the agency's Origins Program, developed by the Office of Space Science to search for signs of life both in and beyond our solar system.