Crossroads Lecture: Search for Life in Other Worlds

Sunday, May 18, 2014, 4 p.m., Orcas Center

— from Sue Kimball —

Orcas Crossroads Lecture Series will host Chris McKay of the NASA Ames Research Center, who will present – “The Search for Life in Other Worlds” – Sunday, May 18, 2014, 4:00 pm at the Orcas Center.

Do organic molecules exist on Mars? And if so, are they of biological origin? Those questions have intrigued and frustrated scientists for decades, ever since the first Viking Lander touched down in 1975.

But the Mars Curiosity Rover, which has been operating on the planet since August 2012, seems to be finding evidence in recent months that such “organics” exist just under its surface.

On Sunday afternoon, May 18, McKay will discuss this and other ongoing efforts to determine the red planet’s habitability. “For life to occur, we need water and organics,” he says, “We’ve found water and now we have our first indication of organics on Mars. So I’m looking forward to searching for life there.”

This has been the holy grail of planetary science since the 1970s. A solid indication that life could have occurred elsewhere in the Solar System — what McKay dubs “Life 2.0” — would represent a tremendous advance for the field.

A Planetary Scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, McKay studies solar-system evolution and the origins of life. Besides his work as a leader of the Mars Science Laboratory, he has served as a co-investigator on the 2005 Huygens probe to Saturn’s largest moon Titan and the 2008 Mars Phoenix Lander. He is also actively involved in planning future Mars missions, including possible human exploration of the planet.

McKay has also done extensive research on terrestrial Mars-like environments in Antarctica, the Canadian Arctic, Siberia, and the Atacama, Namib and Sahara deserts. And he has an abiding interest in the possibility of life existing under the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which he will also discuss during his lecture.

Please join us at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Orcas Center for a spellbinding tour of the Solar System and a discussion of the possibility that life exists within it.

Tickets are $10 and available at Darvill’s Bookstore, online at www.orcascrossroads.org or at the door. Some complimentary tickets are available in advance at the Senior Center.

Orcas Crossroads Lecture Series is supported by the Crossroads Associates Circle, the Daniel and Margaret Carper Foundation, and Individual Contributors. Find more information at the Orcas Crossroads website: www.orcascrossroads.org