Mötesplats Rydberg - From Stardust to the Origins of Life

At Mötesplats Rydberg 21 April:

From Stardust to the Origins of Life: What Samples from Asteroid Bennu Reveal About Solar System History

The seminar will be given by Dante Lauretta, Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, who is also the Principal Investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission.

This is a Lund Observatory seminar at Mötesplats Rydberg.

Abstract

Asteroids preserve a record of the physical and chemical processes that shaped the earliest Solar System and set the stage for habitable worlds. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned pristine samples from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the building blocks of planets and the inventory of materials delivered to the early Earth. 

In this talk, I will review the scientific motivation, mission architecture, and sample return campaign of OSIRIS-REx, and highlight major discoveries from both remote sensing and laboratory analyses. Bennu is a fragment of an ancient, water-rich planetesimal and contains organic compounds, hydrated minerals, and salts that record extensive chemical interactions. These results illuminate the connection between asteroid evolution, planet formation, and the delivery of key prebiotic ingredients to young terrestrial planets.

Hybrid meeting

Please feel very welcome to join us on-site in the Rydberg lecture hall at 15.15. Fika (coffee & cookie) is served from 15.00. You can also join Mötesplats Rydberg online via the meeting tool Zoom: 

Zoom-link to Mötesplats Rydberg. (external website).