Flagstaff Festival of Science: How to Find Life, From Antarctica to Mars

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Could Antarctica hold the secret to finding life on Mars?

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the closest environment Earth has to that of the surface of Mars: brutally cold, searingly dry, and teeming with microscopic life that has no business surviving there. In this talk, discover how scientists are pushing the boundaries of astrobiology, using Antarctica’s extremophiles to sharpen the tools we’ll one day use to detect life across the cosmos.

(optional bio)
Gavin Moriarty is a second-year PhD student in Astronomy & Planetary Science at Northern Arizona University, and is also pursuing his Science Communications certificate. As an Antarctic researcher, he uses remote sensing techniques to study the McMurdo Dry Valleys and to constrain the environmental characteristics that support life, in hopes of improving techniques for searching for life in the universe. With a B.S. in Astrophysics, he is also passionate about the design and construction of astronomical instrumentation. As a passionate science educator, he began participating in a variety of public outreach and community engagement programs very early in his career, and is an accomplished team member in Lowell’s public program.

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