Ep.35 – Signs of Life in the Universe with Ben K.D. Pearce

Planet B612

In this episode, I speak with Ben K.D. Pearce, again! This time, we talk about the latest Mars mission, as well as the building blocks for life in meteorites, and whether or not there’s phosphene on Venus!

• Introduction (0:00:38)
• Ben’s research on the origin of bio-molecules (0:01:35)
• Building blocks of life on meteorites (0:03:42)
• How do scientists know the composition of rocks in space? (0:06:10)
• What about drilling into asteroids? (0:08:33)
• Useful data in meteorites that land on Earth (0:12:32)
• Keeping on top of all the news in astrobiology (0:14:50)
• The role of nitrogen (0:15:43)
• Talking about the latest Mars mission (0:18:02)
• Could they find diatom fossils on Mars? (0:20:17)
• Was there life on Mars? (0:21:54)
• Phosphene on Venus? (0:27:14)
• No known chemistry (0:31:31)
• Why hadn’t we seen this before? (0:33:30)
• Common disagreements in the field of astrobiology (0:36:36)
• What’s the Canadian field like? (0:37:40)
• Saturn’s moon (0:40:40)
• The excitement around future expeditions (0:43:51)
• Rate of bombardment (0:46:46)
• The giant crater in Sudbury (0:48:50)
• The moon base (0:50:15)
• Ben’s work at Johns Hopkins (0:51:57)

Visit Ben’s website: https://www.benkdpearce.com/ Follow Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AstroBio_Ben

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