SETI Talks: Solving Venus’ Mysteries, Three Missions At A Time

SETI Talks

Tags: SETI Talks, SETI Institute, Solar System, Outreach

Time: Wednesday, Dec 15, 2021 -

Location: Online

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After years of waiting, an armada of spacecraft are headed to Venus. In June, NASA approved not one, but two new missions named VERITAS and DAVINCI to our closest planetary neighbor and ESA quickly followed suit and approved its own mission called EnVision.

Venus has been a forgotten planet for too long, especially if we compared the number of missions which explored it to the ones which visited Mars.

These missions will not only answer key questions about Venus, but on comparative planetary science, the science of comparing planets and their evolution over time. One of the fundamental question since we visited Venus in the 1960s is why are Venus and Earth so different. Venus could have been our twin planet but instead it has become a hellish sister with surface temperatures that are hot enough to melt lead.

Venus’ atmosphere has traces of water today, but the history of water is unclear. Did Venus have an ocean and if so when was it lost? Is there still water deep in the interior of the planet? Answers to these questions will give us clues on the past habitability of Venus.

We discuss the potential of those missions to answer to those questions and others, we invited Dr. Sue Smrekar, a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology and principal investigator for the newly selected VERITAS, together with Dr. Thomas Widemann, scientist at the Observatoire de Paris and Professor at University Versailles Saint-Quentin and Deputy-lead Scientist of EnVision.

This conversation will be conducted from New Orleans at the American Geophysical Union Meeting where astronomers and geophysics gather to discuss the recent findings in the field. Franck Marchis, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute will meet these colleagues to discuss the missions, their goal and objectives and, of course address the tantalizing possibility that there is life on Venus.

 

Dr. Sue Smrekar

 

Dr. Sue Smrekar is a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the volcanism, tectonics and geodynamics of Venus and Mars. A particular focus on how Venus and Earth evolved to such different present day convective regimes and the links to surface geology and habitability. She is the PI for the newly selected VERITAS (Venus Emissivity Radio science InSAR And Spectroscopy) mission to Venus.

She received her PhD in Geophysics at Southern Methodist University. She did her postdoc at MIT before coming to JPL. In addition to conducting research, she has worked on numerous planetary missions, including Deep Space 2, Mars Science Laboratory, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. She is currently the Deputy Principal Investigator for the InSight mission to Mars. She was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics in 2015, and received the NASA Exceptional Achievement in Science Award (2011) for discovering evidence of recent volcanism on Venus. She had given numerous public talks, appeared in science TV and radio programs and podcasts, and was part of the Emmy Award winning team for ‘Outstanding Original Interactive Program’ for the InSight Landing in 2019.

Dr. Thomas Widemann

 

Dr. Thomas Widemann is a senior research scientist at Paris Observatory’s Laboratory of Space and Instrumentation Studies (LESIA) and senior Associate Professor at University Versailles Saint-Quentin, a branch of Université Paris-Saclay, France. He has two decades of experience in Planetary sciences & atmospheric studies using UV, visible, and infrared spectroscopy. Widemann is member of the VERITAS Science Team led by Dr. Sue Smrekar of NASA/Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. VERITAS is the newly selected NASA/Discovery orbiter mission to Venus. Dr. Widemann is also Deputy-lead Scientist of EnVision, recently selected as European Space Agency (ESA)'s newest medium-class science mission in its Cosmic Vision program. As a key partner in the mission, NASA provides EnVision's Synthetic Aperture Radar, VenSAR. Widemann’s research involves use of Venus Express, Akatsuki, and ground-based data in research on atmospheric dynamics and the temporal and spatial variability of trace gases. He led a European Union grant in support of exploitation of data in ESA’s Venus Express PI institutes. Widemann is a highly recognized academic and outreach lecturer in Europe on Venus exploration and the history of sciences. Beyond teaching thousands over the years, he has advised four PhD students and served on ESA and EU programs promoting international collaboration and science education.

 

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