Free Live NSN Webinar Series: Venuses Near and Far: How the study of exo-Venuses will be complementary to in-situ Venus missions like DAVINCI+
The Night Sky Network invites you to join Colby Ostberg on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at 6:00 PM Eastern / 9:00PM Pacific, when he will present his talk: Venuses Near and Far: How the study of exo-Venuses will be complementary to in-situ Venus missions like DAVINCI+.
Venus represents a curious case of planetary evolution. It is the most similar planet to Earth in the solar system in terms of size and mass, yet its current climate is the antithesis of habitable. Recent works have added to the mystery of Venus’ past, showing that Venus could have maintained a temperate climate up to 0.7 gigayears ago. Understanding what caused Venus’ evolutionary divergence from Earth is paramount for understanding planetary habitability and the search for life in the universe. Recently selected NASA missions to Venus such as DAVINCI+ and VERITAS will provide measurements critical for understanding possible loss of atmospheric water in Venus’ past, and its geological history. Exoplanets provide a complementary pathway to these missions, as observations of the atmospheres of exo-Venuses can potentially reveal habitable worlds that receive energy similar to that of Venus.
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About Colby Ostberg
Colby Ostberg is currently a 4th year PhD student at the University of California, Riverside. He received a BS in Physics at San Francisco State University before joining Dr. Stephen Kane at UCR. Since his arrival at UCR, he is immersed in studying all things Venus related. They published a paper in 2019 which predicted the number of potential exo-Venuses that the Terrestrial Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) would discover. Since then, he has focused on transmission spectra of exo-Venuses, which will allow the opportunity to estimate the atmospheric composition of these planets. Ostberg also worked with Dr. Suzanne Smrekar from JPL, where they studied lithospheric flexure on Venus using Magellan data.
The event will also be streaming live on YouTube, but please note that questions asked over the NSN-members-only Zoom Q&A will be prioritized.
