Speaker:  Jason Barnes, University of Idaho, Physics Department

Title:  Dragonfly:  NASA's Titan Astrobiology Rotorcraft Lander

Abstract:
Dragonfly is NASA's most recently selected planetary mission.  Its primary
science is the astrobiology of Saturn's huge moon Titan:  prebiotic
chemistry, habitability, and a search for chemical biosignatures.
Titan's draw derives from its status as an Ocean World.  Like Europa,
Enceladus, and potentially other icy outer solar system objects, Titan
sports a liquid water ocean beneath its icy outer crust.  But unlike those
sister Ocean Worlds, Titan's surface and atmosphere contain a large
quantity and complexity of carbon compounds.  When liquid water develops
transiently on Titan's surface -- either from cryovolcanism or impact melt
-- water mixes with that surface organic material.  Dragonfly will explore
the chemistry of the resulting mixture at 80-km-diameter Selk Crater where
that water, though now frozen, shows pathways for prebiotic chemistry that
may resemble the process through which life formed on Earth 4 billion
years ago.  In my colloquium, I will discuss the specific scientific
experiments that the Dragonfly lander will enable, as well as the
instrumentation and exploration strategies that the science team will use
to answer our science questions once we land in 2034.

All presentations this quarter will be only live-streamed via Zoom and can be viewed with this link:  https://washington.zoom.us/my/uwastrobiology