The Search for Life on Mars: From Huygens to NASA's Perseverance Rover
Presented by Dr. Richard Léveillé
RASC Montreal
With the successful landing of NASA's Perseverance Rover, part of the Mars 2020 Mission, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Montreal Centre invites you to learn more about the goals of this Mission.
Join us on Saturday, Feb 27th at 8pm EST as we explore how the scientific mission of Perseverance plans to build on previous studies of the Red Planet.
Since Christiaan Huygens published Cosmotheros in 1698, countless scientists and observers have speculated about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, in particular on Mars. Over the past 50 years numerous orbital, landed and rover missions have revealed that early Mars much different than the Red Planet we observe now.
NASA's Mars 2020 Mission, featuring the Perseverance rover, is set to search for signs of past life as it explores Jezero Crater and its ancient lake deposits, while also collecting precious samples that will be returned to Earth for more detailed scrutiny.