The Russell Frank Astronomy Lecture Series
UNLV Physics and Astronomy Department
7:30PM Thursday September 19, 2019
Bigelow Physics Building 102
The rise of dioxygen is arguably the most important environmental change in our planet’s four-and-a-half billion-year history. This revolution occurred approximately 2.3 billion years ago, roughly at the mid-way point in Earth’s history. It was ultimately driven by a biological innovation: the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Oxygen rewrote life’s recipe book, facilitating evolution of the richness we associate with our modern biosphere.
We will present observations from a range of perspectives including genomes, chemistry, and the ancient sedimentary rock record to show how this process emerged two-and-a-half billion years ago. We will also compare and contrast the geological records of Earth and Mars to generate expectations for the occurrence of oxygen (and perhaps life) on planets outside our solar system.
