Blast off with the Earth and Planets Laboratory

Join the Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) for a talk with Staff Scientist Dr. Conel Alexander entitled "A new golden age for sample return missions." The free public lecture will take place on April 27, 2023, as a part of our ongoing Neighborhood Lecture Series. During the talk, attendees will get firsthand updates on recent sample return missions from space and learn how they are enabling a new era of discovery. 

The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM EDT in the Greenewalt Auditorium of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Broad Branch Road Campus in NW, Washington, DC. Doors open at 6:00 PM EDT. There will be light refreshments from 6-6:30 PM EDT.

In person tickets are SOLD OUT. You can still register for virtual tickets via Eventbrite. 

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Event Details

Conel Alexander

Meet Conel Alexander

Some 40 thousand tons of extraterrestrial material fall on Earth every year. This cosmic debris provides cosmochemist Conel Alexander with information about the formation of the Solar System, our galaxy, and perhaps the origin of life.

Dr. Alexander studies meteorites to determine what went on before and during the formation of our Solar System. Meteorites are fragments of asteroids—small bodies that originated between Mars and Jupiter—and are likely the last remnants of objects that gave rise to the terrestrial planets. Recently, space return missions like NASA's OSIRIS-REX and JAXA's Hayabusa II are going to the source—allowing Alexander and scientists like him to access pristine samples directly from the asteroids themselves!

Dr.Alexander develops techniques to measure precisely the different isotopes, atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons, of potassium, iron, magnesium, and oxygen in meteorite samples. His other major interest is presolar materials preserved in meteorites. These include the tiny grains that emerged around dying stars and interstellar organic matter. By deciphering these relics, he hopes to understand the processes of galaxy evolution, the formation of the elements inside stars via nucleosynthesis, and stellar evolution.

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A new golden age for sample return missions

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