National Astronomy Week 2020

Anna Horleston (Bristol University) and Susanne Schwenzer (Open University) discuss the geology of Mars. Why is Mars red? Find out what their research and current missions to Mars (Mars Science Laboratory mission and Insight) tell us about the rocks, craters, volcanoes, Marsquakes a the past and present of Mars.

**This event has run. But you can view a recording on our YouTube Channel by clicking here.

About the Speakers:

Dr Anna Horleston is a planetary seismologist based at the University of Bristol, currently working as part of the Science Team for NASA's InSight Mission to Mars. She spends her days looking at seismic data from Mars, finding marsquakes and trying to figure out what is going on inside the red planet.

Susanne P. Schwenzer is a senior lecturer in the School of Earth, Environment and Ecosystem Sciences at the Open University and she is an Associate Director of AstrobiologyOU. Her career started with a degree in mineralogy from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, from where she went on to study noble gases in Martian meteorites for her PhD.

She spent just over two years at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, where she worked on impact-generated hydrothermal systems. She studies volatile-rock interactions including noble gases, methane, and water-rock reactions. Her main research target is Mars, where she also is a member of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Science team. She is responsible for Early Careers Researchers within AstrobiologyOU, including their training and development, and her passion is to pass on her own excitement for STEM subjects and especially the exploration of the Solar System to the next generation of researchers.

Hosts: Lucinda Offer (RAS) & Nigel Henbest (Astronomy Author)