Please join us for a special panel episode all about the OSIRIS-REx mission, which just left asteroid Bennu with asteroidal material on its way back to Earth! This episode's guests are all collaborators on the OSIRIS-REx mission: Drs. Eve Berger, Jason Dworkin, and Scott Sandford. Check out more about these amazing researchers below:

Dr. Eve Berger is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center. Her current research includes exploring the effects of impact processes on the formation and evolution of amino acids as well as looking at extraterrestrial amino acid abundances in meteorite samples. Dr. Berger is a collaborator on the OSIRIS-REx mission and also a Mars 2020 science team member, working with the SHERLOC team.  

 

Dr. Jason Dworkin is an OSIRIS-REx Mission Project Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His work has focused on assessing the organic species available for the origin(s) and early evolution of life, with a focus on understanding extraterrestrial sources of molecules relevant for life. Dr. Dworkin directs the research of the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at NASA Goddard and has taken a scientific leadership role in NASA sample return and in situ missions.

 

Dr. Scott Sandford is a senior member of the Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center, where he works on a variety of projects in astrochemistry, astrophysics, and meteoritics. Besides being a Co-Investigator on OSIRIS-REx, Dr. Sandford has also been a Co-Investigator on JAXA’s Hayabusa mission and for NASA’s Stardust mission.

This program is an interactive talk show where our guest will answer questions from our host, Dr. Graham Lau, as well as questions submitted via Twitter, Facebook, and SAGANet chat. For more information, visit the official website of Ask An Astrobiologist.