For more information about Dr. Barge, please visit her website

Prebiotic Chemistry in Hydrothermal Systems on Early Earth and Ocean Worlds

It is theorized that life on Earth could have begun at seafloor hydrothermal vents – if so, this also provides a possible way for life to emerge on ocean worlds such as Saturn’s moon Enceladus which may host hydrothermal systems. However, hydrothermal vents on Earth host a variety of chemical conditions, which can result in different outcomes of prebiotic organic reactions. In this talk I will discuss our group’s work on simulating prebiotic hydrothermal chimneys and sediments, and the organic chemistry that can occur within. Particularly I will present results from our recent studies investigating how changing geochemical conditions can lead to different prebiotic reactions, and discuss different types of vents in which these conditions may be found. Our origin of life investigations aim to bridge the gap between geochemistry and biochemistry in an early Earth context, as well as to inform the search for life and its origin on other planets.

Bio

Dr. Laurie Barge is a Research Scientist in Astrobiology at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Barge co-leads the JPL Origins and Habitability Laboratory which studies how life can emerge and be detected in planetary environments; she is interested in hydrothermal vents as planetary analogs and investigates how prebiotic chemistry can emerge on rocky and ocean worlds. Barge is the HiRISE Investigation Scientist on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. Dr. Barge received her Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova University and her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. After graduate school she was a Caltech postdoc and then a NASA Astrobiology Institute postdoctoral fellow. For her astrobiology research Barge has received the JPL Lew Allen Award, the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.