OpenTalk STEM: After the dust has settled: asteroid impacts and their aftermath.

If an asteroid strikes the Earth – or any other celestial body – ‘something’ happens. The extend of that ‘something’ from a human perspective was explored by Prof. Simon Green in his OpenTalks STEM lecture on 23rd April, which you can watch here. The talk by Senior Lecturer Dr. Susanne P. Schwenzer will pick up from there and explore the interaction of the projectile with the surface. She will look at what happens to the rocks in the underground and how an impact changes the landscape. She will talk about the Earth and its impact record, including the infamous, dinosaur-killing (?) Chicxulub impact. But she will also look at Moon and Mars. Using the former she will show how we can use impact craters to find out about the age of a planetary surface from images alone, and the latter to discuss how an impact into the – now – icy world of Mars could change the environmental conditions to create habitable liquid water systems.

Please take the opportunity to have your questions answered by our speakers LIVE during the event. Email your questions to STEM-News@open.ac.uk