NASA researcher and NUI Galway graduate Dr Jacqueline Keane will deliver a lecture on the origins of the Earth’s water at NUI Galway on Monday August 23.
The lecture, which is to be hosted by the NUI Galway Centre of Astronomy in conjunction with the Galway Astronomy Club, will take place at 8pm in the Dillon Theatre at the Arts and Science building.
During the lecture Dr Keane will present an overview of the University of Hawai’i NASA Astrobiology Institute studies which range from the interstellar medium to the interior of planet Earth, all designed to explain ‘the origin, history, and distribution of water and its relation to life in the universe’. She will also show pictures of many of the telescopes on Mauna Kea Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. The University of Hawai'i investigates the astrophysical, cosmochemical, geological, and biological processes that link the history and distribution of life in the universe to that of water.
Dr Keane, an NUI Galway Bachelor of Science and Masters of Astronomy graduate, is an Assistant Astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy and the University of Hawai'i NASA Astrobiology Institute. Dr Keane, originally from Oranmore, Co Galway, has previously worked with the European Space Agency Infrared Space Telescope studying the formation of water ice and organic molecules on interstellar dust grains in cold molecular clouds.
Upon receiving her PhD, Dr Keane was the recipient of a research fellowship from the National Research Council that took her to spaces sciences division at NASA-AMES in California where she worked with the NASA infrared space-based telescope, Spitzer, for over three years. She is an expert in infrared space and ground-based observing and is the lead researcher for the UHNAI ground-based comet observing campaigns using an array of telescopes on Mauna Kea, the world’s premier observation site.
Speaking about the upcoming lecture, Dr Andrew Shearer, Director of the Centre for Astronomy, NUI Galway, said: “The Centre for Astronomy is pleased to welcome Dr Jacqueline Keane back to Galway for a short visit. Since leaving NUI Galway 10 years ago she has worked with some of the most advanced astronomical instrumentation at ESA and NASA. Her talk will look at the origin of the Earth’s water and what are the chances of finding life on other planets”.
