Join us statewide for the 15th Wisconsin Science Festival, October 16-26th, 2025!

Michelle Thaller: Cosmic Treasures – Chasing Asteroids for Clues to the Origins of Life

October 23 @ 7:00 pm

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Join Michelle Thaller, former NASA science communicator, for an evening exploring the origins of life. Thaller, in conversation with Eric Wilcots, Dean of the College of Letters & Sciences and Professor in the Dept of Astronomy, will talk about the OSIRIS-REx mission – an audacious project to return a sample from an asteroid. No problem, right? Just chase down a small rock 200 million miles away, traveling literally faster than a speeding bullet, vacuum up a sample of its surface, and shoot it back to Earth.  The story turned out to be more difficult, dramatic, and rewarding than anyone expected.  Join us to find out why we went to so much trouble to bring back an ancient sample of our solar system and what was waiting inside that absolutely blew our minds.

This event will take place in the DeLuca Forum in the Discovery Building.

No cost event, but registration requested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michelle-thaller-cosmic-treasures-tickets-1739042826909?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Details

Date:
October 23
Time:
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Event Category:
Event Tags:
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Website:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michelle-thaller-cosmic-treasures-tickets-1739042826909?aff=oddtdtcreator

Other

Event Type
Talks
Target Age Range
Families/All Ages

Venue

Discovery Building at UW-Madison
330 N Orchard St
Madison, WI 53715 United States
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Phone
6083164390
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