Water Above, Water Below, Water Within: The Many Roles of Water in Making Planets Habitable

Dr. Laura Schaefer (Stanford University) Nov. 15, 2023 Water is everywhere. Its atoms, hydrogen and oxygen, are the first and fifth most abundant elements in the universe. Water is found in abundance in many environments; it finds its way into planets of all shapes and sizes, where it modifies the properties of everything it touches. Water is crucial to life, both as a habitat and as a solvent. But it also has many other roles in the evolution of habitable and uninhabitable environments on a planetary scale. In this talk, Dr. Schaefer discusses the ways in which Earth acquired its water, how water modifies the evolution and habitability of the Earth, and how the habitability of rocky planets orbiting other stars may be different. Laura Schaefer is an Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University.