Discover Science: Sarah Hörst on life as we do not know it

Discover Science

Titan is Saturn's largest moon and is the subject of distinguished atmospheric chemist Sarah Hörst's research. The distant moon is considered to be one of the most Earth-like worlds in the solar system, and its potential to host life is the topic of conversation in this episode of Discover Science. Dr. Hörst is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and an adjunct astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Dr. Hörst is also part of the team leading NASA’s Dragonfly mission – a rotorcraft-lander expedition to Titan's surface.

Dr. Hörst speaks with alumna Donna dePolo and Associate Professor Carlos Mariscal.

DePolo graduated with her degree in astronomy and physics in 2021 from the University of Nevada, Reno, and was also a successful Wolf Pack athlete as a member of the swim team. As an undergraduate, dePolo published research titled "The flickering radio jet from the quiescent black hole X-ray binary A0620-00" with Assistant Professor of Physics Richard Plotkin.

Dr. Mariscal is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Nevada, Reno interested in understanding the origin of life, the nature of extreme organisms, and what we can know about life in the universe. Dr. Mariscal is faculty in the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology graduate program where he works in areas related to the evolution, origin, and distribution of life in the universe, a field known as astrobiology.