Bernard Marty

The Speaker

Professor at the Ecole nationale supérieure of Geology and director of the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques [Research Center of Petrology and Geochemistry] in Nancy, France, Bernard Marty specializes in cosmochemistry and geochemistry of volatile elements. He has worked on topics as diverse as the origin of matter in the solar system, the evolution of the atmosphere, the dynamics of volcanoes, and recent environmental changes. His team is involved in the analysis of solar winds collected by NASA’s Genesis mission and of comet matter collected by the Stardust probe. Bernard Marty is member of the Institut Universitaire de France [French Academic Institute] and Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Lectures

The Origin of the Solar System: Genesis and Stardust, the Sun and a Comet in the Laboratory

The Sun and the planets were born 4.5 billion years ago in a whirl of gas and dust known as the proto-solar nebula. Where does this matter come from, what are the high-energy processes that led to its condensation into a central star and the small bodies that were the precursors of the planets? The Sun cannot be accessed directly and the planets are remnants that have largely lost the original information. Primitive meteorites give us some information about this eventful genesis. 
Two NASA missions, Genesis and Stardust, have recently brought back to Earth some samples of original solar matter, collected at a great distance into ultrapure material, and of comet matter in the form of minuscule specks collected from the tail of the Wild2 comet.
Analyses currently being done in several labs on both sides of the Atlantic reveal an unexpected difference from the original matter and a large scale mixing of the matter.

The Origin of Earth, Its Atmosphere and the Oceans

Our planet was born 4.5 billion years ago from collisions between bodies of variable sizes, in a hot part of the solar system close to the Sun. A final collision a few tens of millions of years later between the proto-Earth and a body the size of Mars formed two partially or totally molten bodies, the Earth and the Moon.
How did the Earth transform into a habitable planet? What is the origin of its atmosphere and the oceans? 
Why did it not evolve towards inferno conditions such as on Venus, or a frozen desert such as on Mars? Each planet evolved in its own way, often motivated by anecdotal and/or local processes, which led the Earth to acquire in a few tens to hundreds of millions of years, a neutral atmosphere and oceans that cradled the development of primitive life.

What impact could a better understanding of our solar system have on the protection of our planet or on the exploitation of new resources in the universe?

Links to interviews of Bernard Marty:
http://www.cieletespaceradio.fr/index.php/2007/03/19/89-un-metier-une-%20passion-bernard-marty-geochimiste
http://www.cieletespaceradio.fr/index.php/2007/03/13/86-genesis-les-poussieres-de-soleil-parlent
http://www.cieletespaceradio.fr/index.php/2007/03/14/87-stardust-pour-une-poignee-de-comete

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