BOISE, Idaho — Heads up astronomy lovers! There's a free event you will be able to check out Friday night. Boise State University is hosting their 'First Friday Astronomy' event at 7:30 p.m. with Dr. Baptiste Chide, where he will talk about his research related to the search for ancient life on Mars.
"I've always been fascinated by the sky, by the planets, by astronomy. I did engineering aerospace school, but I didn't only want to do engineering," Dr. Chide said. "I wanted to do research, I wanted to understand planets, the solar system, the origin, how it evolved."
Dr. Chide works on a NASA team that operates the Perseverance rover on Mars. He will be talking about what his day-to-day looks like, and his team's mission.
"So, tonight we'll talk about Mars. Mars is a fascinating planet. It's our closest neighbor. It's fascinating in a sense because we know Mars was habitable in the past," Dr. Chide said. "The focus on the current research on Mars is, can we find traces of ancient life at the surface of Mars? Tonight I'll talk about the Perseverance mission which has been on Mars for two years to search for ancient traces of life."
You can catch more of Dr. Chide's talk Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Education Building, room 112. If weather allows, Boise State University will be letting people stargaze with their telescope following the session.
If you don't have enough time to make it to the Boise State campus in person, you can watch it online by clicking here.
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