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Blue Dot: Looking for life in alien oceans with Dr. Kevin Hand

Director of NASA/JPL Ocean Worlds Lab Kevin Hand
NASA
/
JPL
Director of NASA/JPL Ocean Worlds Lab Kevin Hand

Host Dave Schlom is joined by NASA planetary scientist Kevin Hand for a fascinating, in-depth (pun perhaps intended) look at the search for life in the oceans of alien worlds like Jupiter's moon Europa and the Saturnian satellite Enceladus.

Director of the Ocean Worlds Lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Dr. Hand is also the author of the wonderful 2020 book Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space. 

In addition to his work on numerous deep space missions, including Europa Clipper, which is currently en route to the Jovian moon, Hand has done many deep sea explorations on Earth, including filmmaker James Cameron's 2012 dive to the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean trench on our planet.

It's a fascinating look at what life is like in the depths of our oceans and what might be lurking beneath alien seas!

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.