Astrobiology: The Story of Life on Earth

There is only one known planet with life, Earth. In this talk I cover the highlights of the history of life on our planet. We will first venture back to the earliest days of our Solar System with the formation of our planet and then the massive impact collision that formed the Moon. The Hadean era was characterized by the first basalt crust as Earth cooled and then the formation of the oceans and granite setting the stage for the origin of life. Through looking first at the Stanley Miller experiment and the emergence of biomolecules, I will show how this foundation is thought to have contributed to the origin of life. I then discuss how oxygenic photosynthesis evolved and why O2 may evolve on other planets where water and CO2 are present, and thus why oxygen is a key biosignature for exoplanet characterization missions.