"Lunar & Meteorite Samples: A Show and Tell": In-Person Badger Talk in Verona, WI

This is a free, in-person talk hosted on September 17, 2026 at 6:00 PM by Verona Public Library in Verona, WI. Registration is required for this event and can be done on the Verona Public Library website: https://verona.librarycalendar.com/events/month. This talk will not be held virtually.
The library will be borrowing samples of the moon and a meteorite from NASA, and a UW-Madison astronomer will talk about the samples and answer audience questions.
Bennett Wilson's research explores how liquid water altered the earliest asteroids in our solar system, and the role these bodies may have played in the origin of life. Using meteorites and mission returned samples from hydrated asteroids, he targets alteration minerals with high-precision mass spectrometry and nanoscale spectroscopic techniques to understand how water-rock interactions produced new minerals and organic compounds. This work constrains the conditions under which biorelevant organics and minerals may have emerged on small planetary bodies.