Probing (Extra)Terrestrial Fossils : An Integrated Approach by Dr. Ishita Pal I Session 4

planX Talk LIVE : conversations on PLANetary eXploration. About the Speaker: Dr. Ishita Pal is a postdoc researcher at University of Louisiana Lafayette, USA. She has a PhD in Laboratory Astrophysics from the same university. During her PhD she also received prestigious NASA FINESST Fellowship. She use isotope chemistry and micro-structural information on rocks, dusts, trees and fossils to explore the mysteries of this planet and our Solar System. Date: 22 May, 2026 Talk Abstract: Fossils come in many forms, sizes and ages. Some are extremely rare, unique and ancient, while others are more common, numerous and modern. Extracting records and creating a holistic picture from such samples requires perspectives and resources from various disciplines of science. I am going to discuss the study of fossils through an interdisciplinary lens and how that advances the field of Earth and Planetary Science research. I will talk through the development of a new methodology for coordinated analysis of stellar fossils, aka presolar stardust. Through collaboration between astrophysical and analytical research, this work uncovers new insights to subgrain chemistry, providing first evidence of rare nucleosynthetic reactions in core-collapse supernovae (p- and n-process). Additionally, our results add rapidly-accrediting-white-dwarf as a new stellar site for presolar grain production. Using similar principles of isotopic analysis, I will also discuss the development of a paleoclimate proxy based on contemporary pine trees and non-petrified fossil wood.