Media are invited to tune into a livecast from astrobiology experts at the first Goddard international interdisciplinary conference on habitability in the early solar system.
The "Environments of Terrestrial Planets Under the Young Sun: Seeds of Biomolecules" will be held at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, from April 9 through13, 2018.
The meeting will be hosted by the Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration, a multi-disciplinary effort to study the broad diversity of exoplanet atmospheres and climate, using the wide range of scientific and technical resources available at Goddard.
It is currently unknown if or when life may have begun on planets around other stars, or how long those planets could support the ingredients necessary for life. In fact, we have only a superficial notion of where to look for habitable planets.
Understanding the evolution of planets in our own solar system, such as Earth and Venus, could provide important clues on how the environments of planets change over time and how that impacts their ability to support life.
This symposium brings together experts across disciplines to better understand how planets like Earth, Venus and Mars have changed over time – from their atmospheric composition, geology, chemical composition and interactions with the sun – to help understand what it takes to support life and whether it could exist beyond our solar system.
"Origin of life on Earth is one of the greatest puzzles of current science, and in order to understand how it started, we need to examine the evidence from the early Sun, Earth and Mars that is currently available," said conference chair professor Vladimir Airapetian. "This international conference will be a big step in this direction."
The keynote speaker will be NASA's Planetary Science Division director, Jim Green. NASA Goddard's director of the Sciences and Exploration Division, Colleen Hartman, will also deliver opening remarks.
