Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to submit abstracts to our AGU 2020 (December 7-11, 2020) session on astrobiology and life detection. Our session aims to emphasize the connections between astrobiology, planetary science, geochemistry, and paleobiological methods (among others) with regards to life detection.  Abstract submissions will close Wednesday, July 29, at 23:59 EDT. Please see below for details.

Session P010: Detecting life through space and time: From geochemistry to biology
Section: Planetary Sciences
Session Description: This session aims to explore the common ground of paleobiological methods and astrobiological methods for the purpose of developing life detection technologies for space exploration. While both of these fields are traditionally rooted in knowledge based on Terran life, they also both suffer from the limits of analogy with the current extant example of life we have—especially when looking further back in time or further away from Earth. This session will bring together ideas from different disciplines that investigate the detection of life in deep time and beyond Earth. We also invite research efforts currently undertaken to detect or characterize ambiguous biosignatures, as well as theoretical and modeling studies related to these subjects. We encourage contributions from other topics such as understanding transitions from geochemistry to biology, environmental reconstruction from geochemical expressions, discerning potential cryptic biospheres, as well as detecting life-as-we-don’t-know-it.

Conveners: Luoth Chou (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Natalie Grefenstette (Santa Fe Institute), Heather Graham (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Sarah Stewart Johnson (Georgetown University)  

Visit the session webpage: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm20/prelim.cgi/Session/105278

Index Terms:
0406 Astrobiology and extraterrestrial materials
0424 Biosignatures and proxies
5215 Origin of life
5225 Early environment of Earth

Swirl Topics: Planetary Discovery – SWIRL