Searching for Life Across Space and Time, workshop, Irvine, CA

"The workshop will feature a series of sessions that will feature presentations from experts on current understanding of the environmental (physical and chemical) limits of life, life’s interactions with the environments of planets and moons, habitable environments in the solar system and extrasolar planetary systems, extraterrestrial biosignatures, life detection capabilities remotely or in situ in the solar system and from afar on extrasolar worlds, instrumentation, and targeted precursor research."

Watch the live webcast of this workshop here: workshop webcast. The webcast recordings will be available approximately 1-2 weeks after the event on the workshop's website.

View PDF of the agenda here Day 1: December 5, 2016

Session 1: Setting the Stage

How likely is it that life exists off the Earth? - John Baross, University of Washington
Current understanding of the environmental limits of life and life's interactions wiht its environment - Tori Hoehler, NASA Ames
Is life a cosmic imperative: How did thermodynamics force life into existence? - Eric Smith, Santa Fe Institute

Session 2: Habitable environments in the Solar System

Habitable environments on present and ancient Mars - John Grotzinger, Caltech
Habitable environments on ocean worlds and a summary of the Ocean Worlds Life Detection Workshop - Kevin Hand, JPL
Planning for the Exploration of Mars and Ocean Worlds - Ellen Stofan, NASA

Session 3: Exoplanets

Current state of knowledge of exoplanets and their habitability and a summary of the Exoplanet Biosignatures Workshop - Vikki Meadows, University of Washington
Extrasolar biosignatures: Thinking out of the box - William Bains, MIT
The First Spaceborne Direct Imaging Exoplanet Mission: WFIRST Coronagraph - and Starshade? - Margaret Turnbull, SETI Institute
Prospects for ground-based characterization of Proxima Centauri b - Matteo Brogi, University of Colorado, Boulder
Practical biosignatures that can be exploited to search for life in situ in the solar system and from afar on extrasolar worlds - Discussion

Session 4: Poster Display and Reception Day 2: December 6, 2016

Session 5: Life Detection Techniques

Life Detection: 40 years after Viking - Ben Clark, Space Science Institute
Signatures of life as we know it - Gary Ruvkun, Massachusetts General Hospital
Signatures of life as we don't know it - Steve Benner, the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution

Session 6: Instrumentation

In-situ life detection, Ocean Worlds - Morgan Cable, JPL
Life detection capabilities of LUVOIR and HabEx - Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA GSFC
In-situ life detection, Mars - Jen Eigenbrode, NASA GSFC

Session 7: Future Directions - Breakout Groups

Focus question: How could targeted research over the next 5-10 years help advance the state of the art for life detection, including instrumentation and precursor research.

Discussion topics will include:

In situ detection of life as we know it
In situ detection of life as we don't know it
Remote detection of life as we know it
Remote detection of life as we don't know it

Session 8: Conclusions

Summary of key points raised during the workshop
Concluding remarks

Header Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

FAQs

Are there ID requirements or an age limit to enter the event?

No.

Do I have to bring my printed ticket to the event?

No.