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JHU Origins of Life Group Main Page
Planets, Life, and the Universe - The new JHU Astrobiology Seminar Series 2009-2010 at http://astrobiology.stsci.edu/
September, 3, Stephen Freeland, Institute of Astronomy, Univ of Hawaii
June 18, Wes Traub, JPL, Caltech
May 7, Drake Deming, NASA GSFC
April 9, Chris McKay, NASA Ames Research Center
March 5, Olivier Mousis, Observatoire de Besançon, France
February 5, Jill Banfield, University of California, Berkeley
January 8: Stephen Mojzsis from the University of Colorado
December 4: Jamie Elsila Cook from the Goddard Space Flight Center
November 6: Matthew Pasek from the University of South FLorida
Groups with common interests
At the Space Telescope Science Institute:
Star & Planet Formation Group at http://www.stsci.edu/~cchen/spfseminar.html
Solar System, Extrasolar Planets & Life at http://planetsliferg.stsci.edu
AstrobioClub:
Astrobiology Blog at Columbia University (Caleb Scharf)
Talks by group members
JHU Department of Physics and Astronomy Colloquium 2009
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/courses/172_601/
NASA Astrobiology Institute
NASA Science Plan
NAI Newletter
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/newsletter/display/2010-05-11
Exoplanet Newsletter
Upcoming items of interest
Origin of Life Group Meetings
Meeting Friday March 26 at 2PM in Bloomberg 475
Dimitar Sasselov from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics was our guest.
Meeting Friday November 13 at 2PM in Bloomberg 475.
Caleb Scharf from Columbia University, who presented the Physics and Astronomy Colloquium on Thursday, talked to us about his views on the "New Astrobiology". Caleb recently published "Extrasolar planets and Astrobiology". He is the Director of Astrobiology at Columbia University.
Meeting Friday October 2 at 2PM in Bloomberg 462. Discussions on the Astrobiology Seminar Series and funding opportunities.
Meeting Friday May 8 at 2PM in Bloomberg 475. Discussions on the latest discoveries presented during the STScI Symposium, May 4-7.
Public lecture on Friday night, May 8 at 7:00PM, by Steven Squyres at the Maryland Science Center entitled "Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet ".
Meeting Friday March 13 at 2PM in Bloomberg 475. This was a "Mars Day" with two speakers:
Luann Becker (jhu): The Mars Phoenix Mission
Mike Mumma (GSFC): Methane on Mars - Geology, Biology, neither, or Both?
Living systems produce more than 90% of Earth's atmospheric methane; the balance is of geochemical origin. Using high-dispersion infrared spectrometers at three ground-based telescopes, we measured methane and water vapor simultaneously on Mars over several longitude intervals in northern summer in 2003 and near the vernal equinox in 2006. When present, methane occurred in extended plumes associated with discrete active regions. In northern midsummer, the principal plume contained ~19,000 metric tons of methane, and the estimated source strength (≥0.6 kilogram per second) was comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, California. By vernal equinox about one-half the released methane had been lost. Its possible origins are of considerable interest and will be discussed in the context of geologic and biologic terrestrial analogues.
Funding Opportunities
NASA-Nordic Astrobiology Winter School
Applications are being accepted from astrobiology graduate students and postdocs for a winter school on the theme of “Water and the Evolution of Life in the Cosmos,” in Hawaii, from Monday January 3rd to Monday January 17th 2011. This school will provide approximately 40 post-graduate participants with a broad but high-level introduction into astrobiology, emphasizing the origin and role of water in the emergence of life on our planet, and in the search for life elsewhere. It will be truly multidisciplinary, bringing together students and researchers from the diverse scientific backgrounds that contribute to our current understanding. Hawaii offers ideal resources for this training opportunity, from world-leading astronomical observing facilities through state of the art cosmochemistry simulation equipment to unique geologic environments in which extremophile life exists.
Further information is available at http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/UHNAI/2011winterschool/
NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) Program – 2009/2010 Academic Year. Call for graduate fellowship proposals for students enrolled in a full-time Masters and/or Ph.D. program at accredited U.S. universities. http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId={1F7E010B-313E-EFDC-FBF6-05CC628055B6}&path=open
Conferences
First Kepler Science Conference, December 5-7, 2011, NASA Ames Research Center, CA
Second IAA Symposium on "Searching for Life Signatures", October 6-8, 2010, Buckinghamshire, UK
Royal Society Meeting "Toward a Scientific and Societal Agenda on Extra-terrestrial Life", October 4-5, 2010, the Kavli Royal Society International Center, UK
First Kepler Science Conference, December 5-7, 2011, NASA Ames Research Center, CA
Royal Society Meeting "Toward a Scientific and Societal Agenda on Extra-terrestrial Life", October 4-5, 2010, the Kavli Royal Society International Center, UK
The Delivery of Volatiles & Organics - From Earth to Exo-Earths with JWST
September 13-15, 2010 - Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD http://volatiles.stsci.edu
AbsSciCon 2010. April 26-29, 2010. League City, TX.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/abscicon2010/
Space Telescope Science Institute May 2009 Symposium: The Search for Life in the Universe
See archives:
http://2009springsymposium.stsci.edu/index.htm
Other items
NASA Astrobiology Institute AO
Full Team Info
Email: jdiruggiero@jhu.edu
