NAI
2010 Annual Science Report
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Reporting | SEP 2009 – AUG 2010
Bioastronomy 2007 Meeting Proceedings
Project Summary
This is the published volume of material from an astrobiology meeting hosted by our lead team in 2007 in San Juan Puerto Riceo. The book includes 60 papers covering the breadth of astrobiology, and developed a new on-line astrobiology glossary.
Project Progress
The meeting held during July 2007 in San Juan Puerto Rico hosted 234 participants, for which there were 19 invited talks, 57 contributed oral talks and 113 poster presentations. The conference was organized around four broad themes: the origin of prebiotic material in space and delivery to the earth, investigation of the habitable worlds in the solar system and the building blocks of life, the origin of early life and its co-evolution with the environment and extrasolar planets and biosignatures. The proceedings were edited by members from several NAI teams, in include 60 papers organized into the following sections:
- How Early Could Life Originate in the Universe [5 papers]
- The Nature of Interstellar Organics [5 papers]
- Organic Material in Comets, Meteorites, and IDPs [3 papers]
- Mars as a Setting for Life [4 papers]
- Prebiotic Chemistry [6 papers]
- Origins of Viruses and Cellular function [2 papers]
- Life in Extreme Environments [11 papers]
- Co-Evolution of Life and the Environment on Early Earth [2 papers]
- Extrasolar Planets / Planet Formation [6 papers]
- Habitable planets and their Stars [6 papers]
- Biosignatures and Life Beyond Earth [3 papers]
- SETI [11 papers]
- Education and Outreach [4 papers]
In addition, the book includes the Astrobiology glossary that was developed for the meeting, and which is being maintained as a resource for the astrobiology community by NAI central. The book, which has a publication date of 2009, was shipped in early 2010.
Cover of the ASP Volume 420 Conference series proceedings from the meeting.
Publications
- Meech, K.J., Irvine, W.M., Meech, K.J., Keane, J.V., Mumma, M.J., Siefert, J.L. & Werthimer, D.J. (2009). Overview of the Bioastronomy 2007 Meeting. The 9th Bioastronomy conference.
- Meech, K.J., Keane, J.V., Mumma, M.J., Siefert, J.L., Werthimer, D.J., Meech, K.J., Keane, J.V., Mumma, M.J., Siefert, J.L. & Werthimer, D.J. (2009). Bioastronomy 2007: Molecules, Microbes and Extraterrestrial Life. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series.
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PROJECT INVESTIGATORS:
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PROJECT MEMBERS:
Karen Meech
Project Investigator
Jacqueline Keane
Co-Investigator
Michael Mumma
Collaborator
Janet Siefert
Collaborator
Daniel Werthimer
Collaborator
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RELATED OBJECTIVES:
Objective 1.1
Formation and evolution of habitable planets.
Objective 1.2
Indirect and direct astronomical observations of extrasolar habitable planets.
Objective 2.1
Mars exploration.
Objective 2.2
Outer Solar System exploration
Objective 3.1
Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts
Objective 3.2
Origins and evolution of functional biomolecules
Objective 3.3
Origins of energy transduction
Objective 3.4
Origins of cellularity and protobiological systems
Objective 4.1
Earth's early biosphere.
Objective 4.2
Production of complex life.
Objective 4.3
Effects of extraterrestrial events upon the biosphere
Objective 5.1
Environment-dependent, molecular evolution in microorganisms
Objective 5.2
Co-evolution of microbial communities
Objective 5.3
Biochemical adaptation to extreme environments
Objective 6.1
Effects of environmental changes on microbial ecosystems
Objective 6.2
Adaptation and evolution of life beyond Earth
Objective 7.1
Biosignatures to be sought in Solar System materials
Objective 7.2
Biosignatures to be sought in nearby planetary systems