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The “Environments of Terrestrial Planets Under the Young Sun: Seeds of Biomolecules” Symposium was held on April 9-13, 2018, hosted by the Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. This symposium was a major international interdisciplinary conference in the emerging area of astrobiology covering astrophysical, physico-chemical, atmospheric and geological aspects of environments of early terrestrial planets with a focus on the impacts of the young Sun’s space weather on the precursors of life.

This workshop drew on the format of the highly successful prior workshop “Exoplanetary Space Weather, Climate and Habitability” (held in New Orleans, LA in 2016) in that practitioners were asked to discuss challenges around the fundamental questions of precursors and building blocks of life.

Day 1: Monday, April 9, 2018 – Space Weather from The Young Sun and Active Stars
Building 34, Room W150

Session Chair: Nat Gopalswamy (GSFC)
9:00 – 9:30 am
Opening talks by V. Airapetian (GSFC/SEEC & AU), James Green (HQ), Colleen Hartman (GSFC), Avi Mandell (GSFC/SEEC) and Phil Johnson (American University)
9:30 – 10:00 am
Manuel Guedel (University of Vienna, Austria)
Evolution of Stellar Activity and Rotation: From the Pre-Main Sequence to the 1 Gyr- Old Sun (Invited)
10:00 – 10:30 am
Yosuke Yamashiki (University of Kyoto, Japan)
Martian Surface Environmental Assessment during Young Sun

10:30 – 10:45 am
Coffee Break

10:45 – 11:15
Nat Gopalswamy (GSFC, USA)
Extreme CMEs and Energetic Particles from the Sun (Invited)
11:15 – 11:45 pm
Rachel Osten (STScI, USA)
Did the Young Sun Produce Coronal Mass Ejections? A Stellar Approach (Invited)
11:45 – 12:45 pm
Breakout Session: From the Sun to Active Stars (Part 1)

12:45 – 2:00 pm
Lunch

2:00 – 2:30 pm
Vladimir Airapetian (GSFC/SEEC & AU, USA)
Evolving Space Weather from The Young Sun
2:30 – 3:00 pm
Benjamin Lynch (UC Berkeley, USA)
MHD Models of a Superflare and Associated Carrington-Scale CME Event from the Young Sun
3:00 – 3:30 pm
Manfred Cuntz (UTA)
Habitable Zones around K and M Dwarfs
3:30 – 3:45 pm

Coffee break
3:45 – 4:15 pm

Yuta Notsu (University of Kyoto, Japan)
Spectroscopic observations of Kepler/TESS (young) solar-type superflare stars
4:15 – 4:45 pm
Chigomezyo Ngwira (GSFC/SEEC, USA)
Impacts of Super-CMEs from The Young Sun on Early Earth
4:45 – 5:45 pm
Breakout Session: From the Sun to Active Stars (Part 2)
5:45 – 7:00 pm
Lightning Talks (2 min per poster presentation) followed by the Poster Session

Day 2: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 – Impact of Space Weather from the Young Sun
Building 34, Room W150

Session Chair: Manuel Güdel (University of Vienna)
8:30 – 9:00 am
Colin Johnstone (University of Vienna, Austria)
The Upper Atmosphere of The Early Earth: Physical Properties and Mass Loss (Invited)
9:00 – 9:30 am
Kazunari Shibata (Kyoto University, Japan)
Superflares on Solar Type Stars (Invited)
9:30 – 10:00 am
Janet Luhman (UC Berkeley, USA) & Shannon Curry (UC Berkeley, USA)
Implications of SEP Event and CIR Observations on the Effects of the Young Sun on Mars (Invited)

10:00 – 10:20 am
Coffee Break

10:20 – 10:50 am
Katherine Garcia-Sage (GSFC/SEEC, USA)
Modeling Magnetic Field-Aligned Ion Escape for Extreme Environments
10:50 – 11:20 am
Glyn Collinson (GSFC/SEEC, USA)
Shaking the Skies of Mars and Venus: Ionospheric Compression, Energization, and Escape Resulting from the Impact of Ultra-low Frequency Magnetosonic Wavesin the Solar Wind
11:20 – 11:50 am
Alex Glocer (GSFC/SEEC, USA)
Mechanisms of Energetic Mass Ejection – eXplorer (MEME-X) (Invited)
11:50 – 12:30 pm
Breakout Session

12:30 – 1:30 pm
Lunch

1:30 – 2:00 pm
Robert Strangeway (UCLA, USA)
Ionospheric Outflows from Earth (Invited) – remote presentation via Adobe Connect
2:00 – 2:30 pm
Hiroyuki Kurokawa (Tokyo Tech/ELSI, Japan)
Isotopic constraints on the loss of atmosphere and water from Mars
2:30 – 3:00 pm
Nita Sahai (University of Akron, USA)
Geochemical Controls on Protocell Self-Assembly in the Origins of Life

3:00 – 3:20 pm
Coffee Break

3:20 – 3:50 pm
John Lee Grenfell (DLR, Germany)
Effects of Space Weather on Atmospheric Photochemistry, Climate and Biosignatures
3:50 – 4:20 pm
Theresa Lüftinger (University of Vienna, Austria)
Drivers of Space Weather from Evolving Young Suns: Implications For Atmospheres of Terrestrial Type Exoplanets

4:20 – 4:40 pm
Coffee Break

4:40 – 5:00 pm
Guillaume Gronoff (LARC/SSAI, USA)
Chemical impacts of SEPs on Early Mars, Earth and Exoplanetary Atmospheric Chemistry
5:00 – 5:45 pm
Breakout Session

5:45 – 7:00 pm
Poster Session

Day 3: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 – Climates of Early Earth, Mars and Venus
Building 34, Room W150

Session Chair: Vladimir Airapetian (GSFC/SEEC)
8:30 – 9:00 am
Anthony Del Genio (GISS, USA)
Greenhouse Gases, Climate Feedbacks, and the Habitability of Archean Earth (Invited)
9:00 – 9:30 am
Jim Cleaves (ELSI/Tokyo Tech, Japan)
A Systems Model of Earth’s Early Abiotic Nitrogen Cycle (Invited)

9:30 – 9:50 am
Coffee Break

9:50 – 10:20 am
Kristina Kislyakova (University of Vienna, Austria)
On the evolution of the early atmosphere of Venus
10:20 – 10:45 am
Michael Way (GISS, USA)
Modeling Venus Through Time its Implications for the Habitability of Venus-like exoplanetary worlds – remote presentation via Adobe Connect
10:45 – 11:15 am
Athanasia Nikolaou (DLR, Germany)
Terrestrial magma ocean evolution: Building an atmosphere under the young Sun
11:15 – 11:45 am
Robin Wordsworth (Harvard University, USA)
Redox evolution via gravitational differentiation on low mass planets: Implications for abiotic oxygen, habitability and prebiotic chemistry (Invited)
11:45 – 12:15 pm
Sukrit Ranjan (MIT, USA), Dimitar Sasselov (Harvard University, USA)
UV light on Earth and on M-dwarf Exoplanets: Implications for Prebiotic Chemistry (Invited)
12:15 – 1:00 pm
Breakout Session

1:00 – 2:00 pm
Lunch

2:00 – 2:15 pm
Group Photo
2:15 – 7:00 pm
Tour to Washington, DC-Cherry Blossom Festival

Day 4: Thursday, April 12, 2018 – Building Blocks of Life
Building 33, Room H114

Session Chair: Jim Cleaves (Tokyo Institute of Technology, ELSI, Japan)
8:30 – 9:00 am
Nick Hud (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Exploring candidate building blocks and environments for the emergence of life’s earliest polymers (Invited)
9:00 – 9:30 am
Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy (Scripps Institute, USA)
Understanding the Pathways of Emergence of Complexity In Prebiotic and Biological Chemistry (Invited)
9:30 – 10:00 am
Robert Pascal (University of Montpellier, France)
Are there environmental requirements for biological organization to emerge? (Invited)
10:00 – 10:30 am
Laurie Barge (JPL, USA)
Exploring Environmental Conditions for Prebiotic Chemistry on Early Terrestrial Planets (Invited)

10:30 – 10:45 am
Coffee break

10:45 – 11:15 am
David Fialho (Georgia Institute of technology, USA)
Glycosylation of Noncanonical Nucleobases in Water: Implications for the Evolution of Early Genetic Polymers
11:15 – 11:45 am
Jason Greenwald (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Peptide amyloid aggregates as a molecular scaffold for prebiotic self- replication
11:45 – 12:30 pm
Breakout Session

12:30 – 1:30 pm
Lunch

1:30 – 2:00 pm
Gang Li (University of Alabama at Huntsville, USA)
SEPs from the Young Sun
2:00 – 2:30 pm
Zita Martins (Instituto Superior Téchnico, Portugal)
The origin and evolution of organic matter in the solar system: from interstellar ices to primitive carbonaceous chondrite (Invited)
2:30 – 3:00 pm
Shigenori Maruyama (Tokyo Institute of Technology/ELSI, Japan)
Nine requirements for the birthplace of life and probability of life beyond Earth

3:00 – 3:15 pm
Coffee break

3:15 – 3:45 pm
Kensei Kobayashi (Yokohama National University, Japan)
Formation of Amino Acid Precursors in Slightly Reducing Planetary Atmospheres by Solar Energetic Particles from the Young Sun (Invited)
3:45 – 4:15 pm
Albert Fahrenbach (Tokyo Institute of Technology/ELSI, Japan)
Radiolytic Synthesis of RNA Precursors

4:15 – 4:30 pm
Coffee break

4:30 – 5:00 pm
Michael Mumma (GSFC/SEEC)
A Compositional Survey of 30 Comets: Chemical and Isotopic Signatures, and Implications for Enabling Life’s Origins in Planetary Systems
5:00 – 5:30 pm
Jan Spitzer (Mallard Creek Polymers, USA)
Emergence of Life on Earth-like Planets
5:30 – 6:30 pm
Breakout session

7:00 – 11:00 pm
Banquet at Recreation Center, GSFC

Day 5: Friday, April 13, 2018 – Biogenic Conditions on Early Terrestrial Planets and Exoplanets
Building 33, Room H114

Session Chair: Nick Hud (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
8:30 – 9:00 am
Ofer Cohen (UMass, USA)
Energy Dissipation in the Upper Atmospheres of Trappist-1 Planets
9:00 – 9:30 am
Charley Lineweaver (Australian National University, Australia)
Atmospheres, Weathering, Circumstellar Habitable Zones and the Gaian Bottleneck Model (Invited)
9:30 – 10:00 am
Moran Frenkel Pinter (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Dynamic Polymerization of Prebiotic Depsipeptides Allows Selection of Stable Structures
10:00 – 10:30 am
Weijia Kuang (GSFC/SEEC, USA)
When will the Earth’s magnetic field cease? Implications on habitability

10:30 – 10:45 am
Coffee break

10:45 – 11:15 am
Maurice van Putten (Sejong University, South Korea)
Moons as a proxy for global clement climate in exoplanets
11:15 – 11:40 am
Shawn Domagal-Goldman (GSFC/SEEC, USA)
LUVOIR: A Mission to “Early Earth 2.0”
11:45 – 12:15 pm
Jeffrey Bada (UCSD, USA)
Exposed Areas Above Sea Level on Earth>3.5 Gy: Implications for Prebiotic Chemistry and the Transition to Primitive Biotic – remote presentation via Adobe Connect
12:15 – 1:15 pm
Concluding Remarks by Vladimir Airapetian (GSFC/SEEC and AU, USA)
Biogenic Conditions on the Early Earth and Mars Under The Young Sun: What Do We Learn?