The goal of NASA’s Exobiology program (formerly Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology) is to understand the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe. Research is centered on the origin and early evolution of life, the potential of life to adapt to different environments, and the implications for life elsewhere. This research is conducted in the context of NASA’s ongoing exploration of our stellar neighborhood and the identification of biosignatures for in situ and remote sensing applications.

The first season of the NASA Astrobiology Program’s Network for Ocean Worlds quarterly Lecture Series, “Life on Ocean Worlds,” continues today, June 15th at 2 PM Eastern time. Episode 2: “Life on the seafloors and in the oceans” will consist of two live 20-minute lectures:

1. “Earth: Life on the seafloors and in the oceans” by Dr. Julie Huber, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2. “Ocean Worlds: Life on the seafloors and in the oceans,” by Dr. Kevin Hand, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The event is will be held via WebEx. The lectures will each be 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions. Afterwards, the lines will stay open for an additional 30 minutes for an audience discussion of crosscutting themes between the exploration of oceans and ice on the Earth and in the Solar System. The meetings will be recorded and made available online.

Students and postdocs interested  in the field of “Exobiology: Early Evolution of Life and the Biosphere” are encouraged to check out opportunities for NASA Postdoctoral Program fellowships to work with several different investigators. Amongst the available mentors for this opportunity, C-DEBI Senior Scientist Beth Orcutt and Associate Director Julie Huber welcome discussion with interested applicants that want to use marine deep biosphere “extreme” environments, particularly in oceanic crust, as analog for studying life on ocean worlds. Please contact C-DEBI Senior Scientist Beth Orcutt (borcutt@bigelow.org, @DeepMicrobe) and Associate Director Julie Huber (jhuber@whoi.edu, @JulesDeep) to discuss your interest in this opportunity. Fellowship applications due Nov 1, 2019.

Motivated by the suite of habitable environments available to Mars-2020 for in situ exploration and sample collection, we are convening a set of 4 web-hosted telecons, open to the community. The first two telecons are:

Telecon 1: Martian Environment: Evidence for Rock-Hosted Waters
What is the evidence for ancient Mars environmental conditions? What is the likelihood of habitats for rock-hosted life?
December 19, 8:30AM PST // facilitated by Bethany Ehlmann, Paul Niles

Telecon 2: Metabolisms and Niches for Terrestrial Rock-Hosted Life
Where rock-hosted life found on earth today? What are its metabolisms and products?
December 20, 8:30AM PST // facilitated by Tullis Onstott, Jeff Marlow

The URL for the meeting is:

https://connect.arc.nasa.gov/rocklife2017/

Select “Enter as a Guest”, type in your name and click the “Enter Room” button. The telecon line is 844-467-6272, passcode 250961

For further schedule and information about the working group, see:

http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~rocklife2017/