Media Center
Welcome members of the media
AbSciCon22 invites eligible members of the media to register for free online and in-person access to the conference. Hybrid and online-only oral sessions are live-streamed for remote conference attendees. Session recordings will be available for viewing within the conference platform 24 hours after the events end.
Questions? Please contact AbSciCon Media Relations.
Media Registration and eligibility
Media registration remains open for the duration of AbSciCon22
RegisterMedia roundtable Q&A sessions
AbSciCon Media Relations will present two informal media roundtable events on the intertwined topics how life in the universe beyond Earth may look different from life as we know it – and how we will recognize and detect it on distant worlds. The roundtable Q&As will be held on Zoom to accommodate remote participation and last 45 minutes.
Roundtables media events provide background on newsworthy topics, ongoing projects and missions and are designed to foster conversation. Panelists will introduce themselves and their work briefly and the table will be opened to questions for the bulk of the session time.
Media roundtables are open to media only; reporters, please contact [email protected] to obtain the access code. Recordings will be available from this page and AGU’s YouTube channel after the event.
Imagining aliens: what might life be like beyond Earth (and how will we recognize it)?
How do we look for life as we don’t know it? AbSciCon22’s schedule is packed with exciting explorations of habitability and the search for unique chemical signatures of life on other worlds. With only a single case study of life’s evolution (Earth), how can we know what is possible? In this session, panelists will answer questions about how Earth- and space-based research is both expanding and constraining concepts of what life is and where we will find it.
Panelists:
- Betül Kaçar, University of Wisconsin Madison
Studies the emergence and evolution of life on early Earth, tracing life and environment’s co-evolution over billions of years. Her methods reveal the story of life’s earliest innovations to predict how life could evolve on worlds other than our own.
- Adrienne Kish, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
Works to identify the molecular mechanisms that let extremophilic organisms survive in diverse, high-stress conditions.
- Aaron Goldman, Oberlin College
Studies the origin and very early evolution of cellular life and ancient metabolic systems. His work takes advantage of the fact that many features of ancient life forms are still buried within the genomes of modern organisms.
- Heather Graham, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Develops tools and methods to aid in the identification of “agnostic biosignatures,” or evidence of life systems that may not share a biochemical background with life on Earth. Such approaches are critical in the potential for detecting diverse extraterrestrial life.
Related sessions:
- Plenary Session: Dr. Betül Kaçar – Exploring Life’s Early Evolution with Molecular Paleobiology
Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM - 324 – Salty Goodness II: Return of the Brines II Online Session: In Memoriam of Ronald Oremland
Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM - 420 – What Life Wants: The Natural Selection of the Elements of Life II Online Session
Thursday, May 19, 2022, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM - 423 – The Solar System in Your Laboratory II Online Session
Thursday, May 19, 2022, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM - 240 – Thinking Beyond LUCA: Stem Life and Primordial Diversity II Online Session
Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM - 343 – Detecting Life as We Don’t Know It III Online Session
Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM - 344 – General Principles of Life: Towards Understanding Universal Biology IV Online Session
Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Life signs: searching for signatures of life and technology on exoplanets
It’s an exciting time for exploration of life on planets far, far way. Exoplanet discovery has exploded in the decade since the launch of the Kepler space telescope; we’re at over 5,000 exoplanets discovered and counting. This session will explore how researchers are looking for signs of life, including the tell-tale pollution from industrial civilization, in exoplanet atmospheres.
Panelists:
- Natalie Batalha, University of California, Santa Cruz
Detects and characterizes planets orbiting other stars with the goal of understanding where are the most likely cradles of life. She also studies exoplanets as a population to understand their diversity.
- Ravi Kopparapu, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Studies the habitability of exoplanets with a focus on the presence of liquids, especially water, and the conditions required for liquid water. He also studies technosignatures.
- Owen Lehmer, NASA Ames Research Center
Models the formation, evolution and detection of habitable planets in an effort to find and characterize the next Earth-like planet.
Related sessions:
- 105 – Priorities and Strategies for Technosignature Detection I Hybrid Oral
Monday, May 16, 2022, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM - 244 – Exoplanet Biosignatures the 2020s and Beyond IV Online Session
Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM - 339 – Priorities and Strategies for Technosignature Detection IV Online Session
Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM - 504 – Life and Its Biosignatures: Shortfalls, Pitfalls and State-Of-The-Art I Online Session
Friday, May 20, 2022, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Media Contacts
