International Conferences

• Does life exist beyond Earth?
• And, how could we detect it?
• Which are the stellar and planetary constraints that affect the emergence and evolution of life?
• What areas in our Solar System and elsewhere can be habitable environments for life?

These are some of the most important astrobiology issues that ORIGINS COST Action addresses. Answering these questions would imply to completely transform our view about human uniqueness and human position in the Universe influencing the search for signs of life within planetary exploration and on exoplanets.

Conference for Early Career Astrobiologists "The Early History of Planetary systems and habitable planets"

Warsaw, Poland 3-7 April, 2017

The meeting will cover a multitude of scientific subjects ranging from star and planet formation until the early evolution of life on Earth. It aims to bring together astronomers, physicists, chemists, geologists and biologists as well as academics and students from humanities to discuss the most important questions and newest findings in all related disciplines.

The study of astrochemistry has become an important branch of modern astronomy and astrophysics. Molecules are key tools in exploring topics such as star and planet formation, mass loss mechanisms in late-type stars, the origin and evolution of interstellar dust grains, the structure of the interstellar medium in galaxies and the origin of protogalaxies in the early Universe.

The active synergy between astronomical observation, laboratory experiment and theoretical modelling has been reinforced at the recent IAU General Assembly (Hawaii 2015) by the creation of a new IAU Commission (B5) on Laboratory Astrophysics, of which laboratory astrochemistry is an essential component.

This meeting is the seventh in a series addressing the broad and fast-moving discipline of astrochemistry. The most recent meeting in this series, IAUS280: The Molecular Universe, was held in Toledo, Spain, in 2011. The meetings held prior to that can be viewed on the history section of the IAUS280 website.

This international symposium, co-sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the European Astrobiology Campus (EAC, http://astrobiology-campus.eu/), is designed to bring education research in astronomy in general, and in astrobiology in particular, to the professional scientific community.

Website: http://ISE2A.uu.nl

Contact:  ISE2A@uu.nl

Conference: Evolution of Chemical Complexity: From simple interstellar molecules to terrestrial biopolymers

Liblice Castle, Czech Republic, 13 – 15 September 2016

The meeting will try to map the chemical evolution of the molecular building blocks of life from their possible sources in the interstellar medium, the atmospheres of planets and on their surfaces. It also aims to serve to engage the astrochemistry and systems chemistry communities into a dialogue.

XIIe Rencontres du Vietnam
December 12th-16th 2016, Qhy Nonh, Vietnam

IAU International Conference on «Search for life: from early Earth to exoplanets»
http://rencontresduvietnam.org/conferences/2016/search-for-life

The program of the conference will focus on 4 main themes:

• Formation, evolution and habitability of planetary systems
• Early Earth environment
• From prebiotic chemistry to early Earth
• Life in Universe, societal impacts and ethical issues

A 2-days Training School on the «Basics in Astrobiology» will be organized before the conference (December 9th-11th)

The meeting will cover a multitude of scientific subjects ranging from star and planet formation until the early evolution of life on Earth. It aims to bring together astronomers, physicists, chemists, geologists and biologists as well as academics and students from humanities to discuss the most important questions and newest findings in all related disciplines. Special sessions will be devoted to comets, meteorites, prebiotic chemistry and early life. The web page is found under this address: http://www.vilnius2016.eu

The EANA Workshop (European Astrobiology Network Association Workshop) will be held in Athens, Greece.

• Dates: 27th – 30th of September 2016 (Tuesday to Friday)
• Venue: Eugenides Foundation, 387 Syngrou Ave., 175 64 Paleo Faliro, Athens – Greece.
• Field trip: Cape Vani, Milos Island, Aegean sea, Greece. Will take place after the conference, probably between the dates 1, 2, and/or 3 October 2016 (to be announced).
• Main topic: Instrument Concepts and Methods in Planetary Research.
• Other topics: Astrobiology related topics, i.e., biology, earth sciences, planetary sciences, atmospheres,  human flight, etc.

The EANA15 will be hosted in Noordwijk in the Netherlands at the ESTEC complex of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The conference will focus on "Astrobiology and Spaceflight" and will include lectures by ESTEC colleagues. With Rosetta/Philae coming to a conclusion, Expose-R2 in orbit, ExoMars in the pipeline and nano satellites under consideration, the focus comes at an ideal time.

Please, check the link: http://www.eana-net.eu/Conferences/EANA2015.html