Our chemical origin: Interstellar and planetary prebiotic chemistry

- canceled -

3 - 6 April 2023

Venue: Lorentz Center@Oort

If you are invited or already registered for this workshop, you have received login details by email.

At the basis of life is a large and complex chemical puzzle of prebiotic reactions. From atoms and simple molecules the building blocks of life can form, such as amino acids, lipids, and nucleobases. Studies in the laboratory as well as theoretical and modelling approaches provide us many insights into the chemical processes in interstellar space, during impact events, in hydrothermal vents, atmospheres, and on planetary surfaces. Collectively, we call these studies “experiments”.

At the same time, the 21st century brings us a number of facilities with unprecedented capabilities to study ongoing prebiotic chemical processes in remote and faraway locations. Field studies go to exotic regions on Earth, space explorations missions fly to nearby asteroids and far-away moons, and new powerful telescopes provide a more detailed look at exoplanets and the furthest reaches of space than ever before. Collectively we call these studies “observations”. 

The objective of this workshop is to bring experiments and observations of prebiotic chemistry together. Experiments tell us which chemical signatures to search for, while observations provide us with the constraints to determine if prebiotic reactions that work in experiments are plausible in natural environments. The interaction between these two branches is essential to solve the prebiotic puzzle and understand how life emerged on Earth and may be emerging on other planetary objects.

Therefore, we want to answer three questions during this workshop:

  1. Which experiments are needed to guide upcoming observations?
  2. Which new observational constraints can be set to determine if prebiotic chemical networks can exist and interact in a natural environment?
  3. How can we distinguish detections of prebiotic molecules from chemical biosignatures and prevent false-positives in life detection?
Read more...

    April 3

    April 4

    April 5

    April 6

    Please login to view the participants information. You have received the log in details in your registration confirmation.

    Niels Ligterink, University of Bern  

    Bernard Foing, Leiden University  

    Nir Goldman, University California Davis  

    Nathalie Carrasco, UVSQ  


Maria Krebbers

+31 71 527 5578

krebbers@lorentzcenter.nl

Follow us on:

Niels Bohrweg 1 & 2

2333 CA Leiden

The Netherlands

+31 71 527 5400