P.-O.Bourge, G.Alecian, A. Thoul, R. Scuflaire,
| Astrobiology and Solar System Exploration |
How does life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? How do planetary systems form? What makes a planet habitable?
This workshop will be dedicated to the presentation of the latest results from ongoing space missions to Mars, Saturn, and Titan. We also invite contributions related to future exploratory programs and missions in the solar system, planetary protection, the formation and detection of rocky (exo)planets, the origin and early evolution of life on Earth, life in Earth extreme environments potentially analogous to extraterrestrial habitats, and the characterization of biosignatures for the detection of life in our solar system and beyond.
Scientific committee for this workshop:
| Cockell Charles | Open Univ., UK | |
| Horneck Gerda | German Aerospace Center | |
| Javaux Emmanuelle | ULg, Belgium (chair) | |
| Perez-Mercader Juan | Centro de Astrobiologia, Spain | |
| Swings Jean-Pierre | ULg, Belgium | |
| Christian Muller | BUSOC, IASB-BIRA |
Plenary Talks:
| Tuesday - 5 July 2005 Room: 304 | |
| 09h00~09h50 | Opportunity, Meridiani, and the search for life on Mars. A.H. Knoll and the Athena Science Team Harvard University, Cambridge USA |
| Thursday - 7 July 2005 Room: 304 | |
| 09h00-09h50 | The Cassini-Huygens Mission: Results after one year in orbit around Saturn and
six months after Huygens landing on Titan. JP Lebreton, Dennis Matson , L. Spilker ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands |
Afternoon talks:
| Tuesday - 5 July 2005 Room: 204 | |
| 13h30~14h20 | Invited talk: The Mars Express mission: summary of scientific results from orbit A. Chicarro |
| 14h20-14h50 | Was water liquid at the surface of Mars at late
Noachian? A low-periapsis orbiter to decipher past Martian climate Eric Chassefière and 21 co-authors |
| 14h50-15h20 | Habitats for life in the venusian environment? Can the Venus Express payload
answer C. Muller and D. Schulze-Makuch |
| 15h30-16h00 | Coffee break |
| 16h00-16h30 | Microbial Experiments In The Space Station For The Anaysis Of Gene Expression
Under Space Flight Conditions N. Leys, R. Wattiez, S. Baatout, R. Benotmane, P. Janssen, P. De Boever, A. Dams1, M. Mergeay |
| 16h30-17h00 | Ocean Planets: heaven or hell ? Dimitri Mawet, Alain Léger, Didier Despois, David Ehrenreich |
| 17h00-18h00 | Poster session |
| 18h00 | leave for reception |
| Thursday - 7 July 2005 Room: 204 | |
| 13h30-14h00 | Cosmic DUNE: An Observatory for the Study of Interstellar and Interplanetary
Dust Eberhard Grün, Ralf Srama and the Cosmic DUNE Team |
| 14h00-14h30 | Satellites of giant planets - possible sites for origin and existence of
biospheres L.V.Ksanfomality and M.B.Simakov |
| 14h30-15h00 | On the potential of extrasolar planet transit survey M. Gillon, F. Courbin, P. Magain, B. Borguet |
| 15h00-15h30 | Titan's chemical composition from Cassini-Huygens measurements A. Coustenis |
| 15h30-16h00 | Coffee break |
| 16h00-16h50 | Invited talk: On the origin of the Late Heavy Bombardment of terrestrial planets A. Morbidelli, R. Gomes, K. Tsiganis, H. Levison |
| 16h50-17h20 | Early Earth biosphere and possible spectral biosignatures in atmospheres of
exoplanets Pierre Riaud and Emmanuelle Javaux |
List of posters for this session:
| 1. | The SPICAV spectrometer on Venus-Express D. Nevejans, E. Neefs, C. Muller and the SPICAV team |
| 2. | Comparison of Strains Isolated from an American Space Craft Assembling Clean
Room with Environmental Metal Resistant Strains N. Leys, A. Dams, I. Coninx, A. Bossus, A. Provoost, M. Mergeay & K. Venkateswaran |
| 3. | Nitrogen Isotopes in Comets. Tracking Organics from the Interstellar Medium to
the Solar System D. Hutsemekers, C. Arpigny, E. Jehin, J. Manfroid, A. Cochran, R. Schulz, J. Stuewe, J.-M. Zucconi |
| 4. | Effect of the interstellar gas clouds on the interplanetary dust particle orbits
- impact on climate and biosphere. A.K.Pavlov,A.V.Blinov,A.N.Konstantinov, S.M.Livshits |
| 5. | Possible crater sizes on the nucleus of comet 9P/Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005 Churyumov K.I., Kruchynenko V.G., Chubko L.S. |
| 6. | Is Exploration of Electrical Activity from Martian Dust Devil by Mission for
Astrobiology? Yuriy Serozhkin |
| 7. | Gravity Measurements with Mars Express. V. Dehant, M. Beuthe, O. Karatekin, V. Lainey, S. Le Maistre, P. Rosenblatt, T. Van Hoolst |
| 8. | Exploration of the spectra of comet 153P/Ikeya-Zhang Chubko L.S., Churyumov K.I., Lukyuanyk I.V., Kleshchonok V.V., Berezhnoy A.A., Chavushyan V., Palma A. , Sandoval L. |
| 9. | Physical and dynamical evolution of Centaurs object 95P/CHIRON (2060) N. S. Kovalenko, K. I. Churyumov |
| 10. | Exposure of phage T7 to simulated space environment - The effect of vacuum and
simulated solar UV radiation M. Hegedüs, A. Fekete, K. Módos, G. Kovács, Gy. Rontó, H. Lammer, C. Panitz |
| 11. | About the proteomic analysis on the stress response of the life support system
organism Rhodospirillum Rubrum to simulated microgravity and low earth orbit
culture conditions Felice Mastroleo, Larissa Hendrickx, Max Mergeay and Ruddy Wattiez |
| 12. | Origin of active longitudes in Jovian decametric radio emission Zaitsev V. V., Shaposhnikov V. E., Rucker H. O. |
| 13. | On possible escape of electron maser radiation from active regions in the solar
corona Zaitsev V. V., Shaposhnikov V. E., Rucker H. O. |
| 14. | Lightning-induced astrobiological potential of rare gas-grain medium: where &
when in Solar system Yuriy Serozhkin |
| 15. | Exploration of cyanobacterial diversity in microbial mats of Antarctic lakes Schmoker C., Taton A., Balthasart P., Waleron K., Verleyen E., Cousin S., Vyverman V., Sabbe K., Hodgson D.A. and Wilmotte A. |
| 16. | Molecular diversity of cyanobacteria in Antarctica Taton, A and Wilmotte, A |
| 17. | Temperature regime at the poles of the Moon and polar lunar hydrogen Berezhnoy A., Kozlova E., Shevchenko V. |
| 18. | Raman scattering in the non-isothermic Uranus atmosphere. N.Kostogryz |
| 19. | Mercury libration determination and the link with the interior of the planet Gregor Pfyffer, Véronique Dehant, Olivier de Viron, Tim Van Hoolst, Nicolas Rambaux |
| 20. | The crater model of an active area as applied to comet P/WILD-2. A. Ivanova, L.M. Shulman |
Extension: Astrobiology in Belgium, July 8th, 2005
Astrobiology is the study of life's origin, evolution and distribution in the Universe. It is thus interdisciplinary, gathering researchers from astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, physics and even law and philosophy. Several national Astrobiology groups/centres have been established within the EU (e.g. in France, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), and are coordinated since 1999 by the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA). Belgium is also a member of EANA but is represented by only a few people. The objective of this one-day workshop is to group Belgian researchers interested by astrobiology, and to encourage multidisciplinary and national collaborations in research, teaching and outreach related to astrobiology. The workshop will consist in short scientific presentations (made accessible to scientists of all disciplines) and a round-table discussion about the development of Astrobiology in Belgium. We invite contributions by Belgian scientists on all topics related to astrobiology.
Registration (free) to July 8th workshop "Astrobiology in Belgium" only.
Submit abstract to EJ.Javaux@ulg.ac.be
| 8 July 2005 Room: 204 | |
| 08h30~09h00 | Registration and welcome |
| 09h00-09h20 | Cyanobacterial ecology in Antarctica Taton, A., Wilmotte, A (ULg) |
| 09h20-09h40 | Self-organized criticality with complex
temporal correlations in a simple cellular automaton Marco Baiesi, Christian Maes (KUL) |
| 09h40-10h00 | Silicon isotopes as proxies to the
origin of oldest rocks on Earth and the early evolution of life:
potentialities in Astrobiology Luc André, Damien Cardinal (Royal Museum of central Africa) |
| 10h00-10h20 | Evolution of the early Earth biosphere Emmanuelle Javaux (ULg) |
| 10h20-10h40 | Coffee break Posters |
| 10h40-11h40 | Plenary talk: Chance and necessity revisited Professor CHRISTIAN DEDUVE (ICP) |
| 11h40-12h10 | Belgian Federal Centre For Complexity
and Exobiology (COEX) J. Wisemberg1,8, G. Nicolis2, I. Zegers3, J-P Swings4, C. Waelkens5, C. Maes5, C. Rouvas Nicolis6, P.C. Simon7, V. Dehant7, D. Fonteyn8, E. Javaux4, J. Surdej 4, A.Verbeure5 , T. Van Hoolst7 , P.Gaspard2 , C. Muller8, D. Moreau1 1.(B-USOC), 2.(ULB), 3.(VUB) , 4.(Ulg), 5.(KULeuven), 6.(KMI-IRM), 7.(KSB-ORB), 8.(IASB-BIRA) |
| 12h10-12h30 | Press meeting |
| 12h30-14h00 | Lunch |
| 14h00-14h20 | Internal Planetary Evolution and
Habitability. V. Dehant, T. Van Hoolst (ROB) |
| 14h20-14h40 | A survey of the environmental biocontamination
onboard the International Space Station Patrick De Boever1, Natalia Novikova2, Svetlana Poddubko2, Elena Deshevaya2, Nikolai Polikarpov2, Natalia Rakova2, Ilse Coninx1, Max Mergeay1 1 SCKCEN, 2 Ministry of Health, Russia |
| 14h40-15h00 | MELiSSA (Micro Ecological Life Support System
Alternative), a short cut ecological model of the Earth's waste food
biotransformation cycle Larissa Hendrickx, Max Mergeay (SCKCEN) |
| 15h00-15h20 | Penetration of UV radiation at Mars surface from
SPICAM data. C. Muller1, D. Gillottay1, D. Moreau1, D. Fonteyn1, D.Fussen1, S. Perrier2, J.L.Bertaux2, E. Quemerais2, F. Lefèvre2, O.Korablev3 ,A. Fedorova3 and the SPICAM team. 1 Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium, 2 Service d'Aéronomie du C.N.R.S., France, 3 Institute for Space Research (Russia) |
| 15h20-15h40 | Behaviour of concentrated macromolecule solutions in
microgravity Ingrid Zegers1, Celine Vanhee1, Mike Sleutel1, Ronnie Willaert1, Cécile VandeWeerdt2, Christine Evrard3, Frank Dubois4, Fermin Otalora5, JuanMa Garcia-Ruiz5 1VUB-ULTR, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium; 2Labo de biologie moléculaire et de génie génétique, Allée de la Chimie, 3, 4000 Liège, Belgium; 3UCL CSTR, 1 place Louis Pasteur B-1348 Lovain-la-Neuve, BELGIUM; 4MRC, ULB CP165/62, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Bruxelles Belgium; 5LEC, Edifício BIC Granada, Avenida de la Innovación, 1, P.T. Ciencias de la Salud , E-18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain |
| 15h40-16h00 | Coffee & Round table discussion
Concluding remarks |
List of posters for this session:
| 1. | High-resolution study of debris disks with GENIE O. Absil(1), J-C. Augereau(2), R. den Hartog(3), E. Herwats (1), P. Gondoin (2) and M. Fridlund (3) 1 IAGL, University of Liège, 2 LAOG, Grenoble, 3 ESTEC, ESA (1) Dept. Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography, University of Liege, Belgium; (2) Science Payloads and advanced concepts office, ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands; (3) Dept de Fisica Teorica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain; (4) European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany. |
| 2. | Activity-stability relationships in extremophilic enzymes Salvino D'Amico, Tony Collins, Daphné Georlette, Jean-Claude Marx, Charles Gerday and Georges Feller Laboratory of Biochemistry, University of Liège, Institute of Chemistry B6, B-4000 Liège-Sart Tilman, Belgium. |
| 3. | Mobilisatsia: investigation into plasmid transfer durig space
flight Patrick De Boever(1), Viacheslav Ilyin(2), Jacques Mahillon(3), Delphine Hanus(3), Max Mergeay(1) (1)Laboratory for Microbiology, the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, Boeretang 200 Mol 2400, Belgium, (2)RF State Scientific Center Institute for Biomedical Problems, Ministry of Health Khorasherskoye Shosse 76A, Moscow 123007, Russia, (3)Laboratory of Food and Environmental Microbiology, Catholic University of Louvain Croix du Sud 2/12, Louvain-la-Neuve 1384, Belgium |
| 4. | Could GENIE detect hot Jupiters? R. den Hartog (1) Olivier Absil (2), L. Kaltenegger(1), P. Gondoin(2), R. Wilhem(3), M. Fridlund(1) (1) Science Payloads and advanced concepts office, ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands; (2) Dept. Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography, University of Liege, Belgium; (3) European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany. |
| 5. | Nitrogen Isotopes in Comets. Tracking Organics from the Interstellar Medium to
the Solar System D. Hutsemekers (1), C. Arpigny (1), E. Jehin (2), J. Manfroid (1), A. Cochran (3), R. Schulz (4), J. Stuewe (5), J.-M. Zucconi (6) (1) Universite de Liege, Belgium, (2) ESO, (3) University of Texas at Austin, USA, (4) ESTEC, (5) Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, (6) Observatoire de Besancon, France |
| 6. | Extremophiles, early Earth biosphere and exobiology Emmanuelle J. Javaux*, and Craig P. Marshall** *Dept. Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography, University of Liege, Belgium, **Australian Center for Astrobiology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia |
| 7. | Early eukaryotes in Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic oceans Emmanuelle J. Javaux*, Craig P. Marshall**, Shuhai Xiao***, Andrew H. Knoll**** and Malcolm R.Walter** * Department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography, University of Liège, Belgium; **Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia; ***Virginia Tech, VI, USA, ****Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA |
| 8. | The Moon as a Benchmark for Contamination and LifeDetection Equipment. Christian Muller Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium |
| 9. | Exploration of cyanobacterial diversity in microbial mats of Antarctic lakes Schmoker C.(1), Taton A.(1), Balthasart P.(1), Waleron K.(2), Verleyen E.(3), Cousin S.(3), Vyverman V.(3), Sabbe K.(3), Hodgson D.A.(4) and Wilmotte A(1) 1. Center for Protein Engineering, Institute of Chemistry B6, University of Liège, Sart-Tilman, B-4000 Liège, Belgium., 2. Department of Biotechnology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk & Medical School of Gdansk, K³adki 24, 80-822 Gdansk Poland, 3. Laboratory of Protistology/Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S8,B-9000 Gent, Belgium, 4. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK. |
| 10. | Molecular Diversity Of Cyanobacteria In Antarctica Taton A. and Wilmotte A. Centre d'ingénierie des protéines, Institut de Chimie B6, Université de Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgique |