PCE3

Boiling oceans and compressional tectonics on emerging ocean worlds - Nature Astronomy Several moons in the outer Solar System have oceans encased beneath an ice shell. If the ice shell thins, ocean pressure decreases. Modelling shows that on Mimas, Enceladus, and Miranda, the ocean can...

Thinning ice shells of smaller ocean worlds like Enceladus and Mimas could trigger boiling at the ocean's surface and loss of volatiles. Could this process help facilitate novel abiotic organic reactions? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

NASA-DARES Community Webinar Series Registration Form - NASA Science Every Wednesday between February 25 - March 25, 202612 - 4 PM ET | 9 AM - 1 PM PT

There is a NASA DARES panel happening TODAY and every Wed between Feb 25 - Mar 25 at 12 - 4 PM ET | 9 AM - 1 PM PT. Join in to express your thoughts for the next Astrobiology Strategy document! You must register (it is free) here: science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

We have officially launched the applications for the 2026 BMSIS Young Scientist Program!

Learn more and view our available projects for this year here:
bmsis.org/ysp/projects/

NASA Summer Internship Opportunity: Open Science Impact. The internship would be in person at NASA HQ in Washington D.C. Applications due Feb 27, 2026! stemgateway.nasa.gov/s/course-off...

NASA-DARES Community Webinar Series Registration Form - NASA Science Every Wednesday between February 25 - March 25, 202612 - 4 PM ET | 9 AM - 1 PM PT

The NASA Astrobiology Program will be hosting a NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES) Community Webinar Series. There is no cost to participate, but registration is required.

science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

SETI Institute logo. Text: Jill Tarter Award 2026 for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth. Call for Nominations - 2026. The SETI Institute invites nominations for the 2026 Jill Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth, an international honor recognizing individuals whose ideas, work, or leadership have meaningfully advanced humanity’s efforts to understand life and intelligence in the Universe. Artists, journalists, media, scientists, educators, law & ethics, philosophers, and more – all disciplines are welcome. All are encouraged to share this opportunity within their professional and social networks and to consider nominating individuals whose work exemplifies the spirit of innovation, rigor, and imagination that Dr. Tarter has championed throughout her career. For additional inquiries: tarteraward@seti.org. Media inquiries: media@seti.org. Inset photos of Jill Tarter.

Nominations are open for the 2026 Jill Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth, an international honor recognizing individuals whose ideas, work, or leadership have meaningfully advanced humanity’s efforts to understand life and intelligence in the Universe. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Due date for any feedback is Feb. 20th.

NASA is refining its strategy for prioritizing technology investments for civil space. If you would like to provide feedback on the prioritization of technology shortfalls critical to civil space, you can so do here: www.spacetechpriorities.org

Multiple formation pathways for amino acids in the early Solar System based on carbon and nitrogen isotopes in asteroid Bennu samples | PNAS Samples collected from the carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid Bennu and delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission contain organic molecules rel...

Check out this new paper: Multiple formation pathways for amino acids in the early Solar System based on carbon and nitrogen isotopes in asteroid Bennu samples

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Oxidative decarboxylation of L-alanine on hematite: Implications for prebiotic chemistry in planetary environments Iron oxides, such as hematite (α-Fe₂O₃), likely served as key mineral constituents in the sedimentary formations of primordial geothermal environments…

Could hematite have catalyzed prebiotic reactions? Check out this paper to find out:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Early Architecture Concepts for the Habitable Worlds Observatory - System Design, Modeling, and Analysis - Astrobiology The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), NASA's next flagship science mission

Early Architecture Concepts for the Habitable Worlds Observatory -- System Design, Modeling, and Analysis
astrobiology.com/2026/02/earl... #astrobiology #astronomy #exoplanet

Applications for the Europa ICONS internship program for undergraduates are now open! Get paired with a Europa Clipper science team member for a 10 week research experience in Boulder, Colorado.

Due date: Feb. 27th, 2026.

stemgateway.nasa.gov/s/explore-op...

Join the next LIFE RCN seminar! Wednesday February 11, 8AM PDT / 11AM EDT
www.lifercn.org/events/2026-...

The Genesis Project On The Origin Of Life Becomes A National Centre Of Competence In Research - Astrobiology The Federal Council has approved funding for the “Genesis” project on the origins of life

The Genesis Project On The Origin Of Life Becomes A National Centre Of Competence In Research
astrobiology.com/2026/02/the-... #astrobiology

The 6th ISSOL online seminar will be held Thursday, February 5th, at 14:00 UTC. If you are a member or in the PCE3 mailing list, follow the link you received to attend, or consider subscribing to ISSOL! Annual membership fees start at $20 for students. issol.org/membership/

Are you a PhD student in geobiology or related disciplines? Consider applying for the 2026 International Geobiology Course! The course will be held between June 6th and July 10th in ITALY and at PennState.
Deadline for applications is FEBRUARY 2nd, 2026
sites.google.com/psu.edu/igc-...

ROSES-2026 to be released July 2026. ROSES-2025 Amendment 39 extends due dates for three program elements: 1) submissions to C.2 Solar System Science to August 1, 2026, and 2) proposals to A.4 Rapid Response and Novel Research in Earth Science and A.10 INNOVATE to August 31, 2026

93 - The Messy Chemistry of Planetary Environments: Prebiotic Chemistry Experiments of Planetary Analogues

agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

31 - The Last Universal Common Ancestor and the Origins of Translation

agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

28 - Origins of Life in Planetary Context

agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

10 - Deciphering planetary organic inventories across the abiotic - prebiotic - biotic spectrum: uncovering the signs of life as we might not know it

agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

02 - AI-Driven Autonomous Exploration of Prebiotic Chemistry and Planetary Environments:

agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

Submitting an abstract to AbSciCon? Check out the comments for a list of PCE3 related session!

OoL digest — January 12

New OoL digest is out! 🌍🧬 32 new papers, ft. Europa’s seafloor activity, Enceladus exploration roadmaps, prebiotic nickel catalysis, multicellularity switches in yeast, and liquid water scenarios on ancient Mars.

#OriginOfLife #Astrobiology

Coupled strontium-calcium isotopes in Archean anorthosites reveal a late start for mantle depletion - Nature Communications High spatial resolution analyses of plagioclase within 3.7–2.8-billion-year-old anorthosites are used to refine strontium isotope models of Earth’s early evolution and imply that large-scale continent...

A new study that looked at isotopes in plagioclase crystals within 3.7 Ga anorthosite rocks suggests that continent formation may have not started until ~3.5 Ga. Could Earth have been mostly a landless ocean world for its first billion years? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bio-essential sugars in samples from asteroid Bennu - Nature Geoscience Samples returned from asteroid Bennu contain bio-essential sugars such as ribose and glucose that may have formed in the parent asteroid from brines containing formaldehyde, according to a geochemical...

Sugars including ribose and glucose were found in Bennu samples, which indicates that the asteroid has a complete set of the essential building blocks of life! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reminder to get your AbSciCon abstracts in by Jan 14! While you are at it, consider submitting to the session: "Deciphering planetary organic inventories across the abiotic -prebiotic- biotic spectrum: uncovering the signs of life as we might not know it" agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

For our next episode of "Ask an Author", we asked our own PCE3 member Dr. Laura Rodriguez about her new paper just out in JGR - Planets.
Great work Laura!

Excuse the typo.

As AbSciCon 2026 abstract deadline approaches, conveners Davila, Shkoylar, and Hoehler invite you to submission to their great session: "The Abiotic Background: Challenges and Opportunities for Life Detection"
agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
Deadline is January 14th, 2026!