Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon26) Media Tips 1: Exoplanet Earth, Evolution, Biosignatures, Habitable Worlds

This media advisory is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/abscicon26-tipsheet-1-exoplanet-earth-evolution-biosignatures-habitable-worlds/

Astrobiology Science Conference 2026 
Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center
One John Nolen Drive
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
17 – 22 May 2026

Press contact:
Sean Cummings, +1 (202) 777-7373, [email protected]

WASHINGTON — The 2026 Astrobiology Science Conference, hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), will convene next week in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. The biennial conference brings together a diverse, international astrobiology community to share new research investigating life’s potential, from Earth’s extreme environments and deep past to our Solar System’s icy moons and distant exoplanets.

Tips in this advisory:

• Biosignatures
• Earth extremes
• Evolution
• Exoplanets and habitable zones

Reporters and press officers interested in press registration should email [email protected]. Please include a link to a byline, masthead or a staff page listing your name and position. Freelancers should provide a link to a portfolio or links to at least three bylined science news stories published in the last 12 months. Let us know whether you plan to attend AbSciCon26 online or to come to Madison in person. Media access to the meeting is issued at the discretion of AGU Media Relations. Learn about AGU’s press eligibility requirements.

AbSciCon26 will host about 900 scientific posters, talks, town halls and plenary lectures. Browse the conference program for a preview of the scientific sessions. Registered attendees can log in to build a personal schedule in the conference desktop planner and mobile app.

Although AbSciCon26 is primarily an in-person meeting, remote reporters can join a small set of online-only discussion sessions on Zoom via the conference app by registering to attend the conference virtually. Recordings of the audio and slide presentations from in-person town halls, plenaries and oral sessions will be available on demand on the conference app about 72 hours after each session is finished. AGU media relations will be on site to help reporters connect with attending scientists.

Recommended sessions part 1: [view online for expanded highlights of top tips]

*Sessions listed in conference local Central Daylight Time (GMT – 5 hours)

Biosignatures

Top tip: Signs of exoplanet life in atmospheric complexity
Monday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Assembly Theory Across Scales: From Molecules to Planetary Systems I eLightning
Estelle Janin [email protected]

Top tip: Humpback whale night thrums and other possible missed signals from non-human intelligences
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Searching for Technological Signatures of Life Beyond Earth II Poster
Fred Sharpe [email protected]

Signs of life as we don’t know it: molecular construction vs algorithmic complexity in the search for life
Monday 2:00 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Assembly Theory Across Scales: From Molecules to Planetary Systems I eLightningGage Siebert [email protected]

Tiny magnets inside bacteria could point to life signs on energy-poor exoplanets
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Applying Biosignatures to Constrain the Fingerprint, Origins, Evolution, and Evolvability of Life I PosterFelisa Wolfe-Simon [email protected]

Chemical fingerprints of life past and present support view that random processes shaped early evolution
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Applying Biosignatures to Constrain the Fingerprint, Origins, Evolution, and Evolvability of Life I PosterJasmina Wiemann [email protected]

Biosignatures of Earth’s earliest life and how to spot them
Tuesday 10:00 AM abstract | app scheduleSession: Deciphering Planetary Organic Inventories Across the Abiotic – Prebiotic – Biotic Spectrum: Uncovering the Signs of Life as We Might Not Know It I OralLaura Barge [email protected]

Earth extremes

Top tip: Drill expedition finds living microbes 1 kilometer deep into the seafloor
Tuesday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Turning Ocean Worlds Inside Out: From Drilling Beneath the Seafloor to Cryosphere Surfaces I Oral
William Brazelton [email protected]

Top tip: At mountain summits, soil microbes use hydrogen gas to make energy
Wednesday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: How Disequilibrium Fuels Life: Observations of Metabolic Opportunities Related to Dramatic Environmental Gradients I Oral
Angelique Ray [email protected]

Top tip: These microbes may subsist on oxygen made by rocks
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Aerobic Aliens: Are Aerobic Worlds Inevitable? Pathways to Planetary Oxygenation I eLightning
Kayla Sorensen [email protected]

Slow lifestyle of the subseafloor sediments evolved extra stable enzymes to live millions of years
Tuesday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Energetics and Habitability of Mineral-Supported Planetary Analog Subsurface Regions I Oral
Kambiz Kalhor [email protected]

In a mission named after a sci-fi desert planet, scientists search Alaskan dunes for clues to how life might survive in alien sands
Wednesday 2:00 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Titan Astrobiology: From the Cassini Era to Dragonfly and Beyond I Oral
Jani Radebaugh [email protected]

Evolution of life near and far

Infrared light photosynthesis pushes “red edge” of habitability on Earth and beyond
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app schedule
Session: Exoplanet Surface Biosignatures I Poster
Rohan Shiradhonkar [email protected]

What conditions make multicellularity a repeat winning strategy?
Tuesday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: The Evolution of Multicellularity and Cellular Differentiation II PosterFouad El Baidouri [email protected]

Life may have started without genes. At that point, would Darwinian evolution have still applied?
Wednesday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: New Approaches to Bridging the Abiotic–Biotic Divide: From Catalytic Assemblies to Network Analysis to Information Theory I PosterMyrine Barreiro-Arevalo [email protected]

Could life on another world consist of just one species? 
Thursday 2:00 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Symbiosis, Gene Transfers, and Biological Interactions as Universal Drivers of Life I OralOlivia Smith [email protected]

Exoplanets and habitable zones

Detecting life could be harder on planets with extreme boom-bust seasons
Monday 2:00 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Climates of Potentially Habitable Rocky Exoplanets I OralAna Lobo [email protected]

Lunar orbiter sees glint of Earth’s oceans, testing method to find exo-oceans
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Exoplanet Surface Biosignatures I PosterChase Cooper [email protected]

Extreme seasons may boost marine life but limit life on land
Monday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Climates of Potentially Habitable Rocky Exoplanets II PosterJonathan Jernigan [email protected]

“Hycean” early Earth may have had a short-lived hydrogen atmosphere that set the conditions for life
Tuesday 3:45 PM abstract | app scheduleSession: Habitable subNeptunes: Theory and Prospects for Observational Identification I PosterPaul Rimmer [email protected]

Save the date for more 2026 science

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