Astrobiology Colloquium Don Brownlee
Title: The composition of habitable terrestrial planets, Abstract: Earth, the only proven habitable planet, was assembled by the rapid accretion of large planetesimals in the early solar system. Although many rocky exoplanets might be similar to Earth, the composition of our planet varies from all other solid solar system bodies including the asteroids and comets. It is reasonable to expect that rocky exoplanets may differ from each other in ways that may influence their longterm habitability.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium (PAA). Online Meeting Link: https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b38e45f8-1e14-4c0f-af29-b426011f8e77. Campus room: PAA A102. Accessibility Contact: Liza Young. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Astrobiology Colloquium Research Rotations An Li and Morgan Raimondo
An Li
Title: Tale of two sugars: trehalose and hyaluronic acid in a frozen Enceladus-analog brine, Abstract: Erupting from a subsurface ocean, the plumes of Enceladus are composed of flash-frozen ice grains composed of varying amounts of salts and organics. How the organics within these plumes partition during freezing relative to the salts and ice grains is not fully understood. While prior works have focused on amino acids and chondritic organics in analog frozen brines for Enceladus and Europa, more complex molecules such as sugars have not been studied. Here we evaluate the hydrophilic sugars trehalose and hyaluronic acid using micro-Raman imaging. We conducted flash-freezing and slow-freezing experiments of these sugars in an analog Enceladus brine made of NaCl, Na2CO3, NH4Cl, and KCl. Raman maps revealed that in both freezing scenarios, trehalose and hyaluronic acid have similar spatial distributions to those of the salt minerals natron (Na2CO3•10H2O) and hydrohalite (NaCl•2H2O). This demonstrates that…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium (PAA). Online Meeting Link: https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5fbb6473-7971-42fe-ba59-b426011f8fb1. Campus room: PAA A102. Accessibility Contact: Liza Young. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, May 5, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Astrobiology Colloquium Research Rotations Patrick Monreal
Prebiotic organics enhance metal availability during serpentinization in Enceladus Ocean analogue experiments
Evidence for hydrothermalism and complex organics on Enceladus suggests an ocean capable of supporting prebiotic chemistry reminiscent of early Earth. While recent work has proposed metabolisms like methanogenesis or heterotrophy as possible, these require transition metals as catalytic cofactors, which are poorly soluble in alkaline seawater and depleted in terrestrial alkaline vent fluids. My work in the School of Oceanography focuses on how biologically-produced ligands (e.g. siderophores) stabilize bioessential metals in solution on Earth, but the extent to which prebiotic molecules serve a similar role under alkaline conditions remains untested. During my rotation at NASA-JPL, I worked with Dr. Laurie Barge & Dr. Jessica Weber to simulate water-rock interactions on Enceladus. I reacted an olivine-rich mineral assemblage with low- and high-salinity seawater analogues at pH 10 under anoxic…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium (PAA). Online Meeting Link: https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=f0b07919-fffa-4b04-b2a1-b426011f9109. Campus room: PAA A102. Accessibility Contact: Liza Young. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
AbSciCon 2026
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: Liza Young. Event Types: Conferences.
Sunday, May 17, 2026, 8:00 AM – Friday, May 22, 2026, 5:00 PM.
Astrobiology Colloquium TBD
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium (PAA). Online Meeting Link: https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=3f5fb229-7405-4e16-b53d-b426011f9ca8. Campus room: PAA A102. Accessibility Contact: Liza Young. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Astrobiology Colloquium Edwin Kite
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium (PAA). Online Meeting Link: https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=cc1f9b7d-c46b-430c-8a0d-b426011f9e22. Campus room: PAA A102. Accessibility Contact: Liza Young. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, June 2, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.