Signs of Extraterrestrial Life and Evolution of Habitable Environments
Published 08 November, 2024
Introduction
The origin of life is a significant frontier in contemporary international science. The search for signs of extraterrestrial life holds the potential to address one of humanity’s most fundamental scientific and philosophical question. Since the 1975 Viking mission, which landed on Mars to search for evidence of life, numerous important discoveries have been made by the international community. These include the detection of organic molecules such as thiophenes on Mars, observations of seasonal methane variations, the identification of potential biologically sourced ultraviolet absorption lines in Venus' atmosphere, and the discovery of subsurface oceans on moons such as Europa, Enceladus and Triton. Currently, the search for extraterrestrial life is at a pivotal juncture, where a shift from quantitative to qualitative breakthroughs is imminent. At this stage, a systematic approach to studying the evolution of habitable environments and the search for signs of extraterrestrial life is crucial.
This special issue calls for Reviews, Perspectives, and Research Articles that contribute to interdisciplinary observation and simulation studies, enhancing our understanding of the search for signs of extraterrestrial life and evolution of habitable environments. We are particularly interested in, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Exploration of Biosignatures on Mars
- Evolution of Habitable Environments on Venus
- Life Signals in the Subsurface Oceans of Icy Moons
Deadline for manuscript submissions
April 18th, 2025
Submission instructions
Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All articles should be submitted online. Please select Signs of Extraterrestrial Life and Evolution of Habitable Environments as the article type on submission. All submissions will be subject to peer review.
Guest editors
If you would like to discuss any aspect of this special issue, please do not hesitate to contact one of the guest editors:
Zengqian Hou
Professor, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
1. Institute of Deep Space Sciences, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, Hefei, China;
2. Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China
Email: hzq@cags.net.cn
Yuming Wang
Professor
1. Institute of Deep Space Sciences, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, Hefei, China;
2. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
Email: ymwang@ustc.edu.cn
Fuchuan Pang
Professor
1. Institute of Deep Space Sciences, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, Hefei, China;
2. National Space Administration Lunar Exploration and Aerospace Engineering Center, Beijing, China.
Email: pangfc@163.com
Bingkun Yu
Professor, Institute of Deep Space Sciences, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, Hefei, China.
Email: bkyu@ustc.edu.cn
Contact Information
Editorial Office fmr@nsfc.gov.cn
Can Liu 010-62326893 liucan@nsfc.gov.cn
Yue Yan 010-62329094 yanyue@nsfc.gov.cn
