The study of planets beyond our solar system is shifting from discovery to in-depth characterization. With the high-resolution capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope and other current and upcoming missions, scientists are capturing spectral data on planetary atmospheres at an unprecedented rate and quality. But as a recent Nature commentary noted, many of the models used to interpret that data rest on shaky foundations, lacking the ground-truth laboratory data and process-based complexity needed to know whether observations from distant worlds are being best interpreted.
In 2027, Research Corporation for Science Advancement will launch a Scialog initiative to catalyze research that bridges astrophysics, planetary science, terrestrial atmospheric science, and experimental physical chemistry. The first meeting of Scialog: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres will be held November 3-6, 2027, at the Westin La Paloma Resort in Tucson, Arizona.
“Scialog: TEA will bring together experimentalists, observers, and theorists who don’t normally work together to fill in the ground-truth data we’re missing, and along the way, to use exotic atmospheres as natural laboratories that stress-test our understanding of Earth’s own atmosphere and climate,” said Richard Wiener, RCSA Senior Program Director, who leads the initiative.
This three-year Scialog series aims to create a dynamic community of about 50 early-career scientists with diverse expertise and perspectives from fields including stellar physics, planetary science, atmospheric chemistry, and astrochemistry. By maximizing interactions between researchers with different experiences and approaches, who might not otherwise meet or collaborate, the process is designed to spark creative, novel ideas for transformative research on the characterization and modeling of terrestrial and extraterrestrial atmospheres.
At each conference, participants led by a group of senior facilitators will discuss challenges and bottlenecks, build community around visionary goals, and pitch proposals for seed funding to undertake blue-sky pilot projects.
Scialog, short for “science + dialog,” is a program created by RCSA in 2010 to bring together scientists from a variety of disciplines to focus their collective thinking on issues of global importance.
Discussion at the inaugural meeting is expected to explore questions such as where terrestrial and extraterrestrial atmospheric models agree and where they diverge; what new experimental methods, such as cold plasma reactors, can best simulate the out-of-equilibrium chemistry of planets orbiting active stars; how carbon-silicate and other geochemical cycles on rocky exoplanets might inform predictions about the long-term resilience of Earth’s climate; and how different planetary formation and accretion models shape the chemical evolution of Earth-like and Jovian planets.
For full consideration as a Fellow for the first meeting of Scialog: Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres, submit an application no later than April 15, 2027.
RCSA’s other Scialog meetings include the third year of Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems in March 2027, the first year of Information, Computation, and Thermodynamics in Biology in April 2027, the fourth year of Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials in September 2027, and the third year of Quantum Matter and Information in October 2027.
About Research Corporation for Science Advancement: RCSA is a private foundation that funds basic research in the physical sciences (astronomy, chemistry, physics, and related fields) at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. It creates and supports inclusive communities of early career researchers.