Community Report from the Biosignatures Standards of Evidence Workshop

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2210.14293
• Publication Date: 2022-01-01
• Authors: Victoria Meadows; Heather Graham; Victor Abrahamsson; Zach Adam; Elena Amador-French; Giada Arney; Laurie Barge; Erica Barlow; Anamaria Berea; Maitrayee Bose; D. M. Bower; Marjorie A. Chan; Jim Cleaves; Andrea Corpolongo; Miles Currie; Shawn Domagal‐Gol...; Chuanfei Dong; J. L. Eigenbrode; Allison Enright; Thomas Fauchez; M. R. Fisk; Matthew Fricke; Yuka Fujii; Andrew Gangidine; D. P. Glavin; Lee Grenfell; Sonny Harman; Roland Hatzenpichler; Libby Hausrath; Bryana L. Henderson; S. S. Johnson; Andrea Jones; Trinity L. Hamilton; Keyron Hickman‐Lewis; L. L. Jahnke; Betül Kaçar; R. Kopparapu; Christopher P. Ke...; Adrienne Kish; Joshua Krissansen...; William D. Leavitt; Yū Komatsu; Tim Lichtenberg; Melody R. Lindsay; Catherine Maggiori; David L. Des Marais; Cole Mathis; Yuki Morono; Marc Neveu; Grace Ni; C. A. Nixon; Stephanie L. Olson; Niki Parenteau; S. M. Perl; R. C. Quinn; Chinmayee Raj; Laura Rodríguez; Lindsay Rutter; McCullen Sandora; B. E. Schmidt; Edward W. Schwiet...; Antígona Segura; Fatih Sekerci; Lauren Seyler; Harrison Smith; Georgia Soares; Sanjoy M. Som; Shino Suzuki; Bonnie Teece; Jessica A. Weber; Felisa Wolfe‐Simon; Michael L. Wong; Hajime Yano; L. Young
• Keywords: Extraterrestrial Life

The search for life beyond the Earth is overarching goal of NASA Astrobiology Program, and it underpins science missions that explore environments Solar System planets exoplanets. However, detection extraterrestrial life, in our beyond, sufficiently challenging likely multiple measurements approaches, spanning disciplines missions, will be needed to make a convincing claim. Life therefore not an instantaneous process, unlikely unambiguous-yet high-stakes scientific achievement garner enormous amount public interest. Current upcoming research efforts aimed at detecting past extant could supported by consensus framework plan for, assess discuss claims (c.f. Green et al., 2021). Such help increase robustness biosignature interpretation, improve communication with community public. In response this need, call develop confidence scale standards evidence (Green 2021), community-organized workshop was held on July 19-22, 2021. meeting designed fully virtual (flipped) format. Preparatory materials including readings, instructional videos activities were made available prior workshop, allowing schedule dedicated active discussion prompted writing sessions. To maximize global interaction, components during business hours three different time zones, Asia/Pacific, European US, daily information hand-off between group organizers.