A groundbreaking collaboration in Canada has united astrophysicists, science educators, and teachers to create Exoplanets in the Classroom – a dynamic suite of K-12 resources designed to inspire the next generation of scientists. Featuring hands-on activities, practical slide decks, engaging videos, and profiles of trailblazing Canadian astronomers, this comprehensive collection of resources is freely accessible online in both French and English. Since 2021, the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx) at the Université de Montréal, in partnership with Discover the Universe and other educational innovators, has crafted these resources with input from over one hundred Canadian teachers. This rigorous, iterative process ensures seamless integration into a wide range of subjects, from science to the arts, all while meeting Canadian K-12 curriculum standards.

These innovative resources provide educators with the tools to captivate students with the wonders of exoplanet research and the stories of diverse, local scientists at the forefront of discovery. Already tested and embraced by students and teachers from diverse backgrounds, these materials are now poised to inspire a global audience, offering astrophysicists and educators a powerful way to ignite curiosity and engage learners in classrooms and beyond.

Martian meteorites are currently our only existing samples from Mars. They are divided into two primary types, the shergottites and the nakhlite-chassignite types. The shergottites are by far the most abundant of the Martian meteorites. Apatite in particular is the only volatile bearing phase in these and thus is crucial for understanding volatile cycles on Mars. The primary goal of the study is to understand the effects of shock metamorphism on the volatile content of apatite. In particular, looking at intergrown apatite-merrillite grains to observe the Cl variation within apatite and to determine if the merrillite is in fact merrillite or if its tuite. Here we used various chemical analyses to accurately map the mineralogy of shergottite NWA 7397 to learn more about volatile content and shock effects to constrain its petrogenesis.

For NWA 7397, what we focused on was the phosphates. Mainly on the calcium phosphates, apatite (Ca5[PO4]3[F, CL, OH]) and merrillite (Ca9Na(Fe, Mg)(PO4)7). We can identify apatite based on its volatile components (F and Cl) as part of its crystal structure which merrillite lacks. Apatite is, however, the only volatile bearing phase in shergottites, making it our only was to constrain water and Cl content of martian magmas and by extension martian mantle reservoirs. However, the volatile contents can be effected by shock ejection when the rock was blasted off the martian surface. This means we need to understand the effects of shock before using apatite to estimate magma volatile content. From our research so far we have been able to identify apatite and merrillite, but no tuite. This will require further analysis to identify tuite, if any is present.

Conway’s Game of Life is a cellular automaton noted for its rich, complex, and emergent behaviour, which seems qualitatively ‘lifelike’. It exists within a wider space of different rulesets of cellular automata, none of which have been found to display behaviours that seem as rich as Conway’s selected example. We present here a set of three quantitative tests for ‘lifelike’ behaviour, based on the critical brain theory, Shannon’s theory of information entropy and integrated information theory, all of which are successfully able to select Conway’s Game of Life as an outlier within this set, which is a non-biological analogue to the selection of a habitable planet or universe amongst a wider space of similar settings that cannot support the same kinds of living systems.

This paper engages with the conference themes of community engagement and awareness raising, through proposing narratives which provide alternative stories to the belief in unrestricted technological development. The plan to launch up to 400,000 satellites into Earth orbit is an example of unregulated corporate capitalism: many private corporations and governments are encouraging rapid growth of the space sector without sufficient consideration of broader and potentially consequences for Earth and space environments or the interests and welfare of the wider community. My question in this paper is how far sustainability narratives from the humanities and social sciences can assist in the attempts to limit pollution of the sky and near-Earth environment.

Commercial endeavours have already compromised our relationship with space. The Artemis Accords are creating a framework that will commercialize the Moon and further impact that relation. To confront that impact, a number of organizations have begun to develop new principles of sustainability in space, many of which are borne out of the capitalist and colonial frameworks that have harmed water, nature, peoples and more on Earth. Indigenous methodologies and ways of knowing offer different paths for living in relationship with space and the Moon. While Indigenous knowledges are not homogeneous, there are lessons we can use from some of common methods. In this talk we will review some Indigenous methodologies, including the concept of kinship and discuss how kinship can inform our actions both on Earth and in space.

Satellite constellation interference occurs across astronomical disciplines. We touch on the challenges for existing regulatory frameworks in radio astronomy, and present examples of interference from radio and γ-ray astronomy to optical and spectroscopic interference in ground-based and space-borne facilities. In particular, we discuss the impact of artificial satellites on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope array, as well as possible mitigation strategies for the European Southern Observatory 4-metre Multi-Object Spectrograph Telescope (ESO 4MOST). Furthermore, we shed light on how ground-based optical telescopes such as the Oukaimeden Observatory contribute to IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS) efforts that quantify satellite brightness.

Rubin observatory, and survey astronomy in general, will be greatly impacted by the proliferation of low Earth orbit satellite (LEOSat) constellations. Its large field of view guarantees that Rubin will observe satellite streaks in approximately every image passing through an average of 13 out of the camera’s 189 CCD detectors. The impact of satellites on our science scales with the number of satellites launched, and with satellite brightness.

SatHub is one of the four hubs of the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS). It focuses on observations, data analysis, software, and training materials to improve our understanding of the impact of satellite constellations on astronomy and observers worldwide. As a preface to more in-depth IAUS385 sessions, we gave a summary of some recent work by SatHub members and the current status of satellite constellations, including optical and radio observations. We shared how the audience can join or get more involved, e.g., via the CPS Slack for asynchronous collaboration. We also touched on what a future with hundreds of thousands of constellation satellites might look like.

This study presents geodynamic experiments within the outer ice shell of Ganymede to investigate the effects of partial melting into the convective layer, and trying to infer any correlation between internal processes and strain deformations in surface regions such as cryovolcanism and polar deposits. The numerical models were conducted performing a sensitive analysis of the internal dynamic for compressible fluids by varying the viscosity, ice shell thickness, pressure at the melting point of ice, and applying the Anelastic Liquid Approximation (ALA). Results show molten material under restricted geophysical parameters that could allow for emerging material from the subsurface ocean to the surface. These findings will support the objectives of the RIME instrument on board of the JUICE mission, as they point out specific conditions that may, in the future, help to have a better understanding of the internal mechanisms that transfer heat on the surface and modify the geomorphology and atmospheric processes.

FU Ori stars (FUors) are undergoing powerful luminosity outbursts of ∼100 L⊙ in magnitude and of several decades in duration. Such outbursts inevitably affect physical and chemical structure of the surrounding protoplanetary disk. Using astrochemical and radiative transfer modelling, we study the lasting impact of the outburst on disks with and without an envelope and how it changes flux in chosen molecular lines. We formulate a number of criteria indicative of a recent outburst activity based on the molecular emission, analyze the chemistry behind the flux change and apply the criteria to available observations of quiescent protoplanetary disks. The latter revealed ten objects with possible outbursts in the past and four of them satisfy multiple proposed criteria.

This paper studies instability of the in-plane equilibrium points (EPs) which lies on the line joining the main bodies in the frame of the restricted three-body problem with Poynting-Robertson (P-R) drag force and variable masses. The dynamical structures of the primaries and their mass variation are governed by the Gylden-Mestschersky problem (GMP) and the Mestschersky combined law (MCL), respectively, under the conditions that both primaries are radiation emitters with the Doppler shift and the absorption and subsequent re-emission of the incident radiation, considered. It is seen that there can be three, four and even up to six Collinear In-plane Equilibrium Points (CIEPs). Some are independent of the P-R drag while others depend on the mass parameter and P-R drag of the primaries. The stability of the CIEPs is investigated analytically and numerically for a dust grain particle in the gravitational field of all binary systems which covers most astronomical systems, and it is seen that all the CIEPs are unstable. Additionally, it is seen that the zero velocity curves (ZVC) around the CIEP L0, for all mass parameter do not exist as the P-R drag effects are annulled in the force function. Consequently, the resulting CIEP will be located on same point as the bigger primary, which in turns means that the force function will be undefined in this case. The stability of the CIEPs of the non-autonomous system which differ from those of the autonomized system by a function of time, are unstable as they do not converge as time tends to infinity. Our problem can be applied to the description of a dust grain in the gravitational field of stellar systems with radiation force and variable masses.

Modelling is essential for studies that quantify the impact from satellite downlinks on radio astronomy sites. To estimate this impact it is necessary to know not only the position and velocity of satellites but also their behaviour in the radio spectrum domain. As many large satellite constellations are using steerable beam antennas, deterministically predicting the transmitted power towards a defined direction (in this case where a radio telescope points) becomes an almost impossible task and therefore another approach has to be used. This work presents a method to simulate and estimate the percentiles of the radiation pattern of satellites with steerable beam patterns based on simulations and a comparison with measurements of Starlink satellites using the Onsala Twin Telescopes in Sweden.

An overview is presented of the activities of the ALMA Spectrum Management Office and the synergies with other entities that engage in similar scientific research activities or that develop actions aimed at the control and regulation of radio frequency emissions.

This study focuses on the impact of satellite trails on spectroscopic observations in the visible and near-infrared, which represent a large fraction of the observing time on large professional telescopes. We simulate the number of observations affected using an hypothetical large set of low Earth orbit satellite constellations. We evaluate the effect of this contamination on various spectrographs. We also measure the contamination on actual data from the ESO archive for a set of representative objects, after adding a scaled solar analogue spectrum to represent the satellite.

Even with a satellite population much larger than today’s, the fraction of contaminated spectra will remain low, essentially thanks to the typically small field of view of these instruments. Furthermore, high-resolution spectrographs, and medium-resolution ones on smaller telescopes, are essentially blind to satellites. However, for a range of instruments the contamination will be at a level comparable to that of the science signal, making its identification difficult, and potentially affecting the astrophysical measurements derived from the data.

We are in the age of the direct and indirect search for extraterrestrial life. The major question is: what are we looking for and to what extent can life on Earth provide an analogy for extraterrestrial life. We will address these questions by examining the emergence of life and its evolution through geological time, based on consideration of the Earth as an exoplanet. We conclude that, with the exception of a couple of hundred million years during the Great Oxydation Event 2.3-2.1 Ga, it would not have been possible for an extraterrestrial observer to detect traces of terrestrial life until the advent of planktonic eukaryotic algae after the Neoproterozoic Oxydation Event about 800 Ma. Thus, for most of the history of life on Earth, there would be no externally observable evidence of its existence. We address the implications of this for the search for extraterrestrial life.

The increasing amount of space debris and the number of mega-constellations are creating a serious problems for terrestrial astronomy. Light trails caused by these objects contaminate astronomical images, rendering them ultimately worthless. Knowing where in the sky these objects will be and how bright they will be are essential to optimising observation planning and avoiding such contamination. Photometric phase functions are a powerful tool for understanding asteroids and resident space objects (RSOs) such as satellites, upper stages, and space debris. However, they also provide a means of predicting how these objects will reflect sunlight toward the observer. We consider a model that assumes a spherical object with diffuse and specular components. We defined the phase functions of more than 600 rotating RSOs using more than one million photometric measurements of more than 10 000 objects from the Mini-MegaTORTORA (MMT) light curve catalogue. We discuss in detail the photometric properties of space debris and satellites extracted from the MMT photometric catalogue using the model. We introduce our freely available online service that predicts the brightness of RSOs, including space debris and mega-constellations, for the purpose of supporting astronomers’ decision-making.

Astrobiology is generally considered to be a promising gateway into science, and storytelling techniques have been getting increasingly more traction lately in education and outreach because of their potential benefits for learning. At the European Astrobiology Institute, we combined these two pathways by creating two anthologies of astrobiology-inspired science fiction stories accompanied by science fact essays, Strangest of All and Life Beyond Us. Furthermore, we created educational materials that build on the anthology project and acquaint students with the issue of planetary protection. Here we introduce the project and planned future directions in story-driven astrobiology outreach and education.

This paper presents an overview of the attitudes and awareness within the amateur astronomical community regarding modern satellite megaconstellation projects. A series of interviews and polls to assess the perspectives of this large community was conducted, aiming to uncover their concerns and issues. Additionally, the potential to involve respondents in community-driven projects focused on satellite data acquisition and processing was investigated. The objective is to enhance data quality for astronomical imagery protection and improve existing tools for scientific research, including satellite tracking, trajectory prediction, and the detection of space debris and orbital objects.

Traditionally the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been mostly a kind of engineering task, based on two assumptions: the existence of other technological culture somewhere in our Galaxy and that this culture is using radiotechnology that can be detected with our receivers. However, SETI endeavors could benefit more by expanding its scope into two-folded interdisciplinary research program, one exploring the nature of human, other animals, and artificial cognition, and the another exploring all possible and hypothetical ways and channels that potential ETI could use to manifest itself. This kind of new research program could be named cognitive astrobiology in order to better describe its research areas.

The predicted impact of large satellite constellations on optical astronomy has been worked out, from the beginning, using Montecarlo methods: individual satellite orbits inside each shell are randomly initialised and satellite tracks are computed one by one to check whether or not they hit the field of view, and under what conditions. However, it is known that the density of satellites inside each shell follows the analytic double-sine probability density distribution, which offers new ways to get similar results at a much lower computational cost. We compare results obtained applying the two approaches and we derive some conclusions on the advantages and drawbacks of each method. The original FORTRAN code of the software is available at https://galadi.net/satsim/.