The UCR-based Alternative Earth’s Team has received a five-year funding award from the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Astrobiology Research (ICAR). VPL has strong links with the Alternative Earths team, originally funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute in 2015. The Alternative Earths team studies the biogeochemical evolution of Earth as a habitable and inhabited planet as a template for the origin, development, and detectability of biospheres elsewhere. Alternative Earths PI Tim Lyons is also a co-lead of the Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments RCN (PCE3).
Collaborations between the teams have resulted in numerous publications and white papers in addition to ongoing work related to VPL Task B (Earth through Time) and VPL Task D (The Living Planet). Individuals with affiliations with both teams include Victoria Meadows, Tim Lyons, Chris Reinhard, Niki Parenteau, Eddie Schwieterman, Giada Arney, and Stephen Kane.
UCR Press Release:https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2020/12/08/using-earths-history-inform-search-life-exoplanets
NASA Announcement:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-new-science-teams-for-astrobiology-research/