Interstellar Updates

Worlds First Interstellar Summer School Announced
https://i4is.org/worlds-first-summer-interstellar-summer-school-announced/

Breakthrough Discuss Conference 2018
http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/events/discuss

MBR Space Settlement Challenge
https://www.guaana.com/funding/grants/mbrchallenge/details

First space mission dedicated to exoplanet atmospheres gets green light
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03445-5

Dynamical Analysis of the Circumprimary Planet in the Eccentric Binary System HD 59686
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aab439

Investigating Planet Formation and Evolutionary Processes with Short-Period Exoplanets
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10293

A periodic configuration of the Kepler-25 planetary system?
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10285

A brief overview of planet formation
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10526

WFIRST work continues despite budget and schedule uncertainty
http://spacenews.com/wfirst-work-continues-despite-budget-and-schedule-uncertainty/

An Earth-sized exoplanet with a Mercury-like composition
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-018-0420-5

A Universal Break in the Planet-to-star Mass-ratio Function of Kepler MKG Stars
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aab6ac

Distinguishing the albedo of exoplanets from stellar activity
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2018/03/aa31206-17/aa31206-17.html

Shifting of the resonance location for planets embedded in circumstellar disks
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2018/03/aa32070-17/aa32070-17.html

Dynamical models to explain observations with SPHERE in planetary systems with double debris belts
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2018/03/aa31426-17/aa31426-17.html

Systematic Search for Rings around Kepler Planet Candidates: Constraints on Ring Size and Occurrence Rate
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09114

A New Desalination Pump Help Define the pH of Ocean Worlds
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08937

Global-Mean Vertical Tracer Mixing in Planetary Atmospheres
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09149

Influence of stellar structure, evolution and rotation on the tidal damping of exoplanetary spin-orbit angles
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09661

Orbital alignment of circumbinary planets that form in misaligned circumbinary discs: the case of Kepler-413b
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10061

Eccentricities and Inclinations of Multi-Planet Systems with External Perturbers
https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.06220

Life in the Universe
https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/59430

Geocentrism and the Astrobiological Context of the Human Condition
http://geopolicraticus.tumblr.com/post/172303464882/geocentrism-and-the-astrobiological-context-of-the

NASA reveals major delay for $8-billion Hubble successor
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03863-5

Decrease in Hysteresis of Planetary Climate for Planets with Long Solar Days
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aaa70f

New Assumptions to Guide SETI Research
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20180001925.pdf

The Relation Between Arrested Civilizations and Their Biospheres
http://geopolicraticus.tumblr.com/post/172215561112/the-relation-between-arrested-civilizations-and

OSIRIS-REx Encounters Earth: Signatures of a Habitable World
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2018/pdf/1240.pdf

A comprehensive understanding of planet formation is required for assessing planetary habitability and for the search for life
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08682

Atmospheric mass loss of extrasolar planets orbiting magnetically active host stars
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08684

Understanding Stellar Contamination in Exoplanet Transmission Spectra as an Essential Step in Small Planet Characterization
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08708

An accurate mass determination for Kepler-1655b, a moderately-irradiated world with a significant volatile envelope
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08820

Formation of Terrestrial Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08830

Criterion for the Onset of Chaos in Systems of Two Eccentric Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08510

The WFIRST Exoplanet Microlensing Survey
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08564

Classification of simulated radio signals using Wide Residual Networks for use in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08624

Fingerprinting Non-Terran Biosignatures
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2017.1712

Organic Haze as a Biosignature in Anoxic Earth-like Atmospheres
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2017.1666

The Effect of Varying Atmospheric Pressure upon Habitability and Biosignatures of Earth-like Planets
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2016.1632

The Habitability of Proxima Centauri b: Environmental States and Observational Discriminants
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2016.1589

Detection of the closest Jovian exoplanet in the Epsilon Indi triple system
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08163

Gaian bottlenecks and planetary habitability maintained by evolving model biospheres: The ExoGaia model
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08063

Clear and Cloudy Exoplanet Forecasts for JWST: Maps, Retrieved Composition and Constraints on Formation with MIRI and NIRCam
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08173

Detection of Alpha Centauri at radio wavelengths: chromospheric emission and search for star-planet interaction
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.08338