The China Astrobiology Meeting Joint Australasia Astrobiology Meeting 2026 (CAM-AAM 2026) was held in Nanjing from August 27 to 31. Hundreds of scientists from around the world gathered to discuss frontier topics such as the origin of life, the evolution of planetary habitability, and the detection of extraterrestrial biosignatures.
Astrobiology is a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field that integrates Earth sciences, life sciences, astronomy, and other disciplines. The meeting was jointly initiated by the Astrobiology Branch of the Palaeontological Society of China and the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, and was hosted by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS).
Prof. ZHU Maoyan, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, from NIGPAS, said that astrobiology addresses fundamental scientific questions such as where life came from, whether life exists on other celestial bodies, and how life evolves. Answering these questions requires close collaboration among geology, chemistry, life sciences, astronomy, and other disciplines.
Prof. HUANG Fang, from the University of Science and Technology of China and deputy director of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, noted that life may first originate in the ocean. Understanding when oceans formed is therefore crucial for exploring the evolution of life on Earth and on terrestrial planets such as Mars.
Prof. ZHAO Guochun, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, from the Department of Geology at Northwest University, said that much of the evidence for Earth’s early evolution has been erased by later geological processes. Comparative studies of Earth and other terrestrial planets are therefore essential for investigating the origin of life.
The CAM-AAM 2026 conference aimed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and also marked the launch of a new journal, Astrobiology Bulletin.
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