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Daniel Glavin Wins 2010 Nier Prize
Daniel Glavin, winner of the 2010 Nier Prize. Photo Credit: Chris Gunn
Daniel Glavin has been selected by the international Meteoritical Society as the recipient of the 2010 Nier Prize. The prestigious Nier Prize is awarded to young scientists performing valuable research in fields related to meteoritics and planetary science.
Dr. Glavin was presented with the prize for his work on extraterrestrial organic chemistry. By examining carbonaceous meteorites, Glavin and his team have made important contributions toward understanding why life uses only left-handed versions of amino acids. It turns out that molecules delivered to Earth in meteorites may have played a role in life’s eventual bias toward...Source: [NASA GSFC]
November 18, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
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Vatican Hosts Study Week on Astrobiology
This past week in Rome as part of the International Year of Astronomy, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a Study Week on Astrobiology, an interdisciplinary event during which “cloistered astrobiologists confronted each other’s fields of research” and dialogued about the connections. The participants included many from the extended astrobiology community, including John Baross, David Charbonneau, Roger Summons, Andy Knoll, Chris Impey, Jonathan Lunine, Jill Tarter, Sara Seager, and Giovanna Tinetti.
“The questions of life’s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration,” said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an...
November 17, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Taking a Bite of Antarctic Ice
University Valley, Antarctica.
Members of NASA’s IceBite team will spend the next six weeks studying the only place on Earth where the terrain resembles that of the Phoenix landing site on Mars. The place: a mile above sea level in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys. The ultimate goal: to test ice-penetrating drills for a future mission to the martian polar north. Astrobio.net will be providing a direct link to scientists involved in the expedition, so now you can ask the scientists questions while they’re in the field.Source: [astrobio.net]
November 16, 2009 / Written by: Henry Bortman
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Dr. Linda Billings Recieves Lifetime Achievement Award
Women in Aerospace recently awarded Dr. Linda Billings the Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 25 years of excellence in communicating with the public about the nation’s space program. As a journalist, she has covered energy, environment, and labor relations as well as aerospace. As a researcher, she has worked on communication strategy, media analysis, and audience research for NASA’s astrobiology, Mars exploration, and planetary protection programs. Her research has focused on the role that journalists play in constructing the cultural authority of scientists, the rhetorical strategies that scientists and journalists employ in communicating about science, and the rhetoric...
November 14, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
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Discoveries in the Deep
NASA astronaut Michael Gernhardt at Pavilion Lake.
Credit: Darlene Lim
Scientists from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have been using Pavilion Lake as a testing ground for the future human exploration of other worlds. Pavilion Lake, in British Columbia, Canada, is home to a biological mystery. Microbialites, coral-like structures built by bacteria, in a variety of sizes and shapes, carpet the lakebed. That’s unusual for a freshwater lake like Pavilion. Exploration of Pavilion Lake is helping biologists understand this unique environment – and it’s also helping astronauts prepare for future human exploration of other worlds.Source: [astrobio.net]
November 13, 2009 / Written by: Henry Bortman
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Ethics of Space Exploration
Last week, the Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics hosted a panel to discuss Challenges Raised by Life in Space. Today on KQED’s radio show The Forum, host Michael Krasney interviews some of those panelists for a national audience. They discuss a range of topics from the value and moral standing of the diversity of potential life elsewhere in the universe, to the modification of extraterrestrial ecosystems to suit human needs, to possible forward contamination of other planets through exploration.
November 12, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Eigenbrode Earns Chief Technologist’s Top Prize
The Office of the Chief Technologist selected scientist Jennifer Eigenbrode as its 2009 “IRAD Innovator of the Year” for her work verifying that a new sample-preparation method would benefit the SAM instrument on MSL. Image Credit: Chris Gunn
NASA Goddard scientist Jennifer Eigenbrode has been selected as the recipient of the 2009 IRAD Innovator of the Year award. Her work has added important capabilities to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which will be included on the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Dr. Eigenbrode’s work will allow MSL to analyze large carbon molecules if they are discovered on Mars, and could play an important role in determining the potential for past or present life on the Red Planet.When MSL reaches Mars in 2012, the rover will analyze samples...
Source: [Link]
November 11, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
Astrobiology Field Work
Rollover map to explore Astrobiology field sites around the world.
