Viking Results Revisited

Image from the Viking 2 lander site. Credit: NASA
Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise result from NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA’s Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life. The findings could make a difference in how astrobiologists search for signs of past or present life on the red planet. The only organic chemicals identified when the Viking landers heated samples of Martian soil were chlorine compounds interpreted as contaminants from cleaning fluids. But those chemicals are exactly what researchers found when adding perchlorate (the surprise finding from Phoenix) to desert soil from Chile.

Source: [astrobio.net]

September 4, 2010 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Montana's First Fellow of the American Chemical Society

Tim Minton, a researcher and professor at Montana State University and member of the NAI Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Research Center (ABRC), has been named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, a prestigious honor given to professionals who make significant contributions to both science and society. Minton is the first ACS Fellow in the state of Montana.

Minton specializes in hyperthermal reaction dynamics and is an expert in space environmental effects. He developed and runs a lab that simulates conditions in space and routinely tests materials that could work in or on spacecraft. His unique lab setting attracts students...

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September 2, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Kepler Discovers Multiple Planets Transiting a Single Star

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered the first confirmed planetary system with more than one planet crossing in front of, or transiting, the same star.
The transit signatures of two distinct Saturn-sized planets were seen in the data for a sun-like star designated “Kepler-9.” The planets were named Kepler-9b and 9c. The discovery incorporates seven months of observations of more than 156,000 stars as part of an ongoing search for Earth-sized planets outside our solar system. The findings will be published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Science.

Kepler’s ultra-precise camera measures tiny decreases in the stars’ brightness that...

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Source: [Science@NASA]

August 26, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Oxygenation in Ancient Ocean Margins Precedes Atmospheric Rise

Astrobiologists at Arizona State University and their colleagues have been working to constrain the abundance and distribution of dissolved oxygen in the Earth’s early oceans, prior to the rise of atmospheric oxygen 2.7 billion years ago. Their analyses of 2.6- to 2.5-billion-year-old black shales from South Africa suggest that the production of oxygen in the surface ocean was vigorous at this time. Combined with studies conducted in Australia, they conclude that the productive regions along ocean margins during the late Archaean eon were sites of substantial O2 accumulation, at least 100 million years before it began...

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Source: [Link]

August 23, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

NASA Ames Scientists Release Unique Collection of Infrared Spectra

Duplicating the harsh conditions of cold interstellar space in their laboratories and on their computers, NASA Astrobiology Institute Ames team scientists have created a unique database of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) spectra, which is primarily used to interpret mysterious infrared (IR) emission detected by ground, air and space-based observatories.

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August 17, 2010 / Written by: Lou Allamandola

Where in the World is Europa?

Side-by-side images of the Moon Europa.
Before they can be sent out to explore planets or moons, rovers first need to be tested in the field. While there is no perfect analog for Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, there are various spots on Earth and elsewhere that are similar enough to conduct trial runs.

With new attention directed toward a future mission to the Jupiter system, locations such as Antarctica’s Lake Vostok and Borup Fiord Pass in the Canadian High Arctic could help NASA scientists prepare robots and instruments for the harsh environment of Europa.

Source: [astrobio.net]

August 16, 2010 / Written by: Charles Q. Choi

Life in Chalk

Members of NAI’s MIT team put down their lab instruments and picked up artists’ tools recently, creating a visual time machine to take Hoffman Laboratory passers-by to three earlier eras in the history of life and of planet Earth.

Source: [Harvard Gazette]

August 10, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice