"When Mars is at its closest point to Earth, could its gravity have an effect on us, or is it still too far away?"
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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
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Success in Monterey Bay Canyon
Image Credit: Alberto Behar
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists in the Planetary Protection group, led by Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran, teamed up with microbiologists and geochemists from Harvard University in the laboratories of Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh and Dr. Peter Girguis to deploy the NASA Hydrothermal Vent Biosampler (HVB) on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Vessel Pt. Lobos using the remotely operated vehicle Ventana.The NASA HVB is able to collect large-volume samples of hydrothermal vent fluid. It can operate in extreme temperatures reaching 400°C and at depths of up to 6,500 meters. The HVB allows astrobiologists to...
Source: [Link]
November 10, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
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Can Darwin Help Us Find Life Elsewhere?
UK’s The Register covered an NAI-sponsored event last week in Mountain View, CA near NASA Ames Research Center. The last in a year-long, evolution-themed series of public lectures helping celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, this lecture was entitled The Evolution of Astrobiology, and was given by John Baross from the University of Washington.
November 9, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Astrobiologists Reproduce RNA Component in Laboratory
NASA astrobiologists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of RNA, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidines exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life. The study appears in the September issue of Astrobiology.
“We have demonstrated for the first time that we can make uracil, a component of RNA, non-biologically in a laboratory under conditions found in space,” said Michel Nuevo, research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “We are showing that these laboratory processes, which simulate occurrences in...
Source: [NASA Press Release]
November 6, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Oxygen Production in Earth's Early Oceans Predates the Great Oxidation Event
It is widely accepted that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth’s atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply. Called the “Great Oxidation Event” (GOE), the oxygen spike marks an important milestone in Earth’s history, the transformation from an oxygen-poor atmosphere to an oxygen-rich one paving the way for complex life to develop on the planet.
Two questions that remain unresolved in studies of the early Earth are when oxygen production via photosynthesis got started and when it began to alter the chemistry of Earth’s ocean and atmosphere.
A research team that includes members of NAI’s Arizona...
Source: [Link]
November 4, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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'Ultra-Primitive' Particles Found in Comet Dust
Scanning electron images of two dust particles E1 (panel A) and G4 (B) and secondary ion mass spectrometry isotopic ratio maps (C–D). Oxygen isotope maps of particles E1 (C) and G4 (D) show four and seven isotopically anomalous regions, indicated by circles, which have been identified as presolar grains. The scale bars are 2 microns.Dust samples collected by high-flying aircraft in the upper atmosphere have yielded an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos, report scientists from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington team in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The stratospheric dust includes minute grains that likely formed inside stars that lived and died long before the birth of our sun, as well as material from molecular clouds in interstellar space. This “ultra-primitive” material likely wafted into the atmosphere after the Earth passed through the trail of an Earth-crossing comet in 2003, giving scientists a rare opportunity to...
Source: [Link]
November 2, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Diving Through A Microbial Landscape
Scientist Dale Andersen prepares to dive in Lake Untersee in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. Photo: Dale Andersen
The ice-covered lakes of Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys have long been of interest to astrobiologists. These remote and extreme environments harbor unique microbial ecosystems that could provide clues about how life might survive on other worlds – such as Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Recently, a team of scientists funded by the NASA Exobiology Program began exploring the unique habitat of the ice-crusted Lake Joyce.
Lake Joyce is of special interest, because it’s waters harbor carbonate structures known as microbialites. These unique structures are formed with layers of cyanobacteria. The research team is interested in how these organisms...Source: [OnOrbit]
October 29, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
Astrobiology Field Work
Rollover map to explore Astrobiology field sites around the world.
