"Is it possible to initiate a terraforming process on Mars that may one day make it more hospitable to the development of terrestrial ecosystems?"
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Life is Lonely at the Center of the Earth
Deep in the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, a rod-shaped bacterium named Desulforudis audaxviator lives in total darkness. Rather than get energy from the sun, it feeds off hydrogen and sulfate produced by the radioactive decay of uranium. This feature alone makes D. audaxviator of special interest to astrobiologists, since it expands the possible
environments where life could survive on other worlds. Now scientists have discovered through genetic analysis that this organism also lives in...October 11, 2008 / Written by: Leslie Mullen
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Measuring the Weight of Ancient Air
In the first study of its kind, researchers will measure the air pressure from nearly three billion years ago by using gas bubbles in lava and tiny craters made by raindrops. The results could indicate what sort of life may have existed on the ancient Earth.
October 10, 2008 / Written by: Michael Schirber
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Life Without the Sun
An ecosystem discovered 2.8 kilometers underground in the Mponeng Gold Mine near Johannesburg, South Africa two years ago has now been shown to comprise only a single species of microbe, existing on energy from radioactivity, completely independently of the Sun. The community of rod-shaped bacteria of the species Desulforudis audaxviator was discovered in 2005-06 by members of the NAI’s Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative (IPTAI) Team. Their current results are presented in...
October 10, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Mirror-Image Clues to Life's Origins
According to an article published in the Washington Post, scientists studying the Murchison meteorite have found that it contains clues to the origin of chirality. Amino acids in nature have two forms, referred to as right- and left-handed, that are mirror images of each other. The proteins in living organisms, however, are only made from left-handed amino acids. The reason for this chirality is not understood, but this new research suggests it may stem from meteorites that...
October 8, 2008 / Written by: Leslie Mullen
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NASA Selects New Science Teams for Astrobiology Institute
NASA has awarded five-year grants, averaging $7 million each, to 10 research teams from across the country to study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.
The interdisciplinary teams will become new members of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Teams from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu; Arizona State University in Tempe; the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa.; the...
October 2, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt
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“Little Bang” triggered Solar System formation
Astrophysicists from the NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington team and their colleagues have shown for the first time that a supernova could have triggered the solar system’s formation under conditions of rapid heating and cooling. For several decades, scientists have thought that the solar system formed as a result of a shock wave from an exploding star—a supernova—that triggered the collapse of a dense, dusty gas cloud that contracted to form the sun...
October 2, 2008 / Posted by: Wendy Dolci
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NASA Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow, Soil Data Suggest Liquid Past
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.
A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft’s landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.
“Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars,”...
September 30, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt
Astrobiology Field Work
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