NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Kepler Named An Innovation of the Year by Popular Science

Kepler, NASA’s first “astrobiology mission,” has been named by Popular Science Magazine the Aviation and Space Grand Award Winner in their 2009 Best of What’s New review.

November 24, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Professor at University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo makes impact on the Study of Planetary Habitability

Professor Abel Mendez has been a dynamic force in scientific research within the University of Puerto Rico system for over 15 years. Mendez, a biophysicist, currently serves as an Associate Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. Professor Mendez’s research focus is the study of planetary habitability and the development of habitability models to understand the interactions between life and terrestrial or planetary environments.The students in Professor Mendez laboratory enjoy being surrounded by a role model that has such a passion for his work and can help them fulfill...

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November 23, 2009 / Written by: Benita P. Bell

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...

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Source: [NASA GSFC]

November 18, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

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...

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November 17, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

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

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...

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Source: [Link]

November 11, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

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