Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP)

Erosion on Earth and Mars: Mere Seepage or Megaflood?

Researchers from NAI’s University of California, Berkeley Team have a new study in this week’s Science focused on Box Canyon in Idaho. Incised into a basaltic plain with no drainage network upstream, and approximately 10 cubic meters per second of seepage emanating from its vertical headwall, the canyon is a veritable poster child of groundwater seepage erosion. But this new study posits evidence that the canyon’s formation was caused rather...

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May 28, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Enzyme's Active Site Revealed

A new study from NAI’s Montana State University Team appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The study probes the hydrogenase enzyme, a large, complex enzyme which plays a major role in anaerobic metabolism by creating molecular hydrogen. The research team produced a crystal structure of the enzyme to unprecedented resolution, revealing a new level of detail in the enzyme’s active site, and providing clues about it’s evolution. These...

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May 27, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

NAI Member Receives Sagan Medal

G. Jeffrey Taylor from NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team is the recipient of the 2008 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science. The Sagan Medal, presented by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) on an (almost) annual basis, was established by AAS’s Division for Planetary Sciences to recognize and honor outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public. Recipients are scientists...

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May 27, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Wandering Poles on Europa

A new study in the May 15th issue of Nature from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team reveals that Europa’s poles may not have always been located in the same place. Using images from three NASA spacecraft, Voyager, Galileo, and New Horizons, the study mapped surface features on Europa and matched them with a pattern predicted if Europa had experienced an episode of ~80 degree true polar wander. ...

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May 22, 2008 / Written by: Daniella Scalice

Chris Impey receives ASP Richard H. Emmons Award

University of Arizona researcher and educator Chris Impey has received the 2008 ASP Richard H. Emmons award, which recognizes and celebrates outstanding achievement in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-science majors. The award citation states that “Innovation is certainly a hallmark of Chris’s approach to teaching astronomy. He is ever thought provoking and engaging; students benefit from his refreshing methods that use interactive techniques and a blend of online and classroom teaching.”

May 12, 2008 / Written by: Wendy Dolci

Jim Kasting elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Geochemical Society

Jim Kasting was recently elected as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jim is a member of the NAI’s Pennsylvania State University and Virtual Planetary Laboratory @ UW teams, and a PI in the Exobiology program. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers. Jim has also been named a Fellow of the Geochemical Society. The honorary title...

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May 12, 2008 / Written by: Wendy Dolci

Organic Haze, Glaciations and Multiple Sulfur Isotopes in the Mid-Archean Era

Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman (NAI PSU team), J.F. Kasting (NAI PSU team), D. T. Johnson (NAI CIW team), and J. Farquhar (NAI CIW and UCLA teams) have just published an article Organic haze, glaciations and multiple sulfur isotopes in the Mid-Archean era in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The team used sulfur isotope signatures within ancient sediments and a photochemical model of sulfur dioxide photolysis to interpret the evolution of...

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May 9, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt