Astrobiology: Life in the Universe

NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)


  1. Now showing: Years 2007, 2008 projects from the ARC team

  2. Roadmap Goal 1: Understand the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the Universe

    Objective 1: Determine whether the atmosphere of the early Earth, hydrothermal or exogenous matter were significant sources of organic matter.

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4, 4

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4, 4

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Roadmap Goal 2: Explore for past or present habitable environments, prebiotic chemistry and signs of life elsewhere in our Solar System

    Objective 2: Develop and test plausible pathways by which ancient counterparts of membrane systems, proteins and nucleic acid were synthesized from simpler precursors and assembled into protocells.

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4, 4

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Roadmap Goal 3: Understand how life originates from cosmic and planetary precursors

    Objective 3: Replicating, catalytic systems capable of evolution, and construct laboratory models of metabolism in primitive living systems.

    Early Metabolic Pathways

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3, 3

    Early Metabolic Pathways

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3, 3

    Early Metabolic Pathways

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3, 3

    Early Metabolic Pathways

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3, 3

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Roadmap Goal 4: Understand how past life on Earth interacted with its changing planetary and Solar System environment

    Objective 4: Expand and interpret the genomic database of a select group of key microorganisms in order to reveal the history and dynamics of evolution.

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4, 5, 6, 7

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4, 5

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4, 4

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4, 4

    Habitable Planets

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Roadmap Goal 5: Understand the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life

    Objective 5: Describe the sequences of causes and effects associated with the development of Earth's early biosphere and the global environment.

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4, 5, 6, 7

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4, 5

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5, 6

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5, 6

    Objective 6: Define how ecophysiological processes structure microbial communities, influence their adaptation and evolution, and affect their detection on other planets.

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Roadmap Goal 6: Understand the principles that will shape the future of life, both on Earth and beyond

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4, 5, 6, 7

    Hindcasting Ecosystems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6

    Hindcasting Ecosystems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5, 6

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5, 6

    Roadmap Goal 7: Determine how to recognize signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth

    Objective 7: Identify the environmental limits for by examining biological adaptations to extremes in environmental conditions.

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4, 5, 6, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2007 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    Year: 2008 / TEAM: ARC / ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

Change your results

Change the project list by adding or removing a year. Click a year to add, click the [x] to remove.

  • 2003
  • 2004
  • 2005
  • 2006
  • 2007 [x]
  • 2008 [x]

  • Change the project list by adding or removing a roadmap objective. Click an objective to add, click the [x] to remove.

  • 1 Determine whether the atmosphere of the early Earth, hydrothermal or exogenous matter were significant sources of organic matter.
  • 2 Develop and test plausible pathways by which ancient counterparts of membrane systems, proteins and nucleic acid were synthesized from simpler precursors and assembled into protocells.
  • 3 Replicating, catalytic systems capable of evolution, and construct laboratory models of metabolism in primitive living systems.
  • 4 Expand and interpret the genomic database of a select group of key microorganisms in order to reveal the history and dynamics of evolution.
  • 5 Describe the sequences of causes and effects associated with the development of Earth's early biosphere and the global environment.
  • 6 Define how ecophysiological processes structure microbial communities, influence their adaptation and evolution, and affect their detection on other planets.
  • 7 Identify the environmental limits for by examining biological adaptations to extremes in environmental conditions.

  • Change the project list by adding or removing a team. Click a team to add, click the [x] to remove.

  • Carnegie Institution of Washington
  • Indiana University, Bloomington
  • Marine Biological Laboratory
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Montana State University
  • NASA Ames Research Center [x]
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • SETI Institute
  • University of Arizona
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • University of Hawaii
  • University of Wisconsin
  • VPL at University of Washington