Extraterrestrial Nucleobases in the Murchison Meteorite

A recent study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters from NAI’s Teams at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and University of Wisconsin, shows that nucleic acids of extraterrestrial origin are present in the Murchison meteorite. Carbon-rich meteorites such as the Murchison are thought to be responsible for delivering biologically-relevant organic material to the young Earth. These results demonstrate that the nucleic acids discovered in the meteorite, which are components of the genetic code in modern biochemistry, were already present in the early solar system and...

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June 25, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

The Color of Alien Plants

The April 2008 issue of Scientific American features an article by Nancy Kiang of NAI’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team based on her studies predicting the colors of plants on other worlds. The studies, published in Astrobiology in February 2007, consider that as photosynthesis on Earth produces the primary signatures of life that can be detected astronomically at the global scale, a strong focus of the search for extrasolar life will be photosynthesis, particularly photosynthesis that has evolved with a different parent star. Depending on the nature...

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Source: [Scientific American]

March 25, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Water Vapor Detected on Extrasolar Planet

An international team of researchers including members of NAI’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team have, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, detected the presence of water vapor on the hot jupiter HD 189733b. Published in this week’s Nature, the study’s primary author, Giovanna Tinetti, was a 2003 NAI Postdoctoral Fellow.

Source: [Link]

July 11, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

NAI Expands to Include Four New Teams

The NASA Astrobiology Institute is pleased to announce the selections of four new research teams: the University of Wisconsin, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Montana State University. These new teams join the twelve others selected to be part of the Institute in 2003. Welcome to the NAI!

Source: [Link]

May 9, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Final Assembly of Earth-Like Planets

NAI Postdoctoral Fellow Sean Raymond leads a team of authors from NAI’s University of Colorado, Boulder, and University of Arizona Teams, and Virtual Planetary Laboratory and University of Washington Alumni Teams in a new publication in Astrobiology. They present analysis of water delivery and planetary habitability in 5 high-resolution simulations forming 15 terrestrial planets. Their results outline a new model for water delivery to terrestrial planets in dynamically calm systems, which may be very common in the Galaxy.

Source: [Link]

April 17, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe