NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  1. Content with the tag: “stardust

  2. A search for primordial water from deep in the Earth's mantle

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 4

    A Self-Perpetuating Catalyst for the Production of Organics in Protostellar Nebulae

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3

    Acquisition and Installation of a new Cameca ims 1280 ion microprobe

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES:

    Advancing Techniques for in situ Analysis of Complex Organics

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 2, 3, 3, 7

    Application of U-tube and fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor to characterize the chemical and physical properties of a deep permafrost and sub-permafrost environment at High Lake, Nunavut, Canada.

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 5, 5, 7

    Astrobiology Sample Analysis Program (ASAP)

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES:

    Biological potential of Mars

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 3

    Biosignatures in chemosynthetic and photosynthetic systems

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7

    Breakdown of methane due to electric discharge: A Laboratory Investigation with Relevance to Mars

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2

    Chemical Models of Nebular Processes

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1

    Composition of Parent Volatiles in Comets: Oxidized Carbon

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES:

    Current Status and Future Bioastronomy with the Large Millimeter Telescope

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3

    Early Metabolic Pathways

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 3

    Early Metabolic Pathways

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3, 3

    Fingerprinting Late Additions to the Earth and Moon via the Study of Highly Siderophile Elements in Lunar Impact Melt Rocks

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1

    Formation and Detection of Hot-Earth Objects in Systems with Close-in Jupiters

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1

    Formation of Planetesimals in a Dynamically Evolving Nebula

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1

    Genes that regulate photosymbiotic relationships

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2

    Habitable Planets

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 1, 2, 4

    Icelandic subglacial lakes

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4, 5, 6

    Interplanetary Pioneers

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5, 6

    Microbial Communities and Activities in the Deep Marine Subsurface

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5, 5, 6, 6

    Modeling grain surface reaction pathways for large organic molecules

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3

    Organic and Inorganic Acids from Ion-irradiated Ices

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 3, 7

    Origin and Evolution of Organics

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 3

    Origin and Evolution of Organics in Planetary Systems

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 3

    Origin of Irregular Satellites

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1

    Prebiotic Organics from Space

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7

    Protist diversity in extreme environments

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6, 7

    Recovery of comet 85P/Boethin for the Deep Impact Extended Mission

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2

    Research Activities in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 2, 2, 3, 7

    Sediment-buried basement deep biosphere

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6

    Societal and Philosophical Aspects of Astrobiology

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 18

    Studies in Planetary Formation and Evolution

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8, 9, 11, 12

    Studies of Organic Matter and Water in Meteorites

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1, 8, 9, 11

    The Main Belt distribution of basaltic asteroids

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2

    THE VYSOS PROJECT

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1

    Ultra-violet processing of ices in the Rosette Nebula

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3

    Understanding the Microbial Ecology of Geologically-based Chemolithoautotrophic Communities

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2, 4
  3. NASA Researchers Make First Discovery of Life's Building Block in Comet


    This is an artist's concept of particle hits on the aerogel collection grid. The greenish areas represent the aerogel. Hits are the light green teardrop-shaped areas. Particles are represented by dots at the tips of the teardrops. Credit: NASA/JPL

    NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft.

    “Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet,” said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Our discovery supports the theory that some of life’s ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts.”

    Elsila is the lead author of a paper...

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  4. Marco Polo and Meteorites


    Asteroids and comets have been a major focus of recent NASA missions. From Deep Impact to Stardust, and the current Dawn mission, astrobiologists have been examining these fascinating celestial bodies in order to understand the role they may have played in the origin of life on our planet. These rocks in space are also ancient records from a time when our solar system was being born. The wealth of scientific information that can be gleaned from asteroids has also sparked interest from space agencies outside of the United States....

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    Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

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  5. Comet Dust Reveals Unexpected Mixing of Solar System Material


    Researchers from NAI’s University of Wisconsin, Madison Team are also involved the analysis of comet samples returned from NASA’s Stardust mission.

    A new analysis of dust from the comet Wild 2, collected in 2004 by Stardust, has revealed an oxygen isotope signature that suggests an unexpected mingling of rocky material between the center and edges of the solar system. Wisconsin Astrobiololgy Research Consortium (WARC) researchers and their collaborators analyzed oxygen isotopes in crystals of olivine and pyroxene from the comet’s halo. These samples, which reached Earth in early...

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  6. Stardust Sample Analysis


    A special issue of Science (Dec 15) includes several papers reporting on various aspects of Stardust sample analysis including an organics survey, isotopic and elemental compositions, mineralogy and petrology, and infrared spectroscopy. Many NAI researchers contributed to this comprehensive analytical campaign, including members of NAI’s Teams at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, NASA’s Ames Research Center and Goddard Space Flight Center, and NAI’s Alumni Team at the University of Washington.

    Source: [Link]

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  7. Astrobiology and Stardust


    Carl Sagan once said “We are all star stuff.” But how? What does that really mean? One of the fundamental questions of astrobiology, how does life originate and evolve?, provides a structure in which to examine the relationship between life and the cosmos. Everywhere life has been found on Earth, which is essentially every place in which it has been sought, life’s intimate connection with water has also been found. Within the framework of contemplating life’s cosmic origins, one must also ask about the history of water on Earth. NASA’s Stardust mission has provided the opportunity for astrobiologists to gain deeper insight into this history.

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  8. Hot Rocks from Comet Wild 2


    Scientists are finding surprises from analyzing tiny particles of comet dust collected by the Stardust spacecraft and returned to Earth 8 weeks ago. They had expected mostly “primitive” particles that had condensed under cool conditions in the solar nebula and been preserved in the deep freeze of space. However, some of the comet dust is made of minerals that can only be formed at high temperatures — either close to the Sun or perhaps in other planetary systems that existed before the solar system formed. NAI scientist Don Browlee reports that “In the coldest part of the solar system,...

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  9. Chance to View Stardust Return


    NASA’s Stardust mission is nearing Earth after a four billion kilometer round-trip journey to bring back comet dust samples. Viewers in California, Oregon, and Nevada have a chance to see the fiery entry of the return capsule into Earth’s atmosphere in the early morning of Sunday January 15 (approximately 2 a.m. PST, 3 a.m. MST).

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