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Project Reports

• Benner – Self-Reproducing Molecular Systems and Darwinian Chemistry

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Laboratory/Observational Studies of Biogenic Greenhouse Gases on the Early Earth

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2 2.1 4.1 7.2

• Celestial Influences on Planetary Environments

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 2.2 4.3 6.1

• Studies in Planetary Formation and Evolution

  During the course of the last five years, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) astronomy group has become perhaps the leading group worldwide studying the detection, formation, and evolution of planetary systems, with a special emphasis on systems containing habitable planets.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 7.2

• Mineral Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 7.1

• Studies of Organic Matter and Water in Meteorites

  The mechanisms that produced chondrules and CAIs were important, energetic processes in the early Solar System that would also have led to complex gas-phase chemistry.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1 3.2

• Impact Frustration and Subsequent Generation of Biologically Tenable Climates on Earth and Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.3 6.2

• New Technique Development and Application

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 4.1

• Microbial Fossilization Processes in Extreme Environments

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 7.1

• Fe Isotope Biosignatures

  The field of Fe isotope geochemistry, which the UW-Madison group has been largely responsible for developing, has matured greatly in the last year.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Astrobiological Exploration of Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

• Habitability of Planetary Bodies

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.1 4.3

• Fractionation of Transition Metal Isotopes

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 6.1 7.1

• Evolution of Atmospheric O2, Climate, and the Terrestrial Biosphere – Stewart

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 6.1

• Organic Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1

• The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution Sub Project: Geobiology of Neogene Hematitic Sedimentary Rocks

  We completed laboratory analyses of samples of iron deposits collected along the Rio Tinto basin, southwestern Spain (Fig. 1).

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 7.2

• Terrestrial Analogs and Martian Meteorites

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 6.1 7.1

• Potential Habitability of Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1

• Evolution of Atmospheric O2, Climate, and Biosphere – Ohmoto

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.1 4.3 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2

• The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution Subproject: Carbon Cycle and Climate Dyanamics of Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1

• Organic Molecules as Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1

• A New Molecular Recognition Instrument for Astrobiological Applications

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 3.2 4.1 5.1 6.2 7.1

• Early Environments

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 7.1

• Astrobiology Funding to US Geological Survey

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 7.1

• Magnetic Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1 3.3 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.1 6.1 7.1

• Habitable Planets

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.3

• Cosmochemistry of Carbonaceous Meteorites

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1 3.2 7.1

• Martian Biogenic Gases

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 7.1

• A Timescale for the Evolution of Life on Earth – Hedges

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2 2.1 3.4 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.2 5.3 7.1 7.2

• A Timescale for the Evolution of Life on Earth – Nei

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2 2.1 3.4 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.2 5.3 7.1 7.2