2004 Annual Science Report
Astrobiology Roadmap Objective 3.1 Reports Reporting | JUL 2003 – JUN 2004
Roadmap Objective 3.1—Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts
Project Reports
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Biosustainable Energy and Nutrient Cycles in the Deep Subsurface of Earth and Mars
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.2 -
Planetary Biology, Evolution and Intelligence
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
An Astronomical Search for the Essential Ingredients for Life: Placing Our Habitable System in Context. Progress Report
Module 1: Building Blocks of Life
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 3.1 4.1 4.3 7.1 7.2 -
Extraterrestrial Materials: Origin and Evolution of Organic Matter and Water in the Solar System
Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are typically several microns in diameter and contain carbon and other materials with structure on a scale of tens- to hundreds-of-nanometers across
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.1 -
Cometary Water and Volatile Abundances
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Prebiotic Chemical and Isotopic Evolution on Earth
Sulfur fractionated by enzymatic catalysis has been harvested in the laboratory from living cultures of sulfur-metabolizing microbes and analyzed for 32S-33S-34S.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 4.1 6.1 7.1 -
Cosmic Ice Laboratory: Organic Synthesis in Energetically Processed Ices
Cosmic Ice Laboratory: Organic Synthesis in Energetically Processed Ices
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Electrochemical Isotope Effects With Applications to Stable Isotope Fractionation in Transition Metals
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 4.1 4.2 6.1 7.1 -
Prebiotic Molecular Selection and Organization
Life emerged on Earth as a geochemical process, the consequence of ancient interactions among rocks, water, and gases.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 3.4 7.1 -
Extraterrestrial Ice Laboratory Experiments
We commissioned and calibrated a novel ultra high vacuum surface scattering machine to investigate the formation of astrobiologically important molecules in the interstellar medium, and in our solar system.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Delivery of Organic Materials to Planets
Kress and Brownlee, in collaboration with George Cody, have investigated the thermal alteration of organic material entering the atmosphere in small extraterrestrial particles. An interesting aspect of this process is that even the most severely heated particles eject sublimed compounds that survive.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 3.1 7.2 -
Post Doc Recruitment – Water and Its Relation to Life in the Universe
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Investigation of Parent Volatiles in Comets at Near Infrared Wavelengths
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Investigation of the Composition of Comet 2P/Encke at Infrared Wavelengths
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Prebiotic Organics From Space
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.1 3.4 4.3 7.1 7.2 -
Astrobiotechnology
The development of new technology to carry out in situ experiments to address astrobiological questions is an important goal of NAI, underscored this year by the formation of an Astrobiotechnology Focus Group.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 3.2 4.2 7.1 -
UH NAI Visiting Faculty Scholars Program
The University of Hawaii (UH)-NAI has established a Visiting Faculty Scholars program that brings external collaborators to work with local researchers.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Investigation of the Evolution of Molecular Complexity in the Star-Forming Cores of Molecular Clouds
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Re-Tracing Steps Towards a Habitable World: The Biogeochemical Evolution of Sulfur on the Early Earth.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.1 4.1 4.3 5.2 5.3 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Numerical Modeling and Experimentation of Chemical Kinetic Catalysis
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Young Stellar Activity & Early Solar System Heating
Bo Reipurth has been working on eruptive events in young Solar-like stars, the so called FUor and EXor eruptions. Observations of the prototype eruptive variable, FU Orionis itself, with the 8m Subaru telescope at Mauna Kea, has revealed that a nearby star is in fact a physical companion with characteristics similar to the T Tauri stars.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Reactions of CO, N2 and H2 on the Surfaces of Amorphous Silicates
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Organic Molecule Detection Using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Prebiotic Synthesis: Experimental Studies
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 -
Significance of Photochemistry in Determining the Inorganic and Organic Chemistry of Protoplanetary Materials
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1