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2009 Annual Science Report

University of Hawaii, Manoa Reporting  |  JUL 2008 – AUG 2009

Executive Summary

Overview

Water is the medium in which the chemistry of all life on Earth takes place. It is likely to be equally important for Astrobiology in general. It is the theme we chose for the first five years of the University of Hawai’i (UH) NAI (CAN 3) and it is the theme we proposed for CAN5. Like our earlier effort, this proposal combines a set of studies that range from the interstellar medium to the interior of planet Earth, all designed to elucidate “the origin, history, and distribution of water and its relation to life in the Universe”, and the relation to Habitable Worlds. However, our focus has changed to highlight those areas of research which can make the most use of interdisciplinary approaches. The research areas are as follows:

* We don’t know where the water on Earth came from. It may be that the water arrived trapped as gas on dust grains as the planet accumulated mass, or it may have formed via chemical reactions on the early magma ocean, or water may have been delivered exogeneously. Understanding the relative roles of each source will require astronomical observations, ice laboratory experiments, chemical and dynamical models as well as geochemical observations. The D/H ratio of Earth, including its bulk value in the mantle, crust, and hydrosphere, and its primordial value in the deep mantle, using rocks from the Hawai’i and Iceland mantle plumes and measurements of nominally anhydrous and hydrous phases synthesized in the laboratory and thought to be important reservoirs of water in the mantle;

* The D/H ratio in protoplanetary disks and comets will be explored using ground-based telescopes on Mauna Kea coupled with chemical modeling of hot corinos (young star forming cores) and comets, to understand how this ratio varies with space, time, and chemical species within young stellar systems;

* We will explore ice chemistry in our Solar System, using ultra-high vacuum, ultra-cold laboratory experiments, astronomical observations, and modeling to understand how primitive materials are processed as the system evolves, leading to life’s precursor molecules;

* The Main Belt Comets, as representatives of a novel class of icy bodies that may have contributed water to Earth, represent a unique and accessible source of volatiles. We will use the new Pan STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala, Maui to survey the sky for more members of this class, and then follow the discoveries by characterizing the activity, and physical properties of these bodies. The intent is that this will lead to the development of an in-situ space mission concept.

* Thermal and aqueous evolution of the parent bodies of primitive chondritic meteorites will be investigated using the Cameca 1280 ion microprobe at UH to measure oxygen isotopes and the daughter products of short-lived radionuclides, to elucidate the history of ices and water on these bodies that may have contributed the major amount of water to Earth;

* We will explore the microbial habitats in Earth’s subseafloor environments, along the mid-ocean ridge axis and flanks and in subduction zones, as likely analogues for extraterrestrial habitats for life on basaltic and ultramafic substrates, in our Solar System and beyond;

* The VYSOS project telescopes in Hawai’i and Chile will survey tens of thousands of young stars for a decade or longer, to understand how stars and planetary systems form and to search for newborn transiting planets;

* Amino acid combinations and their effect on protein folding will be investigated, using theoretical modeling to resolve why most terrestrial life uses a highly restricted set of only 20 amino acids;

* We also propose to create a new, integrative knowledge framework for doing research in astrobiology, based on open XML standards, that will enable interdisciplinary collaboration, not only at UH but at the NAI as a whole.

Setting up the Team and Infrastructure

Personnel – Much of this first reporting period was involved in setting up the team. The core of our research is done through collaborations between a cadre of postdoctoral fellows who work closely with several of the team Co-Investigators and collaborators. We held a large Postdoctoral Fellow competition / recruitment during the spring of 2009, offering support for 9 positions. This has resulted in the arrival of the following fellows during spring, summer and fall of 2009 (some partially supported on other funds).

* Chris Bennett – Formation of astrobiologically important molecules in ices, and ice laboratory experiments (Ralf Kaiser, Karen Meech, Dina Prialnik) * Jacqueline Keane – Ice and dust in young stellar objects, interstellar medium chemistry * Jan Kleyna – Discovery of Main Belt Comets, Comet observations (Karen Meech, Dave Jewitt) * Gayle Philip – specializing in Bioinformatics and evolutionary genomics (Steven Freeland) * Timm Riesen – Expert on mass spectrometry and comet space missions (Toby Owen, Karen Meech; fall 2009) * Alberto Robador – sedimentary bacterial energy metabolism (Jim Cowen, Mike Mottl; fall 2009) * Gal Sarid – thermal modeling in small icy bodies (comets, KBOs, satellites) and their evolution (Karen Meech, Sasha Krot) * Josh Walawender – specializing in variable young stars, and accretion, with a strong interest in outreach activities (Bo Reipurth) * Bin Yang – Characterization of Main Belt Comets (Dave Jewitt, Karen Meech)
The recruitment is continuing into fall 2009 for 2 cosmochemists to work on early solar system aqueous processes.

Timm Riesen (Univ. of Bern and the Rosetta mission team) joined our group on a Swiss Fellowship to do a project on comet volatiles with Meech and Owen, in addition to providing his mass spectrometer and mission experience for the development of a Discovery class mission to the Main Belt Comets. In addition to the postdoctoral fellows several graduate students have begun to work on projects with team members, including Lisa Miller on the AirFrame project to develop tools for interdisciplinary collaboration and research (with Steve Gazan and Kim Binsted), Sarah Sonnett, who is looking at mechanisms to explain the surface compositions of icy bodies in the distant solar system (with Karen Meech), Heather Kaluna, characterizing a Main Belt Comet in preparation for a possible Discovery mission (with Karen Meech), and Tony Zenn who was working on modeling the activity for comet Kopff (with Karen Meech and Gal Sarid).

Finally, we recruited and hired Steve Freeland (also one of our Co-Investigators) to serve as our team project manager (starting in Fall 2009).

Infrastructure – The facilities required to accomplish the research include the Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory, the Keck Ice Chemistry Laboratory, the solid state ice chemistry laboratory, the Pan STARRS 1 telescope facilitiy, as well as many national and private observatories, as well as oceanographic research vessels. The Keck Ice Chemistry Laboratory is now fully funded and the design is complete and much of the fabrication of hardware has been completed, and we are working to get the facility set up. In the mean time, many of the ice experiments can be carried out using the existing ultra high vacuum lab facilities. The Pan STARRS 1 survey will be commissioned in early 2010. The VYSOS (Variable Young Stellar Objects Survey) telescope facility had been completed and has begun operations, starting to survey star-forming regions.

Science Accomplishments

Our team saw the completion and publication of several research projects that were begun during CAN3, and which will set the stage for our CAN 5 research framework. This work included observations and ice experiments for distant comets, observations of a cometary outburst, observations of properties of trans-neptunian objects, and main belt comets. Team members have been working on the development of new tools for discovering more volatile-rich bodies in the asteroid belt in support of current and future space missions, and laboratory investigations of the chemistry of primitive icy surfaces bombarded by cosmic radiation have begun. The ice chemistry experiments are exploring the formation of higher order oxides in space, weathering of silicate rocks on the lunar surface and the possible production of water, the formation of carbon and nitrogen-rich organics in solar system ices, and exploring how long chains of polypeptides might form chemically. The ice chemistry investigations are being complemented by interstellar chemical models. Other members of the team have been investigating the chemical composition of lunar rocks to give insight into the early stages of crust formation and to help interpret information that will be coming from Mars and the Dawn missions. In particular, for Mars, the goal is to understand the role of water in the geological evolution of the planet.

Team members are also continuing their investigation of the persistence of ice in planetary surfaces, with new applications to microclimates and habitability in harsh conditions on Earth, and have been planning for field exploration of Mars analog sites.

The origin and formation of small primitive icy bodies, and the possible mechanisms of activation for the main belt comets were investigated through dynamical simulations. Dynamical simulations were also used to explore the formation of terrestrial and habitable planets in binary systems, giant planet formation, and the origin of parent bodies of iron meteorites, which may provide clues to the timescale of giant planet formation.

Team members are also using dynamical studies to develop better techniques for extrasolar habitable planet detection using radial velocities and transit timing methods. This has been combined with observing programs on Mauna Kea to detect a Saturn-mass planet.

Exploring the topic of the origin of Earth’s water, we have carried out the first round of D/H measurements on a suite of samples from the Hawaiian deep drill core. Techniques are being developed to increase the precision of our measurements. New samples from the drill core will take place in late 2009 and preparations are being made to begin the work on the more pristine samples from Iceland during spring 2010.

The area of seafloor observatories and the exploration of the deep biosphere progressed extremely well during this period with the completion of modifications to in-situ instrumentation and the utilization of this instrumentation on a cruise to the Juan de Fuca Ridge flank. The team also participated in a cruise to explore new eruptions in the Lau Basin. In addition, the team was active in leading the preparation for a Dark Energy Biosphere workshop to be held in Hawaii in Fall 2009. Significant progress has also been made on understanding the origins of methane in seafloor subduction zones.

Work was concluded on a phylogentic diversity study as a function of depth utilizing the Hawaii Ocean Time Series data and have related this to possible key metabolic processes for global biogeochemical cycles. Work was continued on the analysis of metagenomic data from a Hawaiian lava tube microbial mat in a geothermal environment, which may have once had analogs on Mars. Work has begun to set up a project (including an XML database and first searching of literature sources) in order to understand life’s choice of 20 amino acids out of a larger suite of other amino acids which can be made by non-biological processes.

Finally, in order to expose the interdisciplinary roots and applications of astrobiology, we’re developing the Astrobiology Integrative Research Framework (AIRFrame; website: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/airframe/). Team members have created the initial data model and have identified the relevant databases that will be used. In the current phase of the project, we’re investigating how astrobiology is represented in the scientific literature of amino acids, the first step toward creating an ontology of astrobiologically relevant terms and relationships across diverse fields of study. Researchers will be able to use AIRFrame to discover and integrate existing knowledge, data sets and terminology from disciplines beyond their own. This is forming the basis of a master’s thesis.

Educational and Public Outreach Activities

The Hawai’i team was very active in the area of Education and Public Outreach. We have a good mix of formal and informal education activities, including university level courses and seminars, student and teacher summer school programs, as well as public activities.

Middle and High School Programs – We offered our student teacher summer residence program, HISTAR (Hawaii Student Teacher Astronomy Research) from June 12-18 wherein teachers and middle-high school students work with astronomer mentors to develop skills necessary for conducting original research projects suitable for entry in school science fairs. Our ALI’I summer teacher program for professional development for secondary science teachers was hosted at the University of Hawaii from July 6-11, 1009. Associated with the preparation for the summer program were numerous workshops across the islands. These programs are leading to well-received astrobiology projects in the annual Hawaii State Science Fairs.

Programs for the Public – On April 8, 2009 the Institute for Astronomy held its annual Open House event, and the UHNAI contributed strongly to the event. We had an Astrobiology exhibit, including posters, brochures, and a hands-on “microbial mat slime cave”, and some remote operation deep sea simulation equipment for children. In addition, open house participants were able to build their own comets and learn about primordial ices in the solar system.

International Collaborations – Our team is also engaging in active international educational partnerships. These partnerships began with the Deep Impact mission in 2005 when we held workshops with teachers from Iceland and the UK. This year we are working with teachers in Brazil on an asteroid parallax project to calculate the distances to asteroids.

Public Evening Lecture & Other Public Talks – Our team plans to have a major evening public event each year utilizing Hawaii team members and members from other teams. The event involves 3-4 scientists talking about different aspects of an interdisciplinary theme, followed by a panel discussion with the audience. These events are heavily advertised to the public. Planning has begun for the 31 March 2010 event on Habitability, which will feature Jeff Taylor, Karen Meech and Steve Mozjsis (U. CO Alumnae team).

Nordic Graduate Summer School – At 1.5 year intervals, in collaboration with the Nordic Astrobiology Network, the UH NAI team will host winter schools and summer schools in astrobiology for graduate students and early career astrobiologists. Our first summer school was held in Rejkjavik Iceland from June 29-July 13 for 43 participants. The theme for the 2009 school was “Water, Ice and the Origin of Life in the Universe” and was a blend of lectures, hands on activities, discussions, fieldwork (sampling extremophiles in hot springs), geological excursions and biology and geochemistry lab work. The program received an excellent evaluation from the participants, and plans are beginning for the 2011 January winter school in Hawaii.

Astrobiology Courses – The UHNAI team offered an Astrobiology seminar during spring 2009 which highlighted team research, as well as an undergraduate astrobiology course. We are beginning to explore new courses and team teaching courses utilizing the skills of our team members. We are setting up to begin offering a certificate program in astrobiology, hopefully to be implemented within the next year.

Other Activities

Minority Institution Sabbatical Program – During the spring 2009 the UH team sponsored a sabbatical visit from Dr. Erik Melchiorre from the California State University through the MIRS program. His work looking for potential biomarkers relevant to Mars in rare Earth minerals brought together a collaboration between our cosmochemistry and oceanography team members.

Visitor Program – Our team has a rigorous visitor program, where we can invite collaborators from other NAI teams to Hawaii to work with our team, and we provide housing in our visitor apartment. Each visitor that we support also participates in our astrobiology seminar series. During June 2009, Bill Bottke, a specialist in solar system dynamics visited our team. We also set up the remaining 2009 and 2010 visitor schedule to include: * E. Melchiorre (Cal State Univ; Dec 2009) – working with G. Huss on the Ion probe to finish up work started on his MIRS sabbatical with our team * D. Prialnik (Tel Aviv Univ.; Feb 2010) – Working with several on our team to investigate small body thermal evolution * H. Hsieh (Queen’s Univ; Feb 2010) – preparations for his Hubble Fellowship that he will be bringing to Hawaii, and collaboration on main belt comet observations * T. Thordarson (Edinburgh Univ; Feb 2010) – Icelandic sample preparation for ion probe work with Huss, Meech and Binsted on Origin of Earth Ocean project * O. Abramov & S. Mojzsis (U. CO; Mar 2010) – Early Earth Habitability – DDF funding and participation in public event * S. Desch (ASU; Fall 2010) – setting up a collaboration with ASU team for a sabbatical visit to work on early solar system aqueous processes, thermal modeling and comet observations (Krot, Keil, Scott, Meech, Sarid)

AstroBiology Science Symposia – Our team members have been active in sponsoring and proposing astrobiology-related symposia and workshops at science meetings. Most notably, we lead a session at the Kavli Symposium during Nov. 2008 on Extrasolar planets, and helped organize a meeting on Ices in the Solar system at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Rio de Janiero during August 2009.

Publications

  • Aspin, C., & Reipurth, B. (2009). V1647 ORIONIS: OPTICAL PHOTOMETRIC AND SPECTROSCOPIC MONITORING THROUGH THE 2003-2006 OUTBURST. The Astronomical Journal, 138(4), 1137–1158. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/138/4/1137

  • Aspin, C., Greene, T. P., & Reipurth, B. (2009). V1647 ORIONIS: KECK/NIRSPEC 2 μm ECHELLE OBSERVATIONS. The Astronomical Journal, 137(2), 2968–2980. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/2/2968

  • Aspin, C., Reipurth, B., Beck, T. L., Aldering, G., Doering, R. L., Hammel, H. B., … Vivian, U. (2009). V1647 ORIONIS: REINVIGORATED ACCRETION AND THE RE-APPEARANCE OF MCNEIL’S NEBULA. The Astrophysical Journal, 692(2), L67–L71. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/692/2/l67

  • Bally, J., Walawender, J., Reipurth, B., & Thomas Megeath, S. (2009). OUTFLOWS AND YOUNG STARS IN ORION’S LARGE COMETARY CLOUDS L1622 AND L1634. The Astronomical Journal, 137(4), 3843–3858. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/4/3843

  • Bennett, C. J., Jamieson, C. S., & Kaiser, R. I. (2009). AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DECOMPOSITION OF CARBON MONOXIDE AND FORMATION ROUTES TO CARBON DIOXIDE IN INTERSTELLAR ICES. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 182(1), 1–11. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/182/1/1

  • Bennett, C. J., Jamieson, C. S., & Kaiser, R. I. (2009). Mechanistical studies on the formation of carbon dioxide in extraterrestrial carbon monoxide ice analog samples. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 11(21), 4210. doi:10.1039/b901220f

  • Brown, M. V., Philip, G. K., Bunge, J. A., Smith, M. C., Bissett, A., Lauro, F. M., … Donachie, S. P. (2009). Microbial community structure in the North Pacific ocean. ISME J, 3(12), 1374–1386. doi:10.1038/ismej.2009.86

  • Connelley, M. S., Reipurth, B., & Tokunaga, A. T. (2009). AN ADAPTIVE OPTICS SURVEY FOR CLOSE PROTOSTELLAR BINARIES. The Astronomical Journal, 138(5), 1193–1202. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/138/5/1193

  • Dohm, J. M., Anderson, R. C., Barlow, N. G., Miyamoto, H., Davies, A. G., Jeffrey Taylor, G., … Karunatillake, S. (2008). Recent geological and hydrological activity on Mars: The Tharsis/Elysium corridor. Planetary and Space Science, 56(7), 985–1013. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2008.01.001

  • Haikala, L. K., & Reipurth, B. (2010). Near infrared imaging of the cometary globule CG 12. A&A, 510, A1. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200913084

  • Jamieson, C. S., Chang, A. H. H., & Kaiser, R. I. (2009). A laboratory study on the thermally induced transformation of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to the cyanogen anion (CN−) in Solar System analog ices. Advances in Space Research, 43(9), 1446–1450. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2009.01.016

  • Jewitt, D., Yang, B., & Haghighipour, N. (2009). MAIN-BELT COMET P/2008 R1 (GARRADD). The Astronomical Journal, 137(5), 4313–4321. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/5/4313

  • Lee, C-F., Mao, Y-Y., & Reipurth, B. (2009). INFALL AND ROTATION MOTIONS IN THE HH 111 PROTOSTELLAR SYSTEM: A FLATTENED ENVELOPE IN TRANSITION TO A DISK?. The Astrophysical Journal, 694(2), 1395–1401. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/694/2/1395

  • Lisse, C. M., Fernandez, Y. R., Reach, W. T., Bauer, J. M., A’Hearn, M. F., Farnham, T. L., … Snodgrass, C. D. (2009). Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of the Nucleus of Comet 103P/Hartley 2. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 121(883), 968–975. doi:10.1086/605546

  • McSween, H. Y., Taylor, G. J., & Wyatt, M. B. (2009). Elemental Composition of the Martian Crust. Science, 324(5928), 736–739. doi:10.1126/science.1165871

  • Meech, K. J., Pittichová, J., Bar-Nun, A., Notesco, G., Laufer, D., Hainaut, O. R., … Pitts, M. (2009). Activity of comets at large heliocentric distances pre-perihelion. Icarus, 201(2), 719–739. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2008.12.045

  • Rodríguez, L. F., Torrelles, J. M., Anglada, G., & Reipurth, B. (2008). HIGH-ANGULAR-RESOLUTION OBSERVATIONS AT 7 MM OF THE CORE OF THE QUADRUPOLAR HH 111/121 OUTFLOW. The Astronomical Journal, 136(5), 1852–1856. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/136/5/1852

  • Schorghofer, N. (2009). Buffering of sublimation loss of subsurface ice by percolating snowmelt: a theoretical analysis. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 20(3), 309–313. doi:10.1002/ppp.646

  • Stevenson, R., Kleyna, J., & Jewitt, D. (2010). TRANSIENT FRAGMENTS IN OUTBURSTING COMET 17P/HOLMES ,. The Astronomical Journal, 139(6), 2230–2240. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/139/6/2230

  • Taylor, G. J. (2009). Ancient Lunar Crust: Origin, Composition, and Implications. Elements, 5(1), 17–22. doi:10.2113/gselements.5.1.17

  • Zheng, W., Jewitt, D., & Kaiser, R. I. (2009). INFRARED SPECTRA OF AMMONIA-WATER ICES. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 181(1), 53–61. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/181/1/53

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  • Capen, S. & Haghighipour, N.  (2009).  DetectabilityOf Low‐Mass Trojan Planets In Transiting Systems Using Transit Timing Variation Method.  BAAS, submitted.
  • Cochran, A.L., Meech, K.J. & Weaver, H.A.  (2009).  Goals and Priorities for the Study of Comets in the Next Decade (2011 – 2020).  Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts.
  • Curnutt, J., Gomez, E. & Schubert, K.E.  (2007).  Simulation of Patterned Plant Growth in Extreme Environments.  Bioastronomy.  Puerto Rico.
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  • Haghighipour, N. & Scott, E.  (2008).  Meteorite Constraints on the Early Stages of Planetary Growth in the Inner Solar System.  DDA.  Boulder, CO.
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  • Haghighipour, N., Meech, K. & Mottl, M.  (2009).  The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Science White Papers.  Science White Papers, 108.
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