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Project Progress

Intro to Elementary Astrobiology

The Astrobiology team at Montana State University, in conjunction with NTEN at MSU, is developing “Introduction to Elementary Astrobiology,” an online short course with modules addressing astrobiology subject material. The course outline includes the challenges of defining life, sorting life, and discovering life. It also examines extreme environments and chemical resources available to living organisms on earth, which then compares these earthly extreme environments to the chemical signatures of extraterrestrial environments. The course modules provide building blocks to allow participants to contemplate and investigate the potential for finding life beyond Earth. The online short course is a self-paced course with interactive components as well as links to NASA resources. The course is expected to go live in January 2011.