NASA Astrobiology

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A volcanically active planet is shown in closeup at the left side of the image with glowing eruptions and lines of lava on the surface. To the right and in the distance is a faint blue glowing ball representing the more massive planet in the system.

Sixteen frames from Voyager 1's flyby of Jupiter in 1979 were merged to create this image. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is visible in the center. Jupiter's moon Europa can be seen in the foreground at the bottom left of the image.

The frame is a horizontal rainbow of color on a grid. Shadows of molecules can be seen through the light as well as the jagged peaks and troughs of spectral lines.

Fizzy Super Earths and Lava Worlds“Fizzy Super-Earths: Impacts of Magma Composition on the Bulk Density and Structure of Lava Worlds.” in The Astrophysical Journal.01/03

Identifying Hydrothermal Activity on Icy Ocean Worlds“Ethene-ethanol ratios as potential indicators of hydrothermal activity at Enceladus, Europa, and other icy ocean worlds.” In Icarus.02/03

NASA Raman Spectroscopic Database"The NASA Raman spectroscopic database: Ramdb version 1.00.” In Icarus.03/03

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September 2023Assessment of Stoichiometric Autocatalysis across Element Groups

Peng, Z., Adam, Z. R., Fahrenbach, A. C., & Kaçar, B. (2023). Assessment of Stoichiometric Autocatalysis across Element Groups. Journal of the American Chemical Society. doi:10.1021/jacs.3c07041

February 2023Nitrogenase resurrection and the evolution of a singular enzymatic mechanism

Garcia, A. K., Harris, D. F., Rivier, A. J., Carruthers, B. M., Pinochet-Barros, A., Seefeldt, L., & Kaçar, B. (2023). Nitrogenase resurrection and the evolution of a singular enzymatic mechanism. eLife, 12, None. doi:10.7554/elife.85003

Effects of RuBisCO and CO2 concentration on cyanobacterial growth and carbon isotope fractionation

Garcia, A.K., Kędzior, M., Taton, A., Li, M., Young, J.N., Kaçar, B. (2023) Effects of RuBisCO and CO2 concentration on cyanobacterial growth and carbon isotope fractionation. Geobiology. doi: 10.1111/gbi.12543

October 2022Early Nitrogenase Ancestors Encompassed Novel Active Site Diversity

Schwartz, S. L., Garcia, A. K., Kaçar, B., & Fournier, G. P. (2022). Early Nitrogenase Ancestors Encompassed Novel Active Site Diversity. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 39(11), None. doi:10.1093/molbev/msac226

April 2022Resurrected Rubisco suggests uniform carbon isotope signatures over geologic time

Kędzior, M., Garcia, A. K., Li, M., Taton, A., Adam, Z. R., Young, J. N., & Kaçar, B. (2022). Resurrected Rubisco suggests uniform carbon isotope signatures over geologic time. Cell Reports, 39(4), 110726. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110726

February 2022nQMaker: Estimating Time Nonreversible Amino Acid Substitution Models

Dang, C. C., Minh, B. Q., McShea, H., Masel, J., James, J. E., Vinh, L. S., & Lanfear, R. (2022). nQMaker: Estimating Time Nonreversible Amino Acid Substitution Models. Systematic Biology, 71(5), 1110–1123. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syac007

Reconstruction of Nitrogenase Predecessors Suggests Origin from Maturase-Like Proteins

Garcia, A. K., Kolaczkowski, B., & Kaçar, B. (2022). Reconstruction of Nitrogenase Predecessors Suggests Origin from Maturase-Like Proteins. Genome Biology and Evolution, 14(3), None. doi:10.1093/gbe/evac031