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NASA's Carl Sagan Fellows to Study Extraterrestrial Worlds
NASA announced Wednesday the new Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars.
Planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, are being discovered at a staggering pace, with more than 300 currently known. Decades ago, long before any exoplanets had been found, the late Carl Sagan imagined such worlds, and pioneered the scientific pursuit...
September 8, 2008 / Written by: NASA Press Release
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Reading Archaean Biosignatures
Using a new instrument that can locate elements on the nanometer scale, NASA scientists are exploring tiny bits of organic matter that could be the oldest traces of terrestrial life. Possible “biosignatures” have been found in rocks dating back 3.3 to 3.5 billion years, long after deformation by heat and pressure would have obliterated any whole-cell fossils these rocks may once have contained. These biosignatures would be embodied in suggestive concentrations of elements,...
July 30, 2008 / Written by: David Tenenbaum
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Machine Evolution
Many scientists believe that life started out as nothing more than strands of proto-genetic material known as RNA. A new device automates studies of RNA evolution and could lend insights into the origin of life on Earth.
July 24, 2008 / Written by: James Kling
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Washington Post Covers Astrobiology
In yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post, writer Marc Kauffman discusses the “…scientific explosion taking place in astrobiology.”
July 21, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Signals from an Infant Earth
The oldest rocks so far identified on Earth are one-half billion years younger than the planet itself, so geologists have relied on certain crystals as micro-messengers from ancient times. Called zircons (for their major constituent, zirconium) these crystals “are the kind of mineral that a geologist loves,” says Stephen Mojzsis, an associate professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “They capture chemical information about the melt from which they crystallize, and they preserve that information very,...
July 15, 2008 / Written by: David Tenenbaum
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Extraterrestrial Nucleobases in the Murchison Meteorite
A recent study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters from NAI’s Teams at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and University of Wisconsin, shows that nucleic acids of extraterrestrial origin are present in the Murchison meteorite. Carbon-rich meteorites such as the Murchison are thought to be responsible for delivering biologically-relevant organic material to the young Earth. These results demonstrate that the nucleic acids discovered in the...
June 25, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Deep Hydrogen
Molecular hydrogen provides energy for many bacteria, in hot springs at Yellowstone and in rocks several kilometers beneath the surface. How did molecular hydrogen get inside these deep rocks, and what does this tell us about the origin of life on Earth?
June 16, 2008 / Written by: David Tenenbaum
