"Is fulgorite associated with meteorites, and if so, what kind of microbial life, if any, is associated with it?"
Content with the tag: “life in our solar system”
Determine any past or present habitable environments, prebiotic chemistry and signs of life elsewhere in our Solar System. Characterize the history of any environments having liquid water, chemical ingredients and energy sources that might have sustained living systems. Explore crustal materials and planetary atmospheres for any evidence of past and/or present life.
-
Mars Science Laboratory Shakedown in the High Arctic
Members of the AMASE team (AMASE stands for Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition) last month completed their fourth field season on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. They went to test out instruments similar to those that will fly on an upcoming mission to Mars, and to perform a field test of a prototype rover, Cliff-bot, that is capable of climbing up and down 80-degree slopes.
Spitsbergen is the largest island in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, which lies between...
-
Hydrocarbons on Saturn's Moon Hyperion
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed for the first time surface details of Saturn’s moon Hyperion, including cup-like craters filled with hydrocarbons that may indicate more widespread presence in our solar system of basic chemicals necessary for life.
-
Looking for Life in All the Right Places
This new video from JPL shows how NASA astrobiologists are gathering exciting clues that will help them pick the best spots to search for possible signs of life beyond Earth.
-
Extracellular Protein-Metal Aggregates: A New Biosignature?
Deep inside a flooded mine in Wisconsin, scientists from NAI’s University of California, Berkeley Team have discovered an environment in which bacteria emit proteins that sweep up metal nanoparticles into immobile clumps. Their finding may lead to innovative ways to remediate subsurface metal toxins, and have exciting implications for identifying biosignatures on Earth and other worlds. The research, published in the June 14th issue of Science, was done in collaboration with a team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence...
-
Salinity of Europa's Ocean
New research from NAI’s SETI Institute Team published online in Icarus today outlines the empirical range of salt concentrations permitted for Europa’s ocean. Solutions within the range imply high, near-saturation salt concentrations and require a Europan ice shell of less than 15 km thick, with a best fit at 4 km ice thickness. The paper examines the implications for subsurface habitability.
-
Liquid Water on Mars: Is It Still Flowing?
The scientific strategy of NASA’s Mars exploration can be summarized as “Follow the water.” The habitability of Mars, past or present, is intimately tied to the presence of liquid water. Since the first orbiting spacecraft, Mariner 9, surveyed the planet in the early 1970s, we have known that the Mars polar caps are composed in part of ice, and we have seen large channels cut by water that flowed on the surface billions of years ago. Two of the most important recent discoveries on Mars were “gullies” that indicate much more recent surface flows, less than a million years old, and the evidence from rovers on the surface that shallow ponds or seas of salty water must have once existed, although they may have been transient. However, all these indications of surface water are old – whether the age is measured in millions or billions of years. Now, in what looks to be one of the most important recent discoveries about Mars, we have photographic evidence that flows of liquid water have taken place in the past seven years! The change of perspective from billions or millions of years to something that happened in the twenty-first century could be profound.
-
NAI Scientists Successfully Drill into Subglacial Lake
Last month, scientists from NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team, in collaboration with Icelandic research institutes, successfully drilled into and sampled a lake deep beneath a glacier in Iceland. The lake and other subglacial lakes are the focus of studies of life in “extreme environments,” and may resemble potential habitats on Mars and icy satellites in the outer Solar System
- 2008 aas abiogenic abscicon aerobic akila akilia island algae allan hills alpha centauri alvin amase american astronomical society amino acids anaerobic antarctica antartica antennas archaea archea archean arctic area 9 aromatic astrobiology drilling program astrobiology journal astrobiotechnology astrochemistry astronaut astronomical journal astrophysical journal astrophysical journal letters atacama atlantis atmosphere atmospheric chemistry australia australian centre for astrobiology auv awards axis bacteria bacteriorhodopsin binaries biofilms biomarkers biome biosignatures books britian brown dwarfs cambrian canada canyon canyons carbonate rocks carbonates carbon dioxide cassini cells chemostratigraphy chile chimpanzee china chip chiral citations cnn collaborative technology colors comet comets comics complex life conference core accretion cyanobacteria dance data databases ddf depthx director diversity dna dolphin drilling dust dwarf star ea early earth early mars earth earth and planetary science letters earth and planetary science letters (journal) education electronic arts enceladus encyclopedia of life endourance endurance england enzyme enzymes erosion esa ethane eukaryotes europa evolution evolution and environment exobiology exoplanet exoplanets expose express extremeophiles extremephiles extremophiles fiction flood fossils frogs funding fungi fuse future of life galileo games ganymede gas gas giants geobiology (journal) geology (journal) geysers giant planets glacier glaciers great oxidation even great oxidation event greenland gsfc guerrero negro habitability habitable planets habitable zone habitablity in the universe hadean hawaii hawaii team high angular resolution homochirality hubble human hydrocarbons hydrogen hydrogen peroxide hydrogen sulfide hydrothermal vent hydrothermal vents hyperion hyperthermophilic ice iceland idaho information technology instruments international space station iron isotope isotopes iss jack hills journal:earth journal: journal of geophysical research journal of bacteriology journal of the american chemical society jpl jupiter kepler laboratory lakes lassen left-handed lefty life and environment life elsewhere in the universe life in our solar system lipids liquid magnet magnets maps marine ecology mars mars express mars global surveyor mars orbiter mars reconnaissance orbiter mars rovers martian atmosphere martian oceans mass extinctions m dwarf stars membranes mercury messenger meteorites meteors meterite meterorites methane methanogen mexico microbes microbialite microbialites microbial life microbial mats microbiology microlensing microscopy mirs missions mojave molecular biology and evolution (journal) molybdenum moon moon and planets moons mro m star m stars murchison music nai arc team nai asu team nai berkeley team nai cal team nai ciw team nai cub team nai gsfc team nai har team nai hawaii team nai iptai team nai mbl team nai minority institution research support nai mit team nai montana team nai msu team nai postdoctoral fellow nai psu team nai seti team nai ua team nai ucb team nai ucla team nai uh team nai uri team nai uw team nai virus focus group nai vpl at jpl nai vpl at jpl team nai vpl at uw team nai wisconsin team nanoparticles nasa arc nasa jpl nasa tv nature (journal) near near earth asteroid rendezvous neoproterozoic neteritics and planetary science (journal) new horizons new york times nitrogen fixation npr nucleic acids obituary ocean ocean-bottom ocean drilling program oceans odyssey opportunity origin of life origins of life oven ovens oxygen ozone pah paleoproterozoic parachute pavilion lake pbs perchlorate permafrost permian philosophy phoenix phoenix mission phosphorus photosynthesis planetary protection planet formation planet migration planets plankton plants pnas poles poster pre–main‐sequence precambrian precambrian research (journal) primer probe proceedings of the national academy of sciences (journal) prokaryotes propane proteins proteobacteria proterozoic protoplanetary disk pyruvic acid quartet radio raman spectroscopy reptiles rio tinto rise of oxygen robatic robot robotic robotics robots rover rovers rrna salt samples saturn science (journal) scientific american (journal) second life segan medal serpentinization shoemaker signatures of life sinkhole snowball earth soil solar panel south africa space shuttle space telescope science institute spitzer space telescope spore stardust sterols subsurface sulfate reduction sulfides sulfur sun super earths supergiant star tega teraforming terrestrial terrestrial planet formation terrestrial planets thermal and evolved-gas analyzer thermometer time titan titanium tweets twitter uk underwater united kingdom vegetation venus video viking viruses volcanoes voyager wall street journal water web 2.0 website websites wet-chemistry workbook yeast yellowstone zircon zircons zoe