Moon Samples Found to Contain Water

Using new techniques, scientists from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team have discovered for the first time that tiny beads of volcanic glasses collected from two Apollo missions to the Moon contain water. The researchers found that, contrary to previous thought, water was not entirely vaporized in the violent events that formed the Moon. The new study suggests that the water came from the Moon’s interior and was delivered to the surface...

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July 18, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Deep-sea Discoveries on Expedition Using ASTEP AUVs

The June 26 issue of Nature features a report on the results of underwater research conducted with a pair of NASA Astrobiology-sponsored robotic explorers.

Two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), called Jaguar and Puma, funded by the Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program, were deployed on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI’s) Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE). The AGAVE team traveled to...

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July 8, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings

Seafloor Microbes Abundant and Thriving....An Alternative Cradle for Life?

Researchers from NAI’s Marine Biological Laboratory Team continue their study of the deep biosphere, reporting the latest results in this week’s Nature. This new study reveals that bacterial communities dwelling on ocean-bottom rocks are more abundant and diverse than previously thought, especially relative to the overlying water column. The microbes appear to “feed” on the oceanic crust through seawater–rock alteration reactions...

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May 28, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Wandering Poles on Europa

A new study in the May 15th issue of Nature from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team reveals that Europa’s poles may not have always been located in the same place. Using images from three NASA spacecraft, Voyager, Galileo, and New Horizons, the study mapped surface features on Europa and matched them with a pattern predicted if Europa had experienced an episode of ~80 degree true polar wander. ...

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May 22, 2008 / Written by: Daniella Scalice

Molybdenum and the Rise of Complex Life

Researchers from NASA’s Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program have found a potential link between the presence of the element molybdenum in the ancient oceans on Earth and the expansion of complex life. Using molybdenum in ancient rocks as a proxy for the oxidation state of the early oceans, Clint Scott and Tim Lyons of the University of California-Riverside, Andrey Bekker of the University of Manitoba, and Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University found a period in time when...

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April 1, 2008 / Written by: Daniella Scalice

Methane and Water Vapor Observed in Atmosphere of Exoplanet

Former NAI Postdoctoral Fellow Giovanna Tinetti is co-author on a groundbreaking paper in this week’s Nature detailing the observation of methane and water vapor in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b. The team used the NASA Hubble Space Telescope to observe the transiting exoplanet, using the NICMOS camera to obtain a spectrophotometric time series. This result is a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe, most importantly because it...

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March 25, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Oxygen in Earth's Early Atmosphere

Researchers from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team have a paper in this week’s Nature describing evidence that Earth’s Mesoarchean atmosphere (3.2 and 2.8 Gya) possessed very low amounts oxygen. These findings contrast with prior claims that Earth’s atmosphere underwent its first rise in oxygen during the Mesoarchean, and indicate that oxygen first rose above parts per million levels sometime between 2.45 and 2.4 billion years ago.

October 10, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Martian Ice Ages

Norbert Schorghofer of NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team has a new paper in this week’s Nature describing a climate model he developed which accounts for the advance and retreat of the subsurface martian ice layers. The model reveals forty major ice ages over the past five million years, and explains the present distribution of subsurface ice on Mars. His findings outline expectations of ice stratigraphy at the NASA Mars Phoenix Mission’s landing site.

September 12, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

The Encyclopedia of Life

This week’s issue of Nature features an interview with David “Paddy” Paddington of NAI’s Marine Biological Laboratory Team discussing his involvement with the Encyclopedia of Life project. Debuting in early 2008, the EOL will be a living catalogue of biodiversity, with one webpage for each of Earth’s 1.8 million species.

September 9, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Water Vapor Observed in Young Star System

NAI Postdoctoral Fellow Elise Furlan from NAI’s UCLA Team is co-author on a new paper in Nature this week reporting the development of a protoplanetary disk. Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, observations were made of water vapor within the emerging system’s natal cloud. Lead author Dan Watson of the University of Rochester said, “For the first time, we are seeing water being delivered to the region where planets will most likely form.”

August 30, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Subaerial Volcanoes Shift Oxygen Levels on Early Earth

Biomarkers in rocks prior to the rise in Earth’s atmospheric oxygen 2.5 billion years ago show cyanobacteria released oxygen at the same levels as today. What was happening to that oxygen? A new paper in this week’s Nature from NAI’s Penn State Team proposes that the rise of atmospheric oxygen occurred because the predominant sink for oxygen—enhanced submarine volcanism—was abruptly and permanently diminished during the Archaean–Proterozoic transition by a shift from predominantly submarine volcanism to a mix of subaerial...

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August 30, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

New Enzymes in the Laboratory

A new paper in Nature this week from NAI’s NASA Ames Research Center Team describes a new technique they’ve developed through which completely new enzymes can be evolved in the laboratory. The process does not require prior understanding of how the enzymes will work, but uses product formation as the sole selection criterion.

August 16, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Water Vapor Detected on Extrasolar Planet

An international team of researchers including members of NAI’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team have, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, detected the presence of water vapor on the hot jupiter HD 189733b. Published in this week’s Nature, the study’s primary author, Giovanna Tinetti, was a 2003 NAI Postdoctoral Fellow.

July 10, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Chemical Complexity in an Old Star

Scientists from NAI’s University of Arizona Team have studied the outflow of VY Canis Majoris, an oxygen-rich supergiant star. Thier results show that, against expectations, an old, oxygen-rich star can synthesize a chemically varied molecular cocktail. The study is published in this week’s Nature, and a News and Views about the paper is also available.

June 27, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Evidence for Ancient Ocean on Mars

Scientists from NAI’s University of California, Berkeley Team have a new paper out in Nature outlining evidence for the presence of an ancient ocean on Mars. The study points to a large body of liquid water at the pole which could have shifted Mars’ spin axis. This shift would have in turn deformed the shoreline of this ocean relative to the rest of the surface topography, in accordance with observations.

June 13, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Spectra of Two Extrasolar Planets

Researchers from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Teams have a new paper in Nature describing the infrared spectrum of exoplanet HD 209458b as obtained by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. Scientists from NAI’s University of Arizona and Alumni Virtual Planetary Laboratory Teams are contributing authors on a similar paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters which details the spectrum of exoplanet HD 189733b. Both sets of results show relatively flat spectra, with...

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February 25, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Earth's Ancient Atmosphere: the Rise of Oxygen

Most geologists agree that Earth’s atmosphere was oxygen-free until 2.4 billion years ago. But the latest research from NAI’s Pennsylvania State University team provides new evidence for alternative viewpoints. Ohmoto et al have published their latest results in this week’s Nature. Ohmoto’s team took samples from western Australia as a part of NAI’s Astrobiology Drilling Program.

August 23, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Akilia Revisited

Scientists from NAI’s UCLA and University of Colorado, Boulder Teams recently published their new geologic and geochemical analysis of the ancient rocks on Akilia Island in West Greenland which were the subject of a controversial Nature paper ten years ago. This new study includes a thorough geologic map of the area, and, using the ion-microprobe to analyze carbon inclusions in the rock, outlines a carbon isotopic ratio indicative of life’s signature. Their work appears in the current issue...

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July 24, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

B-Pictoris Debris Disk Rich in Carbon Gas

Using NASA’s FUSE spacecraft, scientists from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk surrounding the young star Beta Pictoris. While planets may have already formed, the prevalence of carbon gas in the disk indicates that the planets could be carbon-rich worlds of graphite and methane, potentially resembling the early conditions of our own Solar System. The authors suggest that either carbon-rich asteroids or comets, unlike any in...

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June 13, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Biodiversity Rocks the Cover of Nature

The cover of this week’s Nature belongs to Abigail Allwood of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, one of NAI’s International Partners. She and her colleagues put forward the latest research on the ancient rocks of the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which points to evidence of life on Earth 3.43 billion years ago. Their description of a shallow marine environment, and identification of seven stromatolite morphotypes makes a strong argument for early life. NAI supported Allwood’s work with...

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June 6, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

A Deeper Look into the Watery Plumes of Enceladus

NASA astrobiologists are hard at work examining the nature of the plumes of water vapor recently discovered on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. If a new geological theory about the plumes, published in this week’s Nature, proves to be correct, it would preclude the existence of a subsurface ocean on the moon. The theory is testable with existing data from NASA’s Cassini mission…

June 4, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

A History of Venom

Scientists on NAI’s Pennsylvania State University Team published new findings recently in Nature demonstrating a single early origin of the venom system in snakes and lizards. Their molecular biology and toxinological analyses show that the snakes, iguanians and anguimorphs form a single clade, pointing toward the proposed common origin.

May 2, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Life in the Landscape?

A review article in Nature this week from scientists on NAI’s University of California, Berkeley Lead Team examines the idea of the influence of life on topography. The authors call for a need to explore how small scale biotic processes can influence an entire landscape, and whether the resulting topography is distinct.

January 29, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Alternative Model for Diagenesis of Meridiani Bedrock

Tom McCollom of NAI’s University of Colorado Lead Team and his co-author Brian Hynek published the details of their alternative model today in Nature. The scenario does not require prolonged interaction with a standing body of surface water, and describes an environment less favorable to biological activity on Mars.

December 20, 2005 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Rise in Earth's Oxygen Levels

David Des Marais from NAI’s NASA Ames Research Center Lead Team recently published a News and Views article in Nature. In it, he discusses a microbial “footprint” which bolsters geological data explaining the long term rise in Earth’s oxygen levels two billion years ago.

October 11, 2005 / Posted by: Shige Abe

A Solar Analogue Explored

Astronomers from NAI’s Lead Teams at UCLA and the Carnegie Institution of Washington describe in this week’s issue of Nature their observations of large quantities of warm dust debris surrounding a Sun-like star some 300 light years from Earth. The dust is orbiting close to the star, and is similar in composition to dust in the Solar System. The composition and quantity of the dust may indicate massive and/or frequent collisions of large objects, perhaps similar to the...

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July 20, 2005 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Characterizing the Early Solar Nebula

A recent Nature paper from Jim Lyons and Ed Young of NAI’s UCLA Lead Team postulates a cause for oxygen isotope anomalies in meteorites that overthrows a long accepted explanation. They propose CO photodissociation due to a far ultraviolet flux caused by a nearby O or B star as a mechanism to produce the isotope fractionation that is consistent with the anomalies observed in the meteorites. The postulated presence of a nearby second star (within one parsec) means...

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July 7, 2005 / Posted by: Shige Abe