"What is the latest thinking regarding the origin of life on Earth? Is Panspermia considered seriously by the astrobiology community? "
-
Earlier Evolution of Oxygenic Photosynthesis - Surviving Snowball Earth
Roger Buick from NAI’s University of Washington Team and his colleagues report in the current issue of Geology their analysis of oil-bearing fluid inclusions in 2.45 billion year old rocks from Canada. They assert that the oil is derived from an overlying formation, becoming trapped in the host rock before 2.2 billion years ago – prior to the Great Oxidation Event. Abundant biomarkers for cyanobacteria and eukaryotes were identified in the study, suggesting that aqueous environments at the time had become sufficiently oxygenated for sterol biosynthesis to occur, and implying that organisms had the ability to survive “snowball Earth” glaciations.
Source: [Link]
- NASA Chooses MAVEN as the Next Mars Scout Mission
- NASA's Carl Sagan Fellows to Study Extraterrestrial Worlds
- Looking for Life on Mars – in a Canadian Lake
- Mars Research in Polar Bear Country
- Iron Isotope Record Reflects Microbial Metabolism Through Time
- Silicate Mineralogy on Mars Indicates Wet Past
- Jack Hills Zircons: New Information About Earth's Earliest Crust
- ASTID Funds 15 New Projects
- Liquid Water in the Martian North? Maybe.
- Astrobiology Rap