NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

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   Project Investigators: Margaret Tolbert, Owen Toon

   Other Project Members

   Helen DeWitt (Doctoral Student)

   Melissa Trainer (Research Staff)

   Richard Urata (Doctoral Student)

   Kaj Williams (Doctoral Student)

   Raina Gough (Doctoral Student)

   Adrienne Dove (Doctoral Student)

   Eric Wolf (Doctoral Student)

   Summary

   Our goals are to understand the origin of life on early Earth by using Titan and Mars as analogs, and to provide clues to the environments on Mars where life might be hidden.

   Astrobiology Roadmap Objectives:

   • Objective 1.1: Models of formation and evolution of habitable planets
   • Objective 2.1: Mars exploration
   • Objective 2.2: Outer Solar System exploration
   • Objective 3.1: Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts
   • Objective 4.1: Earth's early biosphere

   Project Progress

   Mission Involvement

   Cassini

   We have made use of Cassini data to better determine the properties of Titan aerosols

   Cross-Team Collaborations

   We interact extensively with Alex Pavlov-U. Arizona, Chris Mckay and Jan Heldmann-Ames, and Jim Kasting-Penn State. We have co-authored papers with Alex, Chris and Jen. We are co-developing models with Alex, Chris and Jim. Alex, chris and Jim have made suggestions for lab measurements.

Publications

Curtis, D., Hatch, C., Hasenkopf, C.A., Toon, O.B., Tolbert, M.A., McKay, C.P. & Khare, B.N.  (2008).  Laboratory studies of methane and ethane adsorption and nucleation onto organic particles:Application to Titan’s clouds.  Icarus, 195(2):792-801.