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Content with the tag: “mars”
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Elemental Evolution
Ariel Anbar of NAI’s ASU Team share his thoughts on fossils, Star Trek, and life on Mars with May Copsey of RSC Publishing...
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Alien Safari Part 6: Generations
At the most recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference, a panel of scientists discussed different types of planets where we might find alien life. In part six of this series, the panelists answer audience questions about the origin and evolution of life elsewhere.
Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
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Carbonate Conundrum
NASA’s Phoenix lander mission is now over, and scientists are analyzing the data collected from its various experiments. Phoenix’s discovery of carbonates in the frozen northern soil of Mars indicates the area once could have had liquid water. However, there is no way to tell if the carbonates formed locally, or if they came from somewhere else on the planet and blew in with the wind.Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
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A Divining Rod for Mars
Mars may have water underground but exactly where it is located is not known. An instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory will use neutrons to help spy for the water.
Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
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Shooting Life on Mars
Using a highly sensitive laser, scientists have developed a new method to search for evidence for life in martian minerals. The technique reduces the risk of contamination and can detect incredibly low concentrations of biomolecules. With funding from NASA’s Astrobiology program, the researchers have done previous studies showing that minerals like halite and jarosite yield distinct ion patterns when organic molecules are present. This time, they tried thenardite,...Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
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The Sun is Setting on Phoenix
NASA’s Phoenix Lander is continuing to analyze the soil of Mars, providing further indications that liquid water was present at the surface. This is the first step in determining if Mars was once habitable for life as we know it.
Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
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Phoenix Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended
Laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.
“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”
With enticing results so far and...
Source: [NASA Press Release]
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Astrobiologist Eigenbrode profiled in Goddard Tech Trends
Astrobiologist Jennifer Eigenbrode is profiled in the latest issue of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Goddard Tech Trends (Vol. 4, #4, summer 2008), published by the Office of the Chief Technologist.
Eigenbrode is a biogeochemist and an expert at detecting organic compounds in rocks. She is a member of the Goddard team that is building the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.
SAM’s instruments will analyze martian soil and rock samples with the aim...
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Phoenix Scrapes 'Almost Perfect' Icy Soil For Analysis
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander enlarged the “Snow White” trench and scraped up little piles of icy soil on Saturday, June 28, the 33rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Scientists say that the scrapings are ideal for the lander’s analytical instruments.
The robotic arm on Phoenix used the blade on its scoop to make 50 scrapes in the icy layer buried under subsurface soil. The robotic arm then heaped the scrapings into a few 10- to 20-cubic centimeter piles, or piles each containing between two and four teaspoonfuls. Scraping created a grid about...
Source: [Link]
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Phoenix Returns Treasure Trove for Science
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander performed its first wet chemistry experiment on Martian soil flawlessly yesterday, returning a wealth of data that for Phoenix scientists was like winning the lottery.
“We are awash in chemistry data,” said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, instrument on Phoenix. “We’re trying to understand what is the chemistry of wet soil on Mars, what’s dissolved in it, how acidic or alkaline it is. With the results we received from Phoenix yesterday, we could begin to tell what aspects of the soil...
Source: [Link]
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Can the Martian Arctic Support Extreme Life?
ABC.com features NASA’s Phoenix lander and the search for life on Mars in a new article on their Technology and Science website. Harkening back to Viking, and citing new discoveries of microbes in Greenland’s glaciers, the article focuses on the need to understand the microbiology of Earth’s extreme environments in order to best search for life on other planets.
Source: [ABC]
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Phoenix Shake and Bake
In this interview, William Boynton talks about the TEGA instrument on the Phoenix Lander, and explains what it can tell us about the possibility for life on Mars.
Source: [Link]
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Bright Chunks At Phoenix Lander's Mars Site Must Have Been Ice
Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.
“It must be ice,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that.”
The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called “Dodo-Goldilocks” when...
Source: [Link]
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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Inspects Delivered Soil Samples
New observations from NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander provide the most magnified view ever seen of Martian soil, showing particles clumping together even at the smallest visible scale.
Source: [Phoenix Mission]
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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Delivers Soil Sample To Microscope
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander sprinkled a spoonful of Martian soil Wednesday onto the sample wheel of the spacecraft’s robotic microscope station, images received early Thursday confirmed.
“It looks like a light dusting and that’s just what we wanted. The Robotic Arm team did a great job,” said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He is the lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument on Phoenix.
The delivery of scooped-up soil for inspection by the lander’s Optical Microscope, a component of MECA, marks the second success in consecutive days for...
Source: [Phoenix Mission]
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NASA's Phoenix Lander Has an Oven Full of Martian Soil
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven with Martian soil.
“We have an oven full,” Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said today. “It took 10 seconds to fill the oven. The ground moved.”
Boynton leads the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument, or TEGA, for Phoenix. The instrument has eight separate tiny ovens to bake and sniff the soil to assess its volatile ingredients, such as water.
The lander’s Robotic Arm delivered a partial scoopful of clumpy soil from a trench informally called “Baby Bear” to the number 4 oven on TEGA last Friday,...
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Sprinkle to Taste
Phoenix was unable to chew on the clumpy martian soil, so the team operating the Lander plans to sprinkle the soil instead. The spoonful of soil will fall onto a wheel, which will then rotate the sample so the Lander’s eagle eye — the Optical Microscope — can see it.Source: [Link]
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Making Sense of Mars Methane
Research on methane at a Mexican salt flat could help reveal the source of methane that has been detected in the atmosphere of Mars. But first scientists have to decipher the unique – and seemingly contradictory – isotopic signature of the Mexican methane.
Source: [Link]
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Phoenix Links for May 29th
The NASA Phoenix Mars Lander link round-up for May 29, 2008:
Another Phoenix Descent Photo. This one is even sharper with a large crater in the background.
Signal From Mars Is Restored [New York Times]
Listen to Mars Phoenix descend! Courtesy of ESA’s Mars Express
IBM RAD6000 About the onboard computer on the Phoenix lander and numerous other NASA spacecraft. It has a clock-speed of “only” 33 MHz!
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Phoenix Lander Link Round-up
The NASA Phoenix Mars Lander link round-up for May 28, 2008:
Orbiter Relays Second-Day Information From NASA Mars Lander From JPL.
Mars Phoenix Mission: Meet the Arm An interview with Honeybee Robotic’s Project Engineer, Dustin Roberts about the Phoenix Lander’s sampling arm. [YouTube]
Phoenix Mars Mission: Entry, Descent and Landing From NASA TV on YouTube.
Mars Phoenix Lander In Second Life A short video of the Mars Lander in Second Life. [YouTube]
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Erosion on Earth and Mars: Mere Seepage or Megaflood?
Researchers from NAI’s University of California, Berkeley Team have a new study in this week’s Science focused on Box Canyon in Idaho. Incised into a basaltic plain with no drainage network upstream, and approximately 10 cubic meters per second of seepage emanating from its vertical headwall, the canyon is a veritable poster child of groundwater seepage erosion. But this new study posits evidence that the canyon’s formation was caused rather by catastrophic megaflood 45,000 years ago. Their results imply that flooding of this kind may have caused similar features...
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MRO Snaps Phoenix
Sure, it just looks like a picture of two little white dots and a line on a mottled gray background. But it’s actually one of the most amazing photographs ever taken.As NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft made its descent through the martian atmosphere on Sunday, May 25, another spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), orbiting high above, snapped this image of Phoenix suspended beneath its 40-foot-wide parachute. At the time, Phoenix was hurtling through the martian atmosphere at about 250 miles per hour; MRO was traveling at more than 7500 mph. The two...
Source: [Link]
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Inside NASA's Mars Mission
Wired published an annotated photo gallery entitled Inside NASA’s Mars Mission with images of the giant antennas that will receive signals from the NASA Phoenix Lander. There are also photographs of Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Phoenix lands on May 25, 2008.
Source: [Wired]
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Rendezvous with Mars
NASA’s Phoenix lander is less than a week from touch down in the frozen northern wastes of Mars, where it will search for signs that, in the planet’s recent past, the region may have been habitable.
Phoenix is the first mission to target Mars’ northern polar region. NASA’s Mars Polar Lander (MPL), launched in 1999 toward the planet’s southern pole, crashed upon landing.
The two Vikings missions, Pathfinder, Opportunity and Spirit all landed “in the dry regions of the equatorial zone,” said Peter Smith, a research scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson and principal investigator for the Phoenix mission....
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Is There Life on Mars? Ask a Magnet.
Between three and four billion years ago, Mars was a lot like Earth. Both planets are believed to have had surface water. Those similarities make it a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life. “The assumption is that if bacterial life emerged on Earth at that time, then why not on Mars?” says Soon Sam Kim, principal member of technical staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Mars may also have had a magnetic field much like the one on Earth. Kim believes...
Source: [Link]
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AbSciCon '08: The Astrobiology Universe
The opening speaker at the 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon), Lord Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge, said that our universe may just be one of many. Multiple universes could be stacked sideways like sheets of paper, separated by only a thin margin of space. We would never know they were there unless we could be awakened to the existence of that other dimension.
This could have been the theme of the conference. Every morning and afternoon, nine separate talks were given simultaneously, often just separated by thin walls through...
Source: [Link]
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New Mineral Points the Way for Search for Life on Mars
NASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter science team has located numerous sites in the southern highlands on Mars that show spectral characteristics consistent with chloride minerals. Many of these mineral deposits lie in basins with channels leading to them, implying long term water flow. The team dates the deposits at roughly 3.5-3.9 billion years ago. Because salt deposits can be seen as a proxy for water, and salt on Earth is a remarkable preservative, this new research suggests an alternative mineral target to explore for biological remains.
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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 the northern tip of Norway and the northern polar ice cap. It is an inviting destination for astrobiology researchers because...
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MISSes on Mars? Let’s look
The January 2008 issue of the journal Geobiology is dedicated to the subject of microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISSes), a topic of interest in astrobiology. Nora Noffke, a Principal Investigator in the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program, is guest editor of this special issue.
Noffke is an associate professor in the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Noffke’s research interests include, in addition to astrobiology, the biosedimentary dynamics of siliciclastic marine environments and the co-evolution of sedimentary systems and benthic bacteria. She is studying ancient fossil MISSes at a...
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The First Astrobiologist Astronaut?
Kim Binstead from NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team, just back from a Mars Society-sponsored simulated mission to Mars in the Canadian High Arctic, says she plans to respond to NASA’s recent call for astronaut candidates. Good Luck Kim!
Source: [Link]
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Astrobiology in the Comics
Today’s “Prickly City” comic strip features the work of Norbert Schorghofer of NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team. Apparently, understanding the history of ice ages on Mars doesn’t have a positive effect!
Source: [Link]
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Astrobiotechnology Chip Successfully Launched
Andrew Steele of NAI’s CIW Team, a leader in astrobiotechnology for many years, is behind this current experiment, called the “Life Marker Chip.” A collection of immunoassays which have the potential to detect trace levels of biomarkers in the Martian environment, it launched earlier this week on ESA’s BIOPAN 6 experiment platform. The craft will spend 12 days in orbit, during which time the onboard experiments, including the Chip, will be exposed to microgravity.
Source: [Link]
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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.
Source: [Link]
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MISSIONS - Phoenix Takes Flight
NASA’s Phoenix lander heads for Mars’s frozen north.
Phoenix is on its way to Mars. The latest spacecraft in NASA’s program of Mars exploration launched from Cape Canaveral on August 4 of this year, and is scheduled to land in the planet’s northern polar region on May 25, 2008. Its findings will help scientists answer a critical question about the Red Planet: was it ever habitable?
Phoenix is in many ways similar to the two Viking landers sent to Mars by NASA in the 1970s. Like Viking, Phoenix will stay put once it lands. And like Viking,...
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Phoenix Prepares for Flight
Scheduled for launch in August 2007, the Phoenix Mars Mission is designed to study the history of water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic’s ice-rich soil. A new teaser animation about the mission is available – click here to view it.
Source: [Link]
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Methane in the Martian Atmosphere
Scientists from NAI’s IPTAI Team have a paper out in Geophysical Research Letters detailing a new mechanism for recent methane release on Mars. Their results show that increasing salinity can cause destabilization of subsurface methane hydrates, and that active thermal or pressure fluctuations are not required to account for the presence of methane in the atmosphere.
Source: [Link]
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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.
Source: [Link]
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MISSIONS - Martian Clay
For the past two years, NASA’s stalwart rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have stolen most of the Mars headlines. In particular, the discovery by Opportunity of sulfate minerals on Mars confirmed what many scientists had suspected, that Mars, although now thoroughly dried out, had a watery past.
But another spacecraft, Mars Express, sent into orbit two years ago by the European Space Agency (ESA), has been expanding our understanding the history of water on Mars. Onboard Mars Express is an instrument known as OMEGA, which has been searching the planet’s surface for signs of water-bearing minerals. Like Opportunity,...
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An Update from "Mars"
EVA continues at the Mars Desert Research Station where graduate student Irene Schneider from the NAI Penn State team is currently on expedition: “Biology: Encountered pond with trees on second stop, unique flower sample collected. Geology: First stop discovered small alcove in Morrison formation about 15 feet deep. Second stop yielded lake discussed above. Third stop found about 3 petrified tree stumps on ridge. Petrified wood and conglomerate samples collected. Astronomy: attempted but due to high winds and clouds was aborted. Medicine: none.”
Source: [Link]
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Extreme Life in China's Deserts
Searching for clues to the potential for life on Mars, NASA astrobiologists recently explored microbial communities in China’s northwest region-some of the world’s oldest, driest and most remote deserts. They found evidence suggesting that conditions there may be similar to those in certain regions of Mars. The study was funded in part by Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP).
Source: [Link]
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NAI Graduate Student Selected to Help Plan for Future Mars EVA
NAI graduate student Irene Schneider from Penn State has been selected by NASA/Mars Society as crew physicist for the upcoming expedition 61 for the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). MDRS Crew 61 is a two week mission simulation where NASA, in collaboration with The Mars Society, simulates future manned missions to Mars. There she will be developing and helping implement the first Extra-Vehicular Activity emergency radiation protocols.
Source: [Link]
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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.
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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
Source: [Link]
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Arctic, Antarctic, Mars
The city of Hammerfest lies at the northern tip of Norway, well above the Arctic Circle. If you board a ship heading north from there, just before you reach the polar ice cap you run into a group of islands known as the Svalbard archipelago.
For the past two summers, a group of scientists has traveled to the largest of these islands to study an environment that sheds light on a notorious meteorite, discovered at the opposite end of the Earth, in Antarctica.
The meteorite, ALH84001, began as a rather unremarkable piece of volcanic rock that formed about 4.5 billion...
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Chemical Energy for Life on Early Earth and Mars
Researchers from NAI’s NASA Ames Research Center and University of Colorado, Boulder Teams published in the current issue of Astrobiology their study of the petrology and mineral chemistry of a cold spring in Northern California. They propose that the serpentinization process can provide a source of energy for chemosynthetic organisms, and outline criteria to aid in the identification of serpentinizing terranes on Mars.
Source: [Link]
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Abiogenic Explanation for Methane on Mars
Researchers from NAI’s Indiana Princeton Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative Team published their theory on the origin of the detected atmospheric methane on Mars in the current issue of Astrobiology. Measurements of deep fracture water samples from South Africa led to a model which distinguishes between abiogenic and microbial methane sources based upon their isotopic composition, and couples microbial methane production to molecular hydrogen generation by water radiolysis. The authors also propose an instrument for future missions to Mars which, with measurements over time, could distinguish mechanisms for methane emissions.
Source: [Link]
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Imaging the Unseen
Researchers from NAI’s University of California, Los Angeles Team have pioneered a new imaging technique which allows them to non-destructively produce 3D images of ancient fossils. The technique, combining confocal microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, could be used on samples returned from Mars by future NASA missions. Their work on 650 million year old fossils from Kazakhstan is published in the February, 2006 issue of Astrobiology.
Source: [Link]
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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.
Source: [Link]
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Mars Rover Opportunity and Rio Tinto
NAI Affiliate Members at the Centro de Astrobiologia, and others have one of eight research articles focusing on Opportunity in this month’s Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The paper explores the relationship between Meridiani and Rio Tinto, specifically how studying the river can help facilitate an understanding of Meridiani mineral precipitation and diagenesis, as well as astrobiological implications.
Source: [Link]
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Living on Mars Time
When NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover-A, more affectionately known as “Spirit,” touches down in Gusev Crater, it will be approximately 8:30 PM, January 3rd, 2004, at mission control. That’s Pacific Standard Time (PST), because mission control is located on the grounds of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California.
When time is the topic, however, Pacific Standard tells only part of Spirit’s story. Scientists and engineers will also be keeping track of UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), more commonly known as Greenwich Mean Time. UTC is the basis of official timekeeping all over...
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Finding Life in Mars Analog Sites on Earth
Andrew Steel of the NAI Carnegie Team and other scientists have recently tested life-detection instruments designed for Mars at the Arctic Mars Analog site in a Norwegian volcano. In a press release, Hans Amundsen of the University of Oslo said “The instruments detected both living and fossilized organisms, which is the kind of evidence we’d be searching for on the Red Planet.” One instrument, designed by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), detected “minute quantities of aromatic hydrocarbons from microorganisms and lichens present in the rocks and ice,” said JPL researcher Arthur Lonne Lane. One goal...
Source: [Link]
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Digging in the Dirt on Mars
The following report is based on a short paper “The Enigma of the Martian Soil” by Amos Banin of the NAI SETI Institute Team, published in Science.
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Preparing for TPF: Disk-Averaged Synthetic Spectra of Mars
In this month’s issue of Astrobiology, members of NAI’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team published a study using their model of a Mars-like planet to ascertain the detectability of a planet’s surface and atmospheric properties from disk-averaged spectra.
Source: [Link]
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Robot Astrobiology Rover
NAI astrobiologists are involved in developing a prototype robotic astrobiologist to explore the driest desert on Earth, in preparation for later flights to Mars. This Astrobiology Magazine story is based on a news release from Carnegie Mellon University.
Source: [Link]
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What Yellowstone Teaches Us about Ancient Mars
NAI scientists study Yellowstone National park as an analog for thermal areas that probably existed on Mars long ago. This SPACE.com article by Leonard David also tells how visitors to the park are learning about astrobiology.
Source: [Link]
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The Enigma of the Martian Soil
Amos Banin from NAI’s SETI Institute Team discusses the state of knowledge about the Martian soil in this week’s Science “Perspectives.” He looks specifically at information gained from past missions, and the role water processing may have played in soil formation.
Source: [Link]
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A Cause for Methane on Mars
Members of NAI’s UCLA Lead Team published a paper in this month’s Geophysical Research Letters describing how hydrothermal fluid processes driven by a small subsurface magmatic intrusion can produce methane on Mars.
Source: [Link]
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Wading in Martian Water
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has been orbiting Mars for over a year. While the high resolution images of the planet’s many craters, volcanoes, and other features get the most notice, the spacecraft’s seven instruments have also gathered large amounts of data about the planet’s atmosphere, geology, and chemistry. Bernard Foing, ESA Chief Scientist, provides on overview of the most notable discoveries made during Europe’s first trip to the Red Planet.
Source: [Link]
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Could Impacts Have Caused Flooding on Mars?
NAI scientists on the University of California, Berkeley team describe, in a recent issue of Icarus, how meteoritic impacts on Mars may have caused Earth-like saturated soil liquefaction and potentially enabled violent groundwater eruption. Enough water, they say, could have been erupted to produce floods and outflow channels.
Source: [Link]
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Carbonated Mars
Here on Earth the only way to make carbonate rocks is with the aid of liquid water. Finding such rocks on Mars might prove, once and for all, that the barren Red Planet was once warm and wet.
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Seeing Mars Through a Test Tube
By recreating the Martian surface in the laboratory, NASA scientists may have begun to answer two questions: why the Martian surface is so red, and why organic life has not yet been found there.
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Mars Ocean Hypothesis Hits the Shore
Photographs of the Martian surface find no sign of a sea cliff along a possible ancient shoreline.
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The Greening of the Red Planet
A hardy microbe from Earth may one day transform the barren ground of Mars into arable soil.
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Thawing Mars
Greenhouse gases might one day be used to warm the cold surface of Mars, and make the planet habitable for humans.
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Martian Micromagnets
The Allan Hills meteorite from Mars is peppered with tiny magnetic crystals that on our planet are made only by bacteria.
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Evidence Of Martian Land Of Lakes Discovered
Layers of sedimentary rock paint a portrait of an ancient Mars that may have featured numerous lakes and shallow seas.
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New Images Suggest Present-day Source of Liquid Water on Mars
Using data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, imaging scientists have observed features that suggest there may be current sources of liquid water at or near the surface of the red planet.
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The Case of the Missing Water
Did an ancient flood cover the northern lowlands? Mars Orbiter images give a front row seat.
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Back to the Surface: NASA’s 2003 Mission to Mars
Two Mars rovers, one in May and the other in June of 2003 will land six months later at different locations. Both take on the daunting task of probing for water clues.
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NASA Astrobiology Architect, Dr. Gerald Soffen, Remembered
NASA Scientist Dr. Gerald Soffen, who led the Viking science team that performed the first experiments on the surface of the planet Mars and a key architect of the Astrobiology Institute, is fondly remembered.
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Mars Lakes
A ‘young’ Martian lake would be at least half-billion years old, but Martian deltas might not seem as remote as the present day desert.
Untitled
Abiotic Nitrogen Cycling
Application of U-tube and fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor to characterize the chemical and physical properties of a deep permafrost and sub-permafrost environment at High Lake, Nunavut, Canada.
Biological potential of Mars
Breakdown of methane due to electric discharge: A Laboratory Investigation with Relevance to Mars
Characterization of Aqueous Processes on Mars Through Spectral Remote Sensing
Design, construction and testing of a Cavity-Ring Down Spectrometer for determination of the concentration and isotopic composition of methane
Ice Ages on Mars
Ice at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site
Iron, the Oxygen Transition, UV Shielding, and Photosynthesis
Isotopic Signatures of Methane and Higher Hydrocarbon Gases from Precambrian Shield Sites: A Model for Abiogenic Polymerization of Hydrocarbons
Mars Focus Group
Planetary-Scale Transition from Abiotic to Biotic Nitrogen Cycle
Production of mixed cation carbonates in abiologic and biologic systems
Stability of methane hydrates in the presence of high salinity brines on Mars
TES study of intracrater low albedo deposits, Amazonis Planitia, Mars
The High Lakes Project (HLP)
Water on Mars
- 16srrna 17p 79 ceti 85p 1999 1999 and 2000 2000 2008 aas abiogenic abiogenic methane abiotic abiotic synthesis abscicon abundances acid mine drainage acidophile activity adaptive optics adenosine triphosphate aerobic aerosol aerosols akila akilia island algae algal-sarcodine photosymbiotic relationships algal cultures alh84001 alien life allan hills alpha centauri altiplano alvin amase american astronomical society american type culture collection amino acid amino acids ammonia ammonia formation ammonium amorphization anaerobic analog environments ancient earth ancient pathways. andes and k content anoxia biomarker permian cambrian terrestrial paleosol oxygen archean proterozoic biogeochemistry extinction euxinia hydrogen sulfide sulfur bacteria anoxic environment anoxygenic photosynthesis antarctica antarctic endolithic communities antartic antartica antennas aqueous alteration archae archaea archaeoglobus archea archean arctic area 9 arid and semi-arid soils aromatic asap (astrobiology sample analysis program) aspartic acid asteroid asteroid 10537 (1991 ry16) asteroids asteroids--dynamics astid astrobiology astrobiology (journal) astrobiology drilling program astrobiology journal astrobiotechnology astrochemistry astronaut astronomical journal astrophysical journal astrophysical journal letters astrophysics atacama atacama desert atlantis atmosphere atmosphere escape atmosphere evolution atmospheric airglow atmospheric carbon dioxide atmospheric chemistry atmospheric evolution atmospheric formation atmospheric photochemistry atp-binding proteins australia australian centre for astrobiology autotrophic auv avhrr database awards axial volcano subsurface fluids axis bacteria bacterial metagenomes bacteriorhodopsin banded iron formations basaltic basaltic lava basalt tuff basalt weathering binaries binaries: spectroscopic bioastronomy biochemical adaption biochemistry bioenergetics biofilms biogenic mineral structure biogenic molecules biogeochemical cycles biogeochemistry biogeography biological biomarker biomarkers biome biomimetic synthesis biopan biosignature biosignatures biosphere biosphere-atmosphere interactions biosustaining energy bodonids boethin books borehole brine britian brown dwarfs burgess shale-type ca calcite calcite nano-fibers calcium cambrian canada canyon canyons carbon carbon-13 carbonaceous chondrite carbonate carbonate rocks carbonates carbon chemistry carbon cycle carbon dioxide carbon dioxide ice cargill salt company cassini catalysis catalytic cavity ring-down spectrometer cdna celestial mechanics celestial mechanics – methods: n-body simulations – planets and satellites: general – solar system: celestial mechanics. cells chelation chemical weathering chemin (chemical and mineralogical xrd/xrf instrument) chemoautotrophy chemolithoautotrophs chemostratigraphy chemosynthetic communities chemotrophs chile chimpanzee china chip chiral chirality chlamydomonad chlorophyll concentration chondritic meteorites chrysophyte chrysophytes circumstellar disks circumstellar dust. citations climate climate change climate model climate modeling climate models clouds cnn co-evolution co3 cold environments collaborative technology colors comet cometary comet recovery comets comet wild 2 comics community community software complex life complex organics composition compound specific isotopic analysis computational chemistry conference contamination continental core accretion cork observatories cosmic rays cosmochemistry countermeasures coupled models cryptoendolith. crystalline water ice curriculum cyanobacteria cycling d/h ratio dance darwin sequence analysis data data analysis database databases data processing techniques dawn ddf decoherence deep biosphere deep impact deep impact extended mission deep marine sediments deep subsurface biosphere deep terrestrial biosphere dehydratases dehydrogenases deinococci denitrifcation depthx desulfobulbus desulforhopalus detection methods: transit photometry deuterium deutertation devonian devon island dice dinosaurs director direct planet detection disk-averaged spectra. disk chemistry disks dissimilatory dissimilatory iron reduction distributed temperature sensor diversity dna dna. dna damage dna sequencing dolomite dolphin drilling dune dust dust flux dwarf star dynamical modeling dynamic global vegetation model dynamics e. coli ea early atmosphere early atmospheres early earth early earth geochemistry early evolution of life early life early mars early planetary system evolution early solar system earth earth’s early biosphere earth's early atmosphere earth's water earth-like planets earth and planetary science letters earth and planetary science letters (journal) earth evolution earth formation earthshine east pacific rise eclipsing ecogenomics ecosystem model edax education electric discharge electrochemistry electrocorrosion electronic arts element fractionation el ni�o embedded star formation enceladus encyclopedia of life endosymbiosis endourance endurance england environments enzyme enzymes eoarchean epimerases epoxi erosion esa ethane eubacteria eukaryote eukaryote evolution eukaryotes eukaryotic-specific primers eukaryotic microbial community europa evaporation evaporite evolution evolution and environment exo-planetary systems exobiology exoplanet exoplanets exosolar planets expose express extra-solar planets extrasolar life extrasolar planet extrasolar planets extraterrestrial extraterrestrial life extreme conditions extreme environment extreme environments extreme life extremeophiles extremephiles extremophiles faint companion farmer fe fe isotopes femtochemistry fiction fieldwork in april of 1999 in the tinto river located in the huelva district of southwestern spain fingerprint fischer-tropsch catalysis flood fluorescence in situ hybridization focus group formation routes forward contamination fossil fossils fracture frogs functional genomics funding fungi fu orionis fuse future of life galaxies galileo galileo extended mission games ganymede gardening gas gas giants gas phase gene expression general genes genome-genome interaction genome evolution genomes genome sequencing genotype-phenotype geobiology geobiology (journal) geochemical geochemical tca cycle geochemistry geochemsitry geochronology geology geology (journal) geomicrobiology geophysics geysers giant planet models giant planets glacial ice glacier glaciers glutamic acid google google mars gossan grain growth grain surface chemistry great oxidation even great oxidation event greenhouse effect greenland ground currents groundwater gsfc guaymas basin guerrero negro gullies gypsum habitability habitable planets habitable zone habitablity in the universe habitat hadean halophiles handbook of star forming regions hard materials haughton crater hawaii hawaiian volcanic rocks hawaii team haze hd 46375 hd 209458 hematite heterotrophic flagellates high-lakes high-magnesium calcite high angular resolution high contrast highly siderophile elements high ph historical science holmes homochirality horizontal gene transfer hot spots hot springs hubble human human exploration human factors human lunar mission hydrate hydrocarbons hydrogen hydrogenase hydrogen metabolism hydrogen peroxide hydrogen sulfide hydrothermal hydrothermal redox pathway hydrothermal vent hydrothermal vent organisms hydrothermal vents hydroxylamine hyperion hypersaline hypersaline ecosystems hypersalinity hyperthermophilic ice ice analogs iceland ices icy satellites idaho igneous rocks image processing impact craters impactites impact melt rocks information technology infrared infrared astrophysics infrared imaging inorganic in situ analysis in situ life detection instrumentation instruments international space station interstellar interstellar chemistry interstellar ice interstellar ices. interstellar medium interstellar molecules interviews in vitro evolution ionizing radiation ion microprobe iron iron –sulfides iron-sulfur enzymes iron-sulfur minerals iron concentrations iron formation iron isotope fractionation iron oxide iron oxidizing bacteria iron reduction kinetics irons-sulfur surfaces iron spectromicroscopy irradation irradiation ir spectroscopy isomerases isotope isotopes isotopic fractionation iss issol jack hills jakoba incarcerata jakoba libera jakobids jarosite journal:earth journal: journal of geophysical research journal of bacteriology journal of the american chemical society jpl jupiter kbo kbo size distribution kepler key nutrient metals kuiper belt kuiper belt objects laboratory laboratory investigation laboratory science lake lakes landsat tm data laser laser desorption lassen lassen volcanic national park late accretion late bombardment ldn 673 left-handed lefty level of analysis lexen program life life and environment life elsewhere in the universe life in extreme life in our solar system life on mars light lightning li isotopes lipids liquid liquid chromatography mass spectrometry lithic clasts lithophiles living in the microbial world: summer teacher enhancement - august 1999 lmt low-mass low-mass stars low albedo deposits lunar-like satellites lunar exploration lunar impacts m�ssbauer mafic maghemite magnesite magnet magnetic field magnetic fields magnetic fields - stars magnetite magnets main belt asteroids main belt comets maine malawimonas jakobiformis maps marco polo marine ecology marine sediments eukaryotes mars mars. mars analog mars analog. mars analogs mars analog site mars analogues mars atmosphere mars environmental chamber mars exploration mars express mars glaciers mars global surveyor mars habitability mars life mars maps mars methane mars orbiter mars reconnaissance orbiter mars rovers mars science laboratory mars time mars water martian analogues martian atmosphere martian channels martian dynamo martian meteorites martian oceans mass extinction mass extinctions mbcs mcmurdo dry valleys m dwarfs m dwarf stars media membranes mercury messenger metabolic chemistry metagenome metagenomics metal isotope fractionation metal sulfides metamorphism meteor meteorite meteorites meteoritic organics meteors meterite meterorites methane methane cycle methanococcus methanogen methanogenesis methanogens methanopyrus methodology mexico micro-oxic environment microbes microbial microbial communities microbial community microbial community population structures microbial diversity microbial ecology microbial ecosystem microbial ecosystems microbial evolution microbial evolutionary processes. microbial geochemistry microbialite microbialites microbial life microbial mat microbial mats microbiology microgravity microlensing microorganisms microscopy miller-urey miller-urey experiments mineral biosignature mineralogy mirs missions mitochondria mixed cation carbonates mo model interface models mojave molecular-level computer simulations molecular beam molecular biology and evolution (journal) molecular cloud molecular clouds molecular evolution molecular hydrogen molecular mechanics molecular spectroscopy molecular weight molecules molecules of life molybdenum molybdenum isotope fractionation monocarboxylic acids moon moon and planets moons mrna mro msl msl (mars science laboratory) m star m stars multi-realizable processes multiple-planet system murchison music mutualism mycobacterium tuberculosis mysql nad nai 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 nano-fibers nano-satellite nanoparticles nasa arc nasa history nasa jpl nasa tv nasda nature (journal) ndvi variations near near earth asteroid rendezvous nebular organics neoproterozoic neteritics and planetary science (journal) new horizons new planets new york times nitrate nitrite nitrogenase nitrogen cycle nitrogen cycling nitrogen fixation nitrogen reduction non-el ni�o non-lte effects novel proteins npr ntiric oxide nucleic acids nucleobases numerical simulations obituary ocean ocean-bottom ocean crust ocean drilling program oceans odyssey olympus mons ophiolites opportunity optical microscopy orbital light curves oreos organic organic molecules organics organic synthesis origin of ion channels origin of life origin of transmembrane proteins origins of life origins of protein function orion nebula-like osmium isotopes outer solar system outgassing outreach oven ovens oxidation oxidative stress oxidize acetate anaerobicallly oxygen oxygenic photosynthesis oxygen isotopes ozone ozone production pah paleobiology paleoecology paleoproterozoic paleosol pan-starrs panspermia parachute parasitism past-ecosystem process model past-sea surface temperature past carbon cycle past climate past net primary production pavilion lake pbs pelagophytes pelobionts perchlorate perldbi permafrost permian peroxy defects petrology phage phenotypic changes philosophy phoenix phoenix mission phospholipid fatty acids phosphorus phosphorus limitation photo-dissociation photochemistry photosynthesis photosynthetic photosynthetic communities photsynthesis phyllosilicate phylogenetic phylogeny physiology pigments placozoa planetary accretion planetary disks planetary dynamics planetary formation planetary geology planetary geologyearly biosphere planetary habitability planetary oxidation planetary protection planetary science planetary systems: formation planetary systems: protoplanetary disks planet formation planet formation. planet detection. planetary dynamics. planet migration planets planets and satellites plankton plant-fungal symbioses plants plasticity plate tectonics. playa pnas podcast polar drilling polar wander poles pollen analysis 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spectroscopy` rdna reclinomonas americana redox redox-sensitive metals redox evolution redox processes reduction remote-sensing remote-sensing techniques remote sensing remote sensing database reptiles ribosomal gene ribosomal rna ribosomal rna phylogeny rio tinto rise of oxygen rna rna display rna world robatic robot robotic robotics robots rover rovers rrna saline salt sam (sample analysis at mars) samples satellites saturn scanning electron microscopy science (journal) scientific american (journal) seafloor weathering sea surface temperature seawater second life sediment sediment-buried basement sediments seepage erosion segan medal serpentinization shoemaker short-lived radionucleides short-lived radionuclides siderite signatures of life silicon isotopes silurian sims sinkhole skaft��rkatlar lake sleep disruption slime world slime worlds sm-nd snow snowball earth so2 soft materials sogin soil soil moisture soil na soils solar-like young stars solar nebula solar panel solar system 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symbiosis-specific genes symbiotic synchrotron tardigrade targeted metal uptake tca cycle teachers technology worlds tectonics tega temperate-controlled mineral growth templates temporal frameworks teraforming terraforming terrestrial terrestrial atmospheres terrestrial planet finder (tpf) terrestrial planet formation terrestrial planets terrestrial subsurface thalassicolla nucleata theoretical/computational chemistry thermal and evolved-gas analyzer thermal emission spectrometer thermometer thermophiles thermus/deinococcus thioredoxins tholins time time-of-flight mass spectrometer timescale timetree tinto river titan titanium transiting planets tree of life tree rings tropical rainforest trunk river tubulins tweets twitter u-tube uk ultramafic ultrasmall cells uncultured archaea underwater united kingdom upsilon andromedae uv uv light uv radiation v733 cephei v1647 orionis vegetation vegetation red edge venus video viking viral metagenomes virus viruses visible-near infrared 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