NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  1. Content with the tag: “hydrothermal vents

  2. Describing the anaerobic thermophilic microbial community: A metagenomic strategy

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 5.1, 5.2

    Understanding the Microbial Ecology of Geologically-based Chemolithoautotrophic Communities

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1, 4.1
  3. A Natural Iron Fertilization Mechanism from the Deep Sea


    The amount of iron released to the ocean by hydrothermal venting at the seafloor is approximately equal to all of the iron flushed from the continents by rivers. The importance of iron to aquatic life can be compared to the importance of nitrogen to terrestrial life, yet iron remains a limiting nutrient in most parts of the oceans. A new study of iron within hydrothermal vents shows that iron emitted from the vents can bind to organic particles and be distributed within the oceans. This bound iron doesn’t oxidize, and is much more easily processed...

    Read More

    Tags ,
    Comments No comments yet, you could be the first.
  4. Life's Boiling Point


    Some proteins can work above the boiling point of water, but these vital biomolecules may have a harder time evolving at high temperature. A new project is searching for the maximum temperature for protein-based life.

    Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

    Tags , , ,
    Comments 1
  5. Novel Proteobacteria in Microbial Mats at Loihi Seamount


    With support from NAI Teams at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and UC Berkeley, researchers at the American Type Culture Collection and their colleagues have a new paper in PLOS One describing a novel lineage of proteobacteria which are dominant in iron-rich hydrothermal vent sites on the Loihi Seamount near Hawai’i. They form a unique morphological structure which could serve as a fossil biomarker.

    Source: [Link]

    Tags , , ,
    Comments No comments yet, you could be the first.
  6. Astrobiology on Science Friday


    On today’s edition of NPR’s Science Friday, new work from NAI’s MBL team is featured, focusing on diversity of bacteria at hydrothermal vents. The team conducted a survey of DNA from deep-sea samples, discovering thousands of new kinds of marine microbes at two deep-sea hydrothermal vents off the Oregon coast.

    Source: [Link]

    Tags , , ,
    Comments Commenting has been closed.
  7. Microbial Population Structures in the Deep Marine Biosphere


    NAI’s Marine Biological Laboratory Team has a new paper in this week’s Science detailing aspects of population structure for microbial communities at two neighboring hydrothermal vents. Using environmental DNA sequencing techniques, they found the two populations reflect the geochemical conditions of each vent.

    Source: [Link]

    Tags , ,
    Comments Commenting has been closed.
  8. Going Deep


    Some of the most arresting images of life on our planet have come from the deep-sea world of hydrothermal vents. Massive chimneys belching superheated fluids, colonies of giant crimson-tipped tubeworms swaying in the current, swarms of tiny shrimp, albino crabs. These ecosystems, although isolated from life on the surface, contain a virtual zoo of creatures, thriving under conditions of heat and pressure so extreme that, until the vent communities were discovered in the late 1970s, scientists did not even imagine that they existed.

    Perhaps even more fascinating – at least to biologists – has been the cataloging of the microbial...

    Read More

    Tags , ,
    Comments No comments yet, you could be the first.
  9. Pyruving the Origin of Life


    For the origin of life, chemical synthesis of pyruvic acid is a critical step. In a difficult experiment, Carnegie Institute/NAI researchers report that the natural synthesis of such compounds would occur wherever hot ocean vents pass through iron sulfide-containing crust.

    Read More

    Tags , , ,
    Comments Commenting has been closed.
  1. Tell us what you think!


    It's your Astrobiology Program: please help us out by sending comments on what's here, and ideas for new features.

Page Feedback

Email (optional)
Comment
Tags