Astrobiology | Universe Today

Ever heard of a 'Cyborg Astrobiologist'? Probably not. But I bet you'll want to be one after learning that future exploration of Mars (and other planets, for that matter) may employ the use of artificial intelligence integrated into spacesuits to enhance the ability of astronauts in taking scientific data while exploring. The AI assistance could help future astronauts exploring planets to recognize differences in their surroundings as being due to the presence of life. Does this sound like something from 50 years from now? Well, a prototype model has already been tested, and has shown the principle behind this idea to be sound.

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Multiple missions have been sent to Mars with the hopes of testing the surface of the planet for life – or the conditions that could create life – on the Red Planet. The question of whether life in the form of bacteria (or something even more exotic!) exists on Mars is hotly debated, and still requires a resolute yes or no. Experiments done right here on Earth that simulate the conditions on Mars and their effects on terrestrial bacteria show that it is entirely possible for certain strains of bacteria to weather the harsh environment of Mars. Read more…

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The basic chemistry for life has been detected the atmosphere of a second hot gas planet, HD 209458b. Data from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes provided spectral observations that revealed molecules of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the planet's atmosphere. The Jupiter-sized planet – which occupies a tight, 3.5-day orbit around a sun-like star — is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the presence of life. Astronomers are excited about the detection, as it shows the potential of being able to characterize planets where life could exist.
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If humans were forced to vacate Earth, where is the next best place in our solar system for us to live? A study by the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo has provided a quantitative evaluation of habitability to identify the potential habitats in our solar system. Professor Abel Mendez, who produced the study also looked at how the habitability of Earth has changed in the past, finding that some periods were even better than today.
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When discussing the possibility of finding life on other worlds, we usually add the phrase "life – as we know it." But we've been surprised at exotic forms of life even on our own world and we need figure out how life might evolve elsewhere with foreign biochemistry in alien environments. Scientists at a new interdisciplinary research institute in Austria are working to understand exotic life and how we might find it.
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The famed Drake equation estimates the number of technologically advanced civilizations that might exist in our Galaxy. But is there a way to mathematically quantify a habitat’s potential for hosting life?
“At present, there is no easy way of directly comparing the suitability of different environments as a habitat for life" said Dr. Axel Hagermann, who is proposing a method to find a "habitability index" at the European Planetary Science Congress.
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NASA scientists studying the comet samples returned by the Stardust spacecraft have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life. Stardust captured the samples from comet Wild 2 in 2004 and returned them to Earth in 2006. "Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Our discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts."
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We don't know how lucky we are — really.

We know the interaction between Earth and the Sun is a rarity in that it allowed life to form. But scientists working to understand the possibility that it could have happened elsewhere in the Universe are still far from drawing conclusions.

What is becoming clearer is that life probably shouldn't have formed here; the Earth and Sun are unlikely hosts.
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A new study claims early comets contained vast interior oceans of liquid water that may have provided the ideal conditions for early life to form.

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Ancient, dome-like rock structures contain clues that life was active on Earth 3.45 billion years ago, according to new research — and the findings could help shed light on life's history on Earth and other planets, including Mars.
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Two papers in the journal Nature this week come down on opposite sides of the question about whether Saturn's moon Enceladus contains a salty, liquid ocean.

One research team, from Europe, says an enormous plume of water spurting in giant jets from the moon's south pole is fed by a salty ocean. The other group, led out of the University of Colorado at Boulder, contends that the supposed geysers don't have enough sodium to come from an ocean.  The truth could have implications for the search for extraterrestrial life, as well as our understanding of how planetary moons are formed.

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Researchers have breathed new life into a bacterium trapped deep under glacial ice in Greenland — for over 120,000 years.

The researchers, who hail from Pennsylvania State University, say the newly discovered bacterium may hold clues as to what life forms might be frozen on other planets.

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While having lunch with colleagues at Los Alamos National Labs in 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi mused about the likelihood of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the Universe.  Fermi, one of the most astute scientists of his day, thought the size and age of the Universe means many advanced civilizations should have already colonized the galaxy, just as humans colonized and explored the Earth.   But if such galaxy-wide extraterrestrial civilizations exist, he wondered, where are they?

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Researchers have long puzzled over why oxygen flourished in Earth's atmosphere starting around 2.4 billion years.

Called the "Great Oxidation Event," the transition "irreversibly changed surface environments on Earth and ultimately made advanced life possible," said Dominic Papineau of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory.

Now, Papineau has co-authored a new study in the journal Nature,  which reveals new clues to the mystery in ancient sedimentary rocks.

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"Life as we know it" seems to be the common caveat in our search for other living things in the Universe. But there's also the possibility of life "as we don't know it." A new study from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope hints that planets around stars cooler than our sun might possess a different mix of potentially life-forming, or "prebiotic," chemicals. While life on Earth is thought to have arisen from a hot soup of different chemicals, would the same life-generating mix come together around other stars with different temperatures? (And should we call it 'The Gazpacho Effect?') "Prebiotic chemistry may unfold differently on planets around cool stars," said Ilaria Pascucci, lead author of the new study.
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