Missions & Hardware

Universal Life Detection: Astrobiology And Assembly Theory (with video)

By Keith Cowing
NASA,
September 8, 2021
Filed under
Universal Life Detection: Astrobiology And Assembly Theory (with video)
Universal Life Detection

Researchers supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology Program have experimentally tested a method that could aid in the search for life… including life as we don’t know it.

Astrobiologists used molecular assembly theory to develop an index that can help sort complex molecules based on the probability of life being involved in their assembly. The method was tested in the laboratory using mass spectrometry on a wide variety of samples.

The study, “Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry,” was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Astrobiology

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