Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 819-823 http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0207 A key challenge in Astrobiology is to comprehend life and its interaction with the environment at a level sufficiently fundamental to embrace the alternative […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Journal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life
Did Earthquakes Keep the Early Crust Habitable?
Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 1023-1032 http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2006.0091 The shallow habitable region of cratonal crust deforms with a strain rate on the order of 1019 s1. This is rapid enough that small […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Icy Worlds, Journal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life
Energy, Chemical Disequilibrium, and Geological Constraints on Europa
Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 1006-1022 http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0156 Europa is a prime target for astrobiology. The presence of a global subsurface liquid water ocean and a composition likely to contain a suite […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Icy Worlds, Journal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Hydrothermal Systems in Small Ocean Planets
Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 987-1005 http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0075 We examine means for driving hydrothermal activity in extraterrestrial oceans on planets and satellites of less than one Earth mass, with implications for sustaining […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Journal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life
Formate as an Energy Source for Microbial Metabolism in Chemosynthetic Zones of Hydrothermal Ecosystems
Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 873-890 http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0127 Formate, a simple organic acid known to support chemotrophic hyperthermophiles, is found in hot springs of varying temperature and pH. However, it is not […]
Posted inJournal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life
Actinides and Life's Origins
Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 852-872 http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2006.0066 There are growing indications that life began in a radioactive beach environment. A geologic framework for the origin or support of life in a […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
A Geobiological Perspective on the Emergence of Animal Life
Researchers from NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team and their colleagues have a new paper in Geobiology reviewing recent work on the climatic, geochemical, and ecological events that preceded animal fossils, […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere Before Great Oxidation Event
NAI’s Astrobiology Drilling Program supported researchers in 2004 to obtain subsurface core samples from the Hamersley Basin in Western Australia. Those samples, representing the time just before the Great Oxidation […]
Posted inNASA Astrobiology Program, Origin & Evolution of Life
NAI Director's Seminar: "A Whiff of Oxygen before the Great Oxidation Event"
Speaker: Ariel Anbar (Arizona State University)Date/Time: Monday, November 5, 2007 11:00 AM PST Abstract: Many lines of evidence point to a rapid rise of atmospheric O2 between 2.45 – 2.22 […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Oxygen in Earth's Early Atmosphere
Researchers from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team have a paper in Nature describing evidence that Earth’s Mesoarchean atmosphere (3.2 and 2.8 Gya) possessed very low amounts oxygen. These findings […]