|
-- Table of Contents --
Announcements -
1) The NASA Astrobiology Institute Awards Three New NAI Student Research Scholarships
2) Congratulations to David Paige
3) Astrobiology Summer Workshops for Educators
4) “Alien Earths” Opens and Hosts NAI E/PO for a Professional Development Workshop
5) AstroVenture Releases New Geology Module
6) Biology Students Learn to Scan the Stars for Signs of Life
7) New Extrasolar Planet Findings
8) Lost City, Found…
9) Snowball Earth?
10) Rover in the Desert – next stop Mars?
11) New Journal JGR Biogeosciences
12) New E-Space & Science Bulletin
13) Molecular Biology and Evolution Conference (MBE) 05
14) Call For Abstracts – Royal Astronomical Society
15) March 28 NAI Director’s Seminar
*Events Calendar
-- Announcements --
The NASA Astrobiology Institute Awards Three New NAI Student Research Scholarships
The NASA Astrobiology Institute is proud to announce the newest recipients of the NAI Student Research Scholarships. Congratulations to Abigail Allwood (Australian Centre for Astrobiology), Libby Hausrath (Penn State University) and Verena Starke (Carnegie Institution of Washington).
For more information, please visit the Research Scholarship Program section of the NAI webpage: http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/institute/fellowship/index.cfm#scholarship
The next application deadline is June 1, 2005.
Back to the Table of Contents
Congratulations to David Paige
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is headed for 2008 liftoff and kick-starts the space agency’s back-to-the-Moon plans for the 21st century. Credit: NASA
Congratulations to David Paige of the UCLA Team. NASA has announced that it has selected Paige's instrument the “Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment" to fly on the "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)" in 2008.
The LRO mission is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2008 as part of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program. The mission will deliver a powerful orbiter to the vicinity of the moon to obtain measurements necessary to characterize future robotic and human landing sites. It also will identify potential lunar resources and document aspects of the lunar radiation environment relevant to human biological responses.
The “Diviner” will map the temperature of the entire lunar surface at 300 meter horizontal scales to identify cold traps and potential ice deposits.
Read about David Paige at: http://www.ess.ucla.edu/faculty/paige/index
Read about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at: http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Back to the Table of Contents
Astrobiology Summer Workshops for Educators
Over the years, NAI’s teams have produced enlightening and informative workshops for educators during their summer hiatus. This year is no exception with five exciting offerings from NAI teams at the SETI Institute, Penn State, MBL, and the University of Hawaii, and the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The workshops are typically one week long, and include lectures and interaction with NAI scientists, tours and hands-on work in laboratories and observatories, and field trips. The workshops are each unique, but share the common focus of conveying current information on research in astrobiology, and exploring practical ways to use that information in the classroom through hands-on, inquiry based activities and lesson plans. Descriptions of and links to the workshops are at: http://nai.nasa.gov/teachers.
Back to the Table of Contents
“Alien Earths” Opens and Hosts NAI E/PO for a Professional Development Workshop
Image credit – Daniella Scalice
The exhibits of Alien Earths, which present astrobiology-related research and discoveries to students and the general public, opened to museum-goers on February 5th at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA. In its four themes, Our Place in Space, Star and Planet Formation, Planet Quest, and The Search for Life, Alien Earths incorporates input from various NASA Origins missions: Hubble, Spitzer, Navigator, Kepler, SOFIA, NAI, and FUSE. Alien Earths explores the breadth and depth of concepts related to understanding the origins of and search for life elsewhere through its many hands-on exhibits and visualizations.
Exhibit developers at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO presented an NAI Central sponsored two-day workshop for NAI E/PO leads and other NASA E/PO professionals on March 7 and 8th. Participants from NAI’s IPTAI, SETI Institute, MBL, UCLA, University of Arizona, and Ames teams learned about the growing field of informal science education from an expert Bay Area panel, and practiced the art of docent-led exhibit facilitation first hand. Consequently, several E/PO leads are exploring the possibility of bringing Alien Earths to their local museums. For more information, see: http://lhs.berkeley.edu/exhibits/alienearths.html.
Back to the Table of Contents
AstroVenture Releases New Geology Module
AstroVenture is an interactive, educational, multimedia web environment for grades 5-8 highlighting astrobiology research in the areas of astronomy, geology, biology, and atmospheric sciences. Students use inquiry-based activities to search for and build a planet that could support human habitation. The new Geology module allows students to investigate whether or not Mars and Venus have geologic characteristics that could support human life and learn about some of the methods that scientists use to search for life beyond Earth. Students gather and compare data on magnetic fields and atmospheric densities to determine the level of protection from space radiation each planet has. Students also observe images of planetary surface features to draw conclusions about geologic activity on each planet. AstroVenture is supported in part by the NAI and can be found at: http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov.
Back to the Table of Contents
Biology Students Learn to Scan the Stars for Signs of Life
Through a student exchange program between the University of Washington and the University of Arizona’s NAI team, 14 UW graduate biology students are visiting Kitt Peak National Observatory this week. The astronomy faculty and biology students will use Kitt Peak's world-class telescopes to host labs such as “Interstellar Molecules as Probes of Star Formation and Prebiotic Chemistry,” and "Near-Infrared Imaging of Extremely Young Star Clusters - Investigating the Formation of Sun-like Stars." The program continues next fall when UofA astronomy students will conduct marine biology field work at UW. More information on this exciting interdisciplinary exchange can be found at: http://www.laplace.arizona.edu/uwexchange.htm and http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16398
Back to the Table of Contents
New Extrasolar Planet Findings
Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington March 16, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1743)
Gay Yee Hill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-0344)
MEDIA ADVISORY: M05-041
NASA'S SPITZER TELESCOPE UNVEILS EXTRASOLAR PLANET FINDINGS
Astronomers will announce major findings about planets outside our solar system, known as extrasolar planets, at a NASA Science Update at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, March 23.
The Update is in the NASA auditorium, 300 E St., SW, Washington. NASA TV will carry it live. Reporters may watch the briefing at participating NASA centers. The discoveries were made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Researchers have discovered new capabilities of the infrared telescope to aid in the study of these planets.
Panelists:
-- Dr. Drake Deming, chief, planetary systems laboratory, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- Dr. David Charbonneau, assistant professor of astronomy, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
-- Dr. Heidi Hammel, senior research scientist, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
-- Dr. Alan Boss, staff research astronomer, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington
-- Dr. Kim Weaver, moderator; Spitzer program scientist, NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Back to the Table of Contents
Lost City, Found…
Chimney from the Lost City Image credit: University of Washington
NAI-supported researchers lead by Deborah S. Kelley of the University of Washington have discovered a new type of marine ecosystem. The Lost City seafloor vents are alkaline rather than acidic, and they produce white chimneys rather than black smokers. Their paper, just published in Science, discusses the unique life found at this locations, such as methane-producing microbes and tiny transparent shrimps and crabs. For more information, click here, and to read the paper, go to here.
Back to the Table of Contents
Snowball Earth?
Image credit: University of Bristol
Astrobiology includes the study of ways that astronomical events can influence the evolution of life on Earth. Alex Pavlov of the NAI University of Colorado team reports in two papers how passage of the solar system through dense cool clouds of dust and gas could influence the climate, producing extinctions and perhaps triggering the state known as "Snowball Earth.” Much of this research was performed while Pavlov was a NAI postdoctoral fellow. For more information, see: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/mar/HQ_05066_giant_clouds.html. Also visit the SETI Institute’s radio broadcast on this subject at http://www.seti.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=289154.
Back to the Table of Contents
Rover in the Desert – next stop Mars?
Long ago, this core region of the Atacama mysteriously dried and then died out (left). Scientists say something similar happened on Mars (right). Image credit: CNN
This week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, TX, NAI Co-I Nathalie Cabrol from the SETI Institute team presented results from the “Life in the Atacama” research expedition which took place in September and October of 2004. Sponsored by NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program, this expedition to the Chilean Atacama desert was designed to deploy a robotic rover and test its payload in search of microbial life, and beam data to a remote science team in Pittsburg. Samples first identified and documented by the remote science team using the rover showed positive identification of natural fluorescence of organic molecules including Chlorophyll and, after application of fluorescence dye probes, identification of DNA and protein. The rover’s exploration strategies were aimed at facilitating the detection of likely isolated and sheltered colonies of microbial life and could be used on Mars in future astrobiological missions.
Back to the Table of Contents
New Journal JGR Biogeosciences
The new journal, JGR Biogeosciences, is currently inviting submission of papers for review. Astrobiology/exobiology submissions are encouraged as this is one of the focus areas of the new journal:
"This new section of JGR will focus on biogeosciences of the Earth system in the past, present, and future and its applicability to planetary studies. The emerging field of "biogeosciences" spans the intellectual interface between biology and the geosciences and attempts to understand the functions of the Earth system across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Studies in biogeosciences may employ multiple lines of evidence drawn from diverse fields to gain a holistic understanding of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems and extreme environments.
Specific topics within the scope of the new JGR section include process-based studies of biogeochemistry, biogeophysics and global change, life in extreme environments, astrobiology, microbial processes, and evolutionary geobiology."
See http://www.agu.org/journals/jg/ for more detail.
Back to the Table of Contents
New E-Space&Science Bulletin
“E-Space&Science” an electronic bulletin edited by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales will report in real time on the publication in peer reviewed journals of the most significant scientific results obtained by CNES sponsored scientists. The general public as well as professionals then will access the knowledge acquired through space activities supported by CNES.
Scientist, teacher or professor, student, journalist or media professional, as well as curious mind or enthusiast of space or science, this bulletin is for you.
This bulletin will be edited as required by the scientific news and available for free by electronic subscription.
To subscribe and have E-Space&Science delivered in you Mailbox:
e-space.science.eng-subscribe@kiosqueist.com
For any information, contact: e-space.science@kiosqueist.com
Back to the Table of Contents
Molecular Biology and Evolution Conference (MBE) 05
The organising committee for the MBE 05 would like to keep you informed on the details of the coming MBE 05 which will be held in Auckland, New Zealand at the Aotea Centre, June 19-23, 2005. It will highlight the latest research at the interface of molecular biology and evolution, especially highlighting the work of Allan Wilson. It is the joint annual meeting of the International Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and the Genetics Society of Australasia.
We would appreciate if you can reply with your postal address so we could mail to you poster and postcard on the conference.
For further details, our web site address is: http://www.mbe05.com.
Back to the Table of Contents
Call For Abstracts – Royal Astronomical Society
Abstracts are currently being accepted for the Royal Astronomical Society "Friday" Monthly Meeting: 2005 May 13. There will be a 10:30-1:30 Specialist Discussion Meeting entitled - The Origin and Distribution of Life in the Solar System.
The meeting will address current research in astrobiology, with a particular emphasis concerning the influence of life on planetary atmospheres and relevant signatures that can be detected externally as indicators of life. Complementing this, abstracts concerning research in the area of exo-planets (i.e. other planetary systems) with regard to signatures/conditions for life are also encouraged.
Please send brief abstracts of proposed talks via email to Dr. Mark Burchell M.J.Burchell@kent.ac.uk by March 30th 2005. Abstracts should include: Title, speaker and author list (both with affiliation), brief summary (10 lines maximum). Contact details for the speaker should include email and phone details.
Back to the Table of Contents
March 28 NAI Director’s Seminar
We have an exciting double bill for the next NAI Director's Seminar...
Join us on March 28th at 11:00am PST/12:00pm CST/1:00pm MST/2:00pm EST for presentations by Mike Mumma of GSFC, "Methane on Mars: Geochemistry or Biology?" and Jim Lyons of UCLA, "Methane on Mars: What does it mean?"
Each talk will be approximately 20 minutes followed by 20 minutes of discussion, questions and answers.
For presenter’s abstracts and connection information go to: http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/seminars/index.cfm
Back to the Table of Contents
|
