You are browsing the archive for astrobiology Archives - GeoSpace.
6 August 2012
As Curiosity’s wheels touch down, science gets rolling
As viewing parties celebrating the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory wound down early Monday morning, 400 scientists – many of them AGU members – were already using their newest tool for investigating the red planet.
21 June 2012
AGU interviews astronauts in space
AGU Video: On 19 June, AGU had the unique opportunity to interview three astronauts aboard the International Space Station about what it’s like to live in orbit and study the Earth from space. Astronauts Joe Acaba (NASA), André Kuipers (ESA) and Don Pettit (NASA) answered questions about their everyday lives in orbit, the hazards of life in space and how their experiences in microgravity have affected their thoughts about our home planet. Watch the video interview here!
6 December 2011
On a mission to get under Europa’s skin
Europa is covered with a cracked and jumbled shell of ice, suggesting the Jovian moon harbors liquid water—and the potential for life. But most knowledge of Europa comes from the Galileo mission to Jupiter, which ended in 2003.
14 December 2010
Isotope detectives wanted: Find the signatures of life!
The question John Eiler of Caltech presented at yesterday’s Sagan lecture was intriguing and clear: What signatures of life are observable in the rock, ice, and gas records on other planets, and how do we make sense of it?
Frigid Life May Be Powered By Heat
From the snowy reaches of Antarctica to Saturn’s frozen moon Titan, volcanoes have the potential to power life in these extreme environments. We’ll probably have to wait a little longer for confirmation of life on Titan, but Antarctica is right on our doorstep and visits don’t require traveling on rocket-propelled spacecraft.
13 December 2010
Searching for life on Earth
Europa is actually in Alaska. Mars? That’s in Newfoundland. And the Canadian high Arctic. And the Andes. It’s like the ultimate in elaborate cinema: terrestrial oddities serving as stunt doubles for far-flung celestial landscapes–except the scenery is real, and scientists can dive, climb and dig into the exotic vistas. Scientists use these extreme environments to study life as it might exist on the smaller, rocky bodies in our solar system.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.