Astrobiology
Two Columns
What's New?
Strong Infrared Emission from the Extrasolar Planet HD 189733b : Ref: ApJ 644,560 (2006) "Artist's rendition of Exoplanet eclipse".
01.13.2010 - GCA Scientist L.D.Deming Awarded the Tinsley Prize for Detection of IR Radiation from Exoplanets
Dr. L. Drake Deming of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology (GCA) has been named by the American Astronomical Society as the recipient of the 2010 Beatrice Tinsley Prize. The Tinsley Prize is awarded bi-annually for unusually creative or innovative research in astrophysics. Deming was cited for "...detecting thermal infrared emission from transiting extrasolar planets using the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Following his initial detection in 2005, Spitzer investigators have expanded on the transit technique to meaure the light of approximately two dozen extrasolar planets, extending to planets as small as Neptune. It is widely anticipated that the transit method will be greatly extended by measurements from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). JWST should be able to characterize a habitable exoplanet orbiting a nearby M-dwarf star and current surveys are close to finding such a world.
Recently, GCA Summer Intern Kamen Todorov (now a graduate student at Penn State University) worked with Deming to measure the atmospheric thermal structure of the exoplanet HAT-P-1, using data from the IRAC instrument on Spitzer.
A sun glint on Earth is captured (center of black circle) in this image taken by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft as it looked at the north pole. The reddish area is North America, and the glint is coming from a body of water in California. Credit: Don Lindler, Sigma Space Corporaton/GSFC
01.05.2010 - Sun Glints Seen from Space Signal Oceans and Lakes
In two new videos from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, bright flashes of light known as sun glints act as beacons signaling large bodies of water on Earth. These observations give scientists a way to pick out planets beyond our solar system (extrasolar planets) that are likely to have expanses of liquid, and so stand a better chance of having life.
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This diagram compares 51 Ophiuchi and its dust disks to the sun, planets and zodiacal dust in the solar system. Zones with larger dust grains are red; those with smaller grains are blue. Planet sizes are not to scale.
09.24.2009 - Dual Dust Disks around Young Planetary Systems 51 Oph
Our new observations using Keck Twin Telescopes suggest 51 Ophiuchi is a protoplanetary system with a cloud of dust from comets and asteroids extremely close to its parent star," said Marc Kuchner, a member of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology.
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08.28.2009 - Interstellar Gas helps Young Planetary Systems Shed Dust
Simulation shows the effect of instellar gas drag on the dust disk around HD61005, a young star located 100 light-years away in the constellation Puppis.
This illustration depicts Stardust's turbulent ride through three of more than two dozen jets that blast outward from comet Wild 2. The jets pummeled the spacecraft with about a million particles per second. Twelve particles, some larger than a bullet, penetrated the top layer of the spacecraft's protective shield.
08.17.2009 - First Discovery of Life's Building Block in Comet Wild 2
Podcast of News release on the discovery of building blocks of life in Comet Wild 2.
Drs. Jamie Elsila, Daniel Glavin and Jason Dworkin at the Goddard Center for Astrobiology found glycine in the areogel collection grids that captured gas and dust samples of the Comet Wild 2 as the Stardust spacecraft flew through its jets in January 2004. Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins. This 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.
Animation on the Stardust path through Wild 2 Jets"
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Image shows the delivery of the Murchison meteorite to Australia in 1969 with a host of organic compounds including an excess of L- isovaline. The chromatogram showing the 5-carbon amino acids from an extract of Murchison with the ball and stick representations of D and L isovaline are indicated by their respective peaks.
03.17.2009 - NASA Scientists Find Clues to a Secret of Life
Amino acids, a basic molecule of life, exist as one of two mirror images, biology uses the left-handed form for unknown reasons. Goddard Center for Astrobiology Co-Is Daniel Glavin and Jason Dworkin report in the/ Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA /that this left-handed bias also exists on the most water-rich meteorites, indicating a universal preference from before the origin of life. This suggests that selection of the left-handed amino acids occurred through long-term reactions in water on the meteorite's comet and/or asteroid parent body.
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03.17.2009 - Interview on "Left Handed Acid from Space" - Dr. Danny Glavin
03.03.2009 - Podcast of Dr. Drake Deming's - "There is No Place Like Home"
02.20.2009 - Comet Lulin
Swift UVOT data show that Lulin was shedding nearly 800 gallons of water each second.
01.28.2009 - Extreme Weather on an Extrasolar Planet
What would happen if, for a single day, the sun's light and heat were amplified a thousand times? Now, thanks to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have measured how this planet's atmosphere responds to a super-summer day.
This image shows concentrations of Methane discovered on Mars.
01.17.2009 - Martian Methane Reveals Planet is not Dead
"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmospshere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas: - Dr. M. Mumma Audio Interview from Science Friday
Published Paper in Science - Strong Release of Methane on Mars in Northern Summer 2003 12.13.08 - "Confirmed: 1969 Meteorite Brought Genetic Building Blocks from Sapce". The 50th story in Discover Magazine's Top 100 Stories of 2008 was the manuscript "Extraterrestrial nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite" by Zita Martins (Imperial College) which appeared in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The manuscript describes work performed at GSFC in Codes 691 and 699 by Dr's. Jason Dworkin and Daniel Glavin in cooperation with eight other authors.11.20.08 - "Baking the Rover in Not An Option" The next-generation Mars rover will visit the Red Planet to sniff out the smallest traces of organic material - the building blocks of life. Trouble is, the Mars Sicence Laboratory is made from several kilograms of organic material from Earth. How will mission scientists keep the martian samples clean, and distinguish which molecules are from Mars, and which are from Earth?
10.16.08 - "Volcanoes May Have Provided Sparks and Chemistry for First Life" In the Astrobiology Top 10 Stories of 2008 was the re-examination of samples from a classic origin-of-life' experiment. The finding is that volcanoes may have played an important role in life's beginnings on Earth by Jason Dworkin (691), Daniel Galvin (699) along wih four other authors. The story appeared in the journal Science in October.
General Information
About the GCA 12.14.2006
A modified HST image of NGC 3603 showing the life cycle of material (including carbon) in a star-forming region..
The image to the left represents the research that is performed at the Goddard Center for Astrobiology (GCA). As a part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), the central goal of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology is to understand how organic compounds are created, destroyed, and altered during stellar evolution leading up to the origin of life on a planet, such as Earth. Planetary systems form by collapse of dense interstellar cloud cores. Some stages in this evolution can be directly observed when stellar nurseries are imaged, while other stages remain cloaked behind an impenetrable veil of dust and gas. Yet to understand the origin of life on Earth, we must first develop a comprehensive understanding of the formation of our own planetary system. To understand the probability of finding life elsewhere we must understand both the similarities and differences between the evolution of our own system and that of a typical star.
So what exactly is astrobiology? Astrobiology is a multidisciplinary science that involves astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics, all combined to understand the origins of life on Earth and beyond. Scientists who study astrobiology ask the questions:How did our solar system form? How is the formation of our solar systems similar or different from others? How did the organic molecules we observe in space get to the Earth? What conditions are most suitable for life?
Collaboration is Key
Our team members hail from 10 universities (including two overseas), two NASA Centers, and two private institutions. This large collaborative effort allows our team members to have access to some of the most innovative technology in the world. Operations at the Goddard Center for Astrobiology include the use of mass spectrometers, infrared spectroscopy, and space- and ground-based telescopes. Our position as a lead team for NAI allows our scientists to perform cutting edge research that is published in some of the most competitive scientific journals in the world.
