Congratulations to Dr. Michael Mumma who receives the 2010 NASA
Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award:
"In recognition of the first definitive detection of methane in the
atmosphere of Mars, revealing an active and dynamic planet and a
possible abode for life beyond Earth."
"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere 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 - 01.15.09
Amino acids, a basic molecule of life, exist as one of two mirror images, Biology uses the left-handed form for unknown reasons - Dr. Daniel Glavin and Dr. Jason Dworkin- 03.17.09
Drs. Jamie Elsila, Daniel Glavin, and Jason Dworkin at the Goddard Center for Astrobiology found glycine in the aerogel collection grids that captured gas and dust samples of Comet Wild 2 as the Stardust spacecraft flew through its jets in January 2004. - 08.17.09
"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. " - 09.24.09
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