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Morphological and Spectral Diversity of the Clay-Bearing Unit at the ExoMars Landing Site Oxia Planum Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-03-01 Lucia Mandon; Adam Parkes Bowen; Cathy Quantin-Nataf; John C. Bridges; John Carter; Lu Pan; Pierre Beck; Erwin Dehouck; Matthieu Volat; Nicolas Thomas; Gabriele Cremonese; Livio Leonardo Tornabene; Patrick Thollot
The European Space Agency and Roscosmos' ExoMars rover mission, which is planned to land in the Oxia Planum region, will be dedicated to exobiology studies at the surface and subsurface of Mars. Oxia Planum is a clay-bearing site that has preserved evidence of long-term interaction with water during the Noachian era. Fe/Mg-rich phyllosilicates have previously been shown to occur extensively throughout
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Bacterial Cellulose Retains Robustness but Its Synthesis Declines After Exposure to a Mars-Like Environment Simulated Outside the International Space Station Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Iryna Orlovska; Olga Podolich; Olga Kukharenko; Iryna Zaets; Oleg Reva; Ludmila Khirunenko; Danica Zmejkoski; Sergiy Rogalsky; Debmalya Barh; Sandeep Tiwari; Ranjith Kumavath; Aristóteles Góes-Neto; Vasco Azevedo; Bertram Brenig; Preetam Ghosh; Jean-Pierre de Vera; Natalia Kozyrovska
Cellulose is a widespread macromolecule in terrestrial environments and a major architectural component of microbial biofilm. Therefore, cellulose might be considered a biosignature that indicates the presence of microbial life. We present, for the first time, characteristics of bacterial cellulose after long-term spaceflight and exposure to simuled Mars-like stressors. The pristine cellulose-based
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Pyrolysis of Carboxylic Acids in the Presence of Iron Oxides: Implications for Life Detection on Missions to Mars Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-25 Samuel H. Royle; Jonathan Tan; Jonathan S. Watson; Mark A. Sephton
The search for, and characterization of, organic matter on Mars is central to efforts in identifying habitable environments and detecting evidence of life in the martian surface and near surface. Iron oxides are ubiquitous in the martian regolith and are known to be associated with the deposition and preservation of organic matter in certain terrestrial environments, thus iron oxide-rich sediments
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BioSentinel: A Biofluidic Nanosatellite Monitoring Microbial Growth and Activity in Deep Space Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-18 Michael R. Padgen; Lauren C. Liddell; Shilpa R. Bhardwaj; Diana Gentry; Diana Marina; Macarena Parra; Travis Boone; Ming Tan; Lance Ellingson; Abraham Rademacher; Joshua Benton; Aaron Schooley; Aliyeh Mousavi; Charles Friedericks; Robert P. Hanel; Antonio J. Ricco; Sharmila Bhattacharya; Sergio R. Santa Maria
Small satellite technologies, particularly CubeSats, are enabling breakthrough research in space. Over the past 15 years, NASA Ames Research Center has developed and flown half a dozen biological CubeSats in low Earth orbit (LEO) to conduct space biology and astrobiology research investigating the effects of the space environment on microbiological organisms. These studies of the impacts of radiation
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Protein Homochirality May Be Derived from Primitive Peptide Synthesis by RNA Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-17 Xin-Yi Chu; Hong-Yu Zhang
Homochirality is a feature of life, but its origin is still disputed. Recent theories indicate that the origin of homochirality coincided with that of the RNA world, but proteins have not yet been incorporated into the story. Ribosome is considered a living fossil that survived the RNA world and records the oldest interaction between RNA and proteins. Inspired by several ribosome-related findings,
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The Role of Minerals in Events That Led to the Origin of Life Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Gözen Ertem
The role of minerals in the events that led to the origin of life is discussed with regard to (1) their catalytic role for the formation of RNA-like oligomers from their monomers and (2) their protective role for organic molecules formed in space that were delivered to planetary surfaces.
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An Alternative Approach for Assessing Biogenicity Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Joti Rouillard; Mark van Zuilen; Céline Pisapia; Juan-Manuel Garcia-Ruiz
The search for signs of life in the ancient rock record, extreme terrestrial environments, and other planetary bodies requires a well-established, universal, and unambiguous test of biogenicity. This is notably true for cellular remnants of microbial life, since their relatively simple morphologies resemble various abiogenic microstructures that occur in nature. Although lists of qualitative biogenicity
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Endolithic Microbial Carbon Cycling in East Antarctica Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Natalie A. Tyler; Lori A. Ziolkowski
Antarctica is an ideal analogue for studying the limits of life. Despite severe temperature fluctuations and desiccating conditions, life is commonly found colonizing the structural cavities within Antarctic rocks (i.e., endoliths). Previous studies have speculated that the slow cycling of endoliths in the McMurdo Dry Valleys may be the limit of life on Earth. However, very little is known about the
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Seeding Biochemistry on Other Worlds: Enceladus as a Case Study Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Harrison B. Smith; Alexa Drew; John F. Malloy; Sara Imari Walker
The Solar System is becoming increasingly accessible to exploration by robotic missions to search for life. However, astrobiologists currently lack well-defined frameworks to quantitatively assess the chemical space accessible to life in these alien environments. Such frameworks will be critical for developing concrete predictions needed for future mission planning, both to determine the potential
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Artificial Maturation of Iron- and Sulfur-Rich Mars Analogues: Implications for the Diagenetic Stability of Biopolymers and Their Detection with Pyrolysis–Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Jonathan S.W. Tan; Samuel H. Royle; Mark A. Sephton
Acidic iron- and sulfur-rich streams are appropriate analogues for the late Noachian and early Hesperian periods of martian history, when Mars exhibited extensive habitable environments. Any past life on Mars may have left behind diagnostic evidence of life that could be detected at the present day. For effective preservation, these remains must have avoided the harsh radiation flux at the martian
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Fast Degradation of Hydrogen Peroxide by Immobilized Catalase to Enable the Use of Biosensors in Extraterrestrial Bodies Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Paige A. Reed; Bryan A. Lagasse; Carlos D. Garcia
Hydrogen peroxide has been postulated to be present on the surface of Europa and Enceladus. While it could represent a potential source of energy for possible life-forms, H2O2 may also interfere with a number of current detection technologies, including biosensors. To take advantage of the selectivity and portability of these devices, simple and reliable routes to degrade the potential H2O2 present
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Spectropolarimetry of Primitive Phototrophs as Global Surface Biosignatures Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 William B. Sparks; Mary Niki Parenteau; Robert E. Blankenship; Thomas A. Germer; Christian Herman Lucas Patty; Kimberly M. Bott; Charles M. Telesco; Victoria S. Meadows
Photosynthesis is an ancient metabolic process that began on early Earth and offers plentiful energy to organisms that can utilize it such that that they achieve global significance. The potential exists for similar processes to operate on habitable exoplanets and result in observable biosignatures. Before the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis, the most primitive phototrophs, anoxygenic phototrophs
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Stable Isotope Fractionation in a Cold Spring System, Utah, USA: Insights for Sample Selection on Mars Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 Jordan M. Knuth; Sally L. Potter-McIntyre
Stable δ13C isotope analysis at hot and cold springs suggests that rapid degassing overprints carbon isotopic biosignatures even when microbial activity produces biogenic textures in the minerals. Mineral precipitation and potential biosignature preservation are evaluated at a cold spring system in Ten Mile Graben, Utah, USA, with scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and stable carbon isotopes
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Greenalite Nanoparticles in Alkaline Vent Plumes as Templates for the Origin of Life Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-04 B. Rasmussen; J.R. Muhling; W.W. Fischer
Mineral templates are thought to have played keys roles in the emergence of life. Drawing on recent findings from 3.45–2.45 billion-year-old iron-rich hydrothermal sedimentary rocks, we hypothesize that greenalite (Fe3Si2O5(OH)4) was a readily available mineral in hydrothermal environments, where it may have acted as a template and catalyst in polymerization, vesicle formation and encapsulation, and
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Abiotic Synthesis of Nucleoside 5′-Triphosphates with Nickel Borate and Cyclic Trimetaphosphate (CTMP) Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Hyo-Joong Kim; Steven A. Benner
While nucleoside 5′-triphosphates are precursors for RNA in modern biology, the presumed difficulty of making these triphosphates on Hadean Earth has caused many prebiotic researchers to consider other activated species for the prebiotic synthesis of RNA. We report here that nickel(II), in the presence of borate, gives substantial amounts (2–3%) of nucleoside 5′-triphosphates upon evaporative heating
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Extraction and Separation of Chiral Amino Acids for Life Detection on Ocean Worlds Without Using Organic Solvents or Derivatization Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Victor Abrahamsson; Bryana L. Henderson; Julia Herman; Fang Zhong; Ying Lin; Isik Kanik; Conor A. Nixon
In situ instrumentation that can detect amino acids at parts-per-billion concentration levels and distinguish an enantiomeric excess of either d- or l-amino acids is vital for future robotic life-detection missions to promising targets in our solar system. In this article, a novel chiral amino acid analysis method is described, which reduces the risk of organic contamination and spurious signals from
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Prokaryotic Diversity and Metabolically Active Communities in Brines from Two Perennially Ice-Covered Antarctic Lakes Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Angelina Lo Giudice; Antonella Conte; Maria Papale; Carmen Rizzo; Maurizio Azzaro; Mauro Guglielmin
The genomic diversity of bacteria and archaea in brines (BC1, BC2, and BC3) from two adjacent and perennially frozen Antarctic lakes (L16 and L-2) in the Boulder Clay (BC) area was investigated together with the metabolically active fraction of both communities, by analyzing the bulk rRNA as a general marker of metabolic activity. Although similar bacterial and archaeal assemblages were observed at
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Minimum Units of Habitability and Their Abundance in the Universe Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-29 Charles S. Cockell; Robin Wordsworth; Niall Whiteford; Peter M. Higgins
Although the search for habitability is a much-vaunted objective in the study of planetary environments, the material requirements for an environment to be habitable can be met with relatively few ingredients. In this hypothesis paper, the minimum material requirements for habitability are first re-evaluated, necessarily based on life “as we know it.” From this vantage point, we explore examples of
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The Venus Life Equation Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-28 Noam R. Izenberg; Diana M. Gentry; David J. Smith; Martha S. Gilmore; David H. Grinspoon; Mark A. Bullock; Penelope J. Boston; Grzegorz P. Słowik
Ancient Venus and Earth may have been similar in crucial ways for the development of life, such as liquid water oceans, land–ocean interfaces, favorable chemical ingredients, and energy pathways. If life ever developed on, or was transported to, early Venus from elsewhere, it might have thrived, expanded, and then survived the changes that have led to an inhospitable surface on Venus today. The Venus
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Detection and Degradation of Adenosine Monophosphate in Perchlorate-Spiked Martian Regolith Analogue, by Deep-Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Joseph Razzell Hollis; Teresa Fornaro; William Rapin; Jessica Wade; Álvaro Vicente-Retortillo; Andrew Steele; Rohit Bhartia; Luther W. Beegle
The search for organic biosignatures on Mars will depend on finding material protected from the destructive ambient radiation. Solar ultraviolet can induce photochemical degradation of organic compounds, but certain clays have been shown to preserve organic material. We examine how the SHERLOC instrument on the upcoming Mars 2020 mission will use deep-ultraviolet (UV) (248.6 nm) Raman and fluorescence
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Interrelationships in the Gypsum–Syngenite–Görgeyite System and Their Possible Formation on Mars Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-21 Cristina García-Florentino; Leticia Gomez-Nubla; Jennifer Huidobro; Imanol Torre-Fdez; Patricia Ruíz-Galende; Julene Aramendia; Elisabeth M. Hausrath; Kepa Castro; Gorka Arana; Juan Manuel Madariaga
Calcium sulfates are known to be potential reservoirs of organic compounds and have been detected on Mars. However, not all data that indicate the presence of sulfates collected by the (Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity) and Curiosity rovers can be explained by the different calcium sulfate polymorphs, and therefore, mixtures of calcium sulfates with other single sulfates must be considered
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Biologically Available Chemical Energy in the Temperate but Uninhabitable Venusian Cloud Layer: What Do We Want to Know? Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-19 Charles S. Cockell; Peter M. Higgins; Andrew A. Johnstone
The cloud layer has been hypothesized to be the most habitable region of Venus. In the lower clouds, both temperature and pressure fall within bounds that support reproduction of microbial life on Earth, although the water activity of the sulfuric acid cloud droplets makes the clouds uninhabitable to known life. In this study, we carried out an analysis of CHNOPS (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen
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Oxia Planum: The Landing Site for the ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” Rover Mission: Geological Context and Prelanding Interpretation Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Cathy Quantin-Nataf; John Carter; Lucia Mandon; Patrick Thollot; Matthew Balme; Matthieu Volat; Lu Pan; Damien Loizeau; Cédric Millot; Sylvain Breton; Erwin Dehouck; Peter Fawdon; Sanjeev Gupta; Joel Davis; Peter M. Grindrod; Andrea Pacifici; Benjamin Bultel; Pascal Allemand; Anouck Ody; Loic Lozach; Jordan Broyer
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos ExoMars mission will launch the “Rosalind Franklin” rover in 2022 for a landing on Mars in 2023.The goals of the mission are to search for signs of past and present life on Mars, investigate the water/geochemical environment as a function of depth in the shallow subsurface, and characterize the surface environment. To meet these scientific objectives while
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A Reconstructed Subaerial Hot Spring Field in the ∼3.5 Billion-Year-Old Dresser Formation, North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Tara Djokic; Martin J. Van Kranendonk; Kathleen A. Campbell; Jeff R. Havig; Malcolm R. Walter; Diego M. Guido
Recent discoveries of geyserite and siliceous sinter with textural biosignatures in the ∼3.5 Ga Dresser Formation of the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, extended the record of inhabited subaerial hot springs on Earth by ∼3 billion years, back to the time when siliceous sinter deposits are known to have formed on Mars (e.g., at Columbia Hills, Gusev Crater). Here, we present more detailed lithostratigraphic
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Elements for the Origin of Life on Land: A Deep-Time Perspective from the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Martin J. Van Kranendonk; Raphael Baumgartner; Tara Djokic; Tsutomu Ota; Luke Steller; Ulf Garbe; Eizo Nakamura
For decades, deep sea hydrothermal vents have been a preferred setting for the Origin of Life, but “The Water Problem” as relates to polymerization of organic molecules, together with a propensity to dilute critical prebiotic elements as well as a number of other crucial factors, suggests that a terrestrial hot spring field with the capacity for wet–dry cycling and element concentration may represent
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Fatty Acid Preservation in Modern and Relict Hot-Spring Deposits in Iceland, with Implications for Organics Detection on Mars Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Amy J. Williams; Kathleen L. Craft; Maëva Millan; Sarah Stewart Johnson; Christine A. Knudson; Marisol Juarez Rivera; Amy C. McAdam; Dominique Tobler; John Roma Skok
Hydrothermal spring deposits host unique microbial ecosystems and have the capacity to preserve microbial communities as biosignatures within siliceous sinter layers. This quality makes terrestrial hot springs appealing natural laboratories to study the preservation of both organic and morphologic biosignatures. The discovery of hydrothermal deposits on Mars has called attention to these hot springs
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Microbial Sulfur Isotope Fractionation in the Chicxulub Hydrothermal System Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 David A. Kring; Martin J. Whitehouse; Martin Schmieder
Target lithologies and post-impact hydrothermal mineral assemblages in a new 1.3 km deep core from the peak ring of the Chicxulub impact crater indicate sulfate reduction was a potential energy source for a microbial ecosystem (Kring et al.,2020). That sulfate was metabolized is confirmed here by microscopic pyrite framboids with δ34S values of -5 to -35 ‰ and ΔSsulfate-sulfide values between pyrite
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Geochemical and Stable Fe Isotopic Analysis of Dissimilatory Microbial Iron Reduction in Chocolate Pots Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Nathaniel W Fortney,Brian L Beard,Jack A Hutchings,Michael R Shields,Thomas S Bianchi,Eric S Boyd,Clark M Johnson,Eric E Roden
Chocolate Pots hot spring (CP) is an Fe-rich, circumneutral-pH geothermal spring in Yellowstone National Park. Relic hydrothermal systems have been identified on Mars, and modern hydrothermal environments such as CP are useful for gaining insight into potential pathways for generation of biosignatures of ancient microbial life on Earth and Mars. Fe isotope fractionation is recognized as a signature
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Biogenicity of Spicular Geyserite from Te Kopia, New Zealand: Integrated Petrography, High-Resolution Hyperspectral and Elemental Analysis Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2021-01-05 Richard J. Murphy; Martin J. Van Kranendonk; Raphael Baumgartner; Chris Ryan
Hyperspectral and micro X-ray fluorescence (μXRF) imagery were used to derive maps of mineralogy and elemental chemistry from a sample of a siliceous hot spring deposit, or sinter, collected from a landslide breccia deposit at the base of the Paeroa fault, which bounds the eastern Taupo Rift at Te Kopia, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. The sample is of a known biogenic sinter layer from a paleo-vent
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The Biological Study of Lifeless Worlds and Environments Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-31 Charles S. Cockell
Astrobiology is focused on the study of life in the universe. However, lifeless planetary environments yield biological information on the variety of ways in which physical and chemical conditions in the universe preclude the possibility of the origin or persistence of life, and in turn this will help explain the distribution and abundance of life, or lack of it, in the universe. Furthermore, many
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The Growth and Sporulation of Bacillus subtilis in Nanotesla Magnetic Fields Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-23 Jasmina Obhođaš; Vladivoj Valković; Robert Kollar; Jasna Hrenović; Karlo Nađ; Andrija Vinković; Željko Orlić
The order of magnitude of increased growth, multiplication rate, and decreased sporulation of Bacillus subtilis after exposure to nanotesla magnetic fields (MFs) relative to control samples were observed experimentally. Earth's total magnetic field intensity was reduced from 47.9 ± 0.4 μT to cover the range from 97.5 ± 1.7 nT to 1115 ± 158 nT in eight subsequent experiments by using three pairs of
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Acid Mine Drainage as Energizing Microbial Niches for the Formation of Iron Stromatolites: The Tintillo River in Southwest Spain Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 Elizabeth Chacon-Baca; Ana Santos; Aguasanta Miguel Sarmiento; Ana Teresa Luís; Maria Santisteban; Juan Carlos Fortes; José Miguel Dávila; Jesus M. Diaz-Curiel; Jose Antonio Grande
The Iberian Pyrite Belt in southwest Spain hosts some of the largest and diverse extreme acidic environments with textural variation across rapidly changing biogeochemical gradients at multiple scales. After almost three decades of studies, mostly focused on molecular evolution and metagenomics, there is an increasing awareness of the multidisciplinary potential of these types of settings, especially
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Radiolytic Degradation of Soil Carbon from the Mojave Desert by 60Co Gamma Rays: Implications for the Survival of Martian Organic Compounds Due to Cosmic Radiation Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 José Alfredo Rojas Vivas; Rafael Navarro-González; José de la Rosa; Paola Molina; Sergey Sedov; Christopher P. McKay
The martian surface has been continuously exposed to galactic cosmic radiation. Since organic compounds are degraded by ionizing radiation, knowledge of their decay constants is fundamental to predicting their stability on the martian surface. In this study, we report the radiolysis constant for the destruction of soil organic compounds at a starting concentration of ∼2011 μg C/gsoil from the Mojave
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Relevance of the Unfolded Protein Response to Spaceflight-Induced Transcriptional Reprogramming in Arabidopsis Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-15 Evan Angelos; Dae Kwan Ko; Starla Zemelis-Durfee; Federica Brandizzi
Plants are primary producers of food and oxygen on Earth and will likewise be indispensable to the establishment of large-scale sustainable ecosystems and human survival in space. To contribute to the understanding of how plants respond to spaceflight stress, we examined the significance of the unfolded protein response (UPR), a conserved signaling cascade that responds to a number of unfavorable environmental
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In Search for a Planet Better than Earth: Top Contenders for a Superhabitable World. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Dirk Schulze-Makuch,René Heller,Edward Guinan
The fact that Earth is teeming with life makes it appear odd to ask whether there could be other planets in our galaxy that may be even more suitable for life. Neglecting this possible class of “superhabitable” planets, however, could be considered anthropocentric and geocentric biases. Most important from the perspective of an observer searching for extrasolar life is that such a search might be executed
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3D Printed Minerals as Astrobiology Analogs of Hydrothermal Vent Chimneys. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 John-Paul Jones,Samad A Firdosy,Laura M Barge,John C Bescup,Scott M Perl,Xu Zhang,Andre M Pate,Roy E Price
Hydrothermal vents, which are highly plausible habitable environments for life and of interest for some origin-of-life scenarios, may exist on icy moons such as Europa or Enceladus in addition to Earth. Some hydrothermal vent chimney structures are extremely porous and friable, making their reconstruction in the lab challenging (e.g., brucite or saponite in alkaline hydrothermal settings). Here, we
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Atmospheric Nitrogen When Life Evolved on Earth Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Stefanie Gebauer; John Lee Grenfell; Helmut Lammer; Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera; Laurenz Sproß; Vladimir S. Airapetian; Miriam Sinnhuber; Heike Rauer
The amount of nitrogen (N2) present in the atmosphere when life evolved on our planet is central for understanding the production of prebiotic molecules and, hence, is a fundamental quantity to constrain. Estimates of atmospheric molecular nitrogen partial surface pressures during the Archean, however, widely vary in the literature. In this study, we apply a model that combines newly gained insights
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Investigating Habitability with an Integrated Rock-Climbing Robot and Astrobiology Instrument Suite Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Kyle Uckert; Aaron Parness; Nancy Chanover; Evan J. Eshelman; Neil Abcouwer; Jeremy Nash; Renaud Detry; Christine Fuller; David Voelz; Robert Hull; David Flannery; Rohit Bhartia; Kenneth S. Manatt; William J. Abbey; Penelope Boston
A prototype rover carrying an astrobiology payload was developed and deployed at analog field sites to mature generalized system architectures capable of searching for biosignatures in extreme terrain across the Solar System. Specifically, the four-legged Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot (LEMUR) 3 climbing robot with microspine grippers carried three instruments: a micro-X-ray fluorescence
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A Cruise-Phase Microbial Survival Model for Calculating Bioburden Reductions on Past or Future Spacecraft Throughout Their Missions with Application to Europa Clipper. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 John E Moores,Andrew C Schuerger
During transit between the Earth and planetary destinations, spacecraft encounter conditions that are deleterious to the survival of terrestrial microorganisms. To model the resulting bioburden reduction, a Cruise-Phase Microbial Survival (CPMS) model was prepared based upon the Lunar Microbial Survival model, which considers the effects of temperature, vacuum, ultraviolet (UV), and ionizing radiation
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Surface and Oceanic Habitability of Trappist-1 Planets under the Impact of Flares Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Raissa Estrela; Sourav Palit; Adriana Valio
The discovery of potentially habitable planets around the ultracool dwarf star Trappist-1 naturally poses the question: could Trappist-1 planets be home to life? These planets orbit very close to the host star and are most susceptible to the UV radiation emitted by the intense and frequent flares of Trappist-1. Here, we calculate the UV spectra (100–450 nm) of a superflare observed on Trappist-1 with
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One-Pot Hydrogen Cyanide-Based Prebiotic Synthesis of Canonical Nucleobases and Glycine Initiated by High-Velocity Impacts on Early Earth. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Martin Ferus,Paul Rimmer,Giuseppe Cassone,Antonín Knížek,Svatopluk Civiš,Judit E Šponer,Ondřej Ivanek,Jiří Šponer,Homa Saeidfirozeh,Petr Kubelík,Roman Dudžák,Lukáš Petera,Libor Juha,Adam Pastorek,Anna Křivková,Miroslav Krůs
Chemical environments of young planets are assumed to be significantly influenced by impacts of bodies lingering after the dissolution of the protoplanetary disk. We explore the chemical consequences of impacts of these bodies under reducing planetary atmospheres dominated by carbon monoxide, methane, and molecular nitrogen. Impacts were simulated by using a terawatt high-power laser system. Our experimental
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Natural Radioactive Environments As Sources of Local Disequilibrium for the Emergence of Life. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Thiago Altair,Larissa M Sartori,Fabio Rodrigues,Marcio G B de Avellar,Douglas Galante
Certain subterranean environments of Earth have naturally accumulated long-lived radionuclides, such as 238U, 232Th, and 40K, near the presence of liquid water. In these natural radioactive environments, water radiolysis can produce chemical species of biological importance, such as H2. Although the proposal of radioactive decay as an alternative source of energy for living systems has existed for
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Comparisons of Transcriptome Profiles from Bacillus subtilis Cells Grown in Space versus High Aspect Ratio Vessel (HARV) Clinostats Reveal a Low Degree of Concordance Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-14 Michael D. Morrison; Wayne L. Nicholson
Although clinostats have long been used in space microbiology studies as ground-based analogs of spaceflight, few studies to date have systematically compared -omics data from clinostats versus spaceflight. This study compared the transcriptomic response of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis flown in space with corresponding transcriptomes derived from 2-D clinostat (High Aspect Ratio Vessel:
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Influence of Calcium Perchlorate on the Search for Organics on Mars with Tetramethylammonium Hydroxide Thermochemolysis Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-12-11 Yuanyuan He; Arnaud Buch; Cyril Szopa; Amy J. Williams; Maëva Millan; Charles A. Malespin; Daniel P. Glavin; Caroline Freissinet; Jennifer L. Eigenbrode; Samuel Teinturier; David Coscia; Jean-Yves Bonnet; Jennifer C. Stern; Fabien Stalport; Melissa Guzman; Naila Chaouche-Mechidal; Pin Lu; Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez; Vincent Butin; Jamila El Bekri; Hervé Cottin; Sarah Johnson; Michel Cabane; Paul R. Mahaffy
The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments onboard the Exomars 2022 and Mars Science Laboratory rovers, respectively, are capable of organic matter detection and differentiating potentially biogenic from abiotic organics in martian samples. To identify organics, both these instruments utilize pyrolysis–gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and
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ExoMars Raman Laser Spectrometer: A Tool to Semiquantify the Serpentinization Degree of Olivine-Rich Rocks on Mars Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-16 Marco Veneranda; Guillermo Lopez-Reyes; Elena Pascual Sanchez; Agata M. Krzesińska; Jose Antonio Manrique-Martinez; Aurelio Sanz-Arranz; Cateline Lantz; Emmanuel Lalla; Andoni Moral; Jesús Medina; Francois Poulet; Henning Dypvik; Stephanie C. Werner; Jorge L. Vago; Fernando Rull
We evaluated the effectiveness of the ExoMars Raman laser spectrometer (RLS) to determine the degree of serpentinization of olivine-rich units on Mars. We selected terrestrial analogs of martian ultramafic rocks from the Leka Ophiolite Complex (LOC) and analyzed them with both laboratory and flight-like analytical instruments. We first studied the mineralogical composition of the samples (mostly olivine
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Salt Tolerance and UV Protection of Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecalis under Simulated Martian Conditions Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-25 Paul J. Godin; Andrew C. Schuerger; John E. Moores
Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on the surface of Mars is an important factor that affects the survivability of microorganisms on Mars. The possibility of martian brines made from Fe2(SO4)3, MnSO4, and MgSO4 salts providing a habitable niche on Mars via attenuation of UV radiation was investigated on the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecalis. Results demonstrate that it is possible for
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The Timing of Evolutionary Transitions Suggests Intelligent Life Is Rare Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-19 Andrew E. Snyder-Beattie; Anders Sandberg; K. Eric Drexler; Michael B. Bonsall
It is unknown how abundant extraterrestrial life is, or whether such life might be complex or intelligent. On Earth, the emergence of complex intelligent life required a preceding series of evolutionary transitions such as abiogenesis, eukaryogenesis, and the evolution of sexual reproduction, multicellularity, and intelligence itself. Some of these transitions could have been extraordinarily improbable
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The AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Expedition in the Dhofar Region of Oman Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Gernot Groemer; Sophie Gruber; Stefan Uebermasser; Alexander Soucek; Emmanuel A. Lalla; Joao Lousada; Sebastian Sams; Nina Sejkora; Stefanie Garnitschnig; Birgit Sattler; Pamela Such
From February 1 to 28, 2018, the Austrian Space Forum, in cooperation with the Oman Astronomical Society and research teams from 25 nations, conducted the AMADEE-18 mission, a human-robotic Mars expedition simulation in the Dhofar region in the Sultanate of Oman. A carefully selected field crew, supported by a Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, Austria, conducted 19 experiments relevant to astrobiology
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Team Processes and Outcomes During the AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Mission Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Julia McMenamin; Natalie J. Allen; Melissa Battler
The aim of this study was to examine team functioning within the context of the AMADEE 18 Mars analog project, which took place in Oman in the winter of 2018. Five “Analog Astronauts” participated in this study. Each completed measures of individual-level variables, including demographics and personality, before the simulated Mars mission began. At several time points during the mission, and once at
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AMADEE-18 and the Analog Mission Performance Metrics Analysis: A Benchmarking Tool for Mission Planning and Evaluation Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Sophie Gruber; Gernot Groemer; Simone Paternostro; Tricia L. Larose
Analog research of human or combined human and robotic missions is an established tool to explore the workflows, instruments, risks, and challenges of future planetary surface missions in a representative terrestrial environment. Analog missions that emulate selected aspects of such expeditions have risen in number, expanded their range of disciplines covered, and seen a significant increase in their
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Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples from the AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Mission Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Emmanuel Alexis Lalla; Kristen Cote; Dylan Hickson; Stefanie Garnitschnig; Menelaos Konstantinidis; Pamela Such; Christine Czakler; Christian Schroder; Alessadro Frigeri; Maurizio Ercoli; Anna Losiak; Sophie Gruber; Gernot Groemer
Between February 1 and 28, 2018, the Austrian Space Forum, in cooperation with the Oman Astronomical Society and research teams from 25 nations, conducted the AMADEE-18 mission, a human–robotic Mars expedition simulation in the Dhofar region in the Sultanate of Oman. As a part of the AMADEE-18 simulated Mars human exploration mission, the Remote Science Support team performed analyses of the Dhofar
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AMADEE-18: Vision-Based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation for Analog Mars Mission (AVI-NAV) Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Eren Allak; Christian Brommer; Diego Dallenbach; Stephan Weiss
As a part of the AMADEE-18 analog Mars mission, designed to study challenges associated with human-based exploration of the Red Planet, we focused our team efforts on testing means to localize an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on Mars. Robot helicopters, such as the one selected for a technology demonstration as a part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, are small and their performance is computationally limited
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The ScanMars Subsurface Radar Sounding Experiment on AMADEE-18 Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Alessandro Frigeri; Maurizio Ercoli
Terrestrial simulations for crewed missions are critically important for testing technologies and improving methods and procedures for future robotic and human planetary exploration. In February 2018, AMADEE-18 simulated a mission to Mars in the Dhofar region of Oman. During the mission, a field crew coordinated by the Österreichisches Weltraum Forum (OeWF) accomplished several experiments in the fields
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Dimerization of Uracil in a Simulated Mars-like UV Radiation Environment Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Laura Rouquette; Fabien Stalport; Hervé Cottin; Cyril Colas; Thomas Georgelin; Naïla Chaouche-Mechidal; Jerome Lasne; Sara Mahfouf; François Raulin; Laura Selliez; Cyril Szopa; Patrice Coll
The search for organic molecules at the surface of Mars is a key objective in astrobiology, given that many organic compounds are possible biosignatures and their presence is of interest with regard to the habitability of Mars. Current environmental conditions at the martian surface are harsh and affect the stability of organic molecules. For this reason, and because current and future Mars rovers
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Growth on Carbohydrates from Carbonaceous Meteorites Alters the Immunogenicity of Environment-Derived Bacterial Pathogens. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Jorge Domínguez-Andrés,Marc Eleveld,Georgios Renieris,Thomas J Boltje,Rob J Mesman,Laura van Niftrik,Sam J Moons,Petra Rettberg,Jos W M van der Meer,Evangelos J Giamarellos-Bourboulis,Huub J M Op den Camp,Marien I de Jonge,Mihai G Netea
The last decade has witnessed a renewed interest in space exploration. Public and private institutions are investing considerable effort toward the direct exploration of the Moon and Mars, as well as more distant bodies in the solar system. Both automated and human-crewed spacecraft are being considered in these efforts. As inevitable fellow travelers on the bodies of astronauts, spaceships, or equipment
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Cometary Glycolaldehyde as a Source of Pre-RNA Molecules. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Nicolle E B Zellner,Vanessa P McCaffrey,Jayden H E Butler
Over 200 molecules have been detected in multiple extraterrestrial environments, including glycolaldehyde (C2(H2O)2, GLA), a two-carbon sugar precursor that has been detected in regions of the interstellar medium. Its recent in situ detection on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and through remote observations in the comae of others provides tantalizing evidence that it is common on most
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Planetary Protection Implementation on the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport Mission. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 Ryan Hendrickson,Gayane Kazarians,James N Benardini
The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Mars flight system is made up of a cruise stage, an aeroshell, and a Phoenix heritage-based lander that successfully landed in the Elysium Planitia on November 26, 2018. InSight has primary science objectives that are aimed at understanding more about the interior of Mars and the formation and evolution of terrestrial
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Planetary Protection Implementation of the InSight Mission Launch Vehicle and Associated Ground Support Hardware. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 Ryan Hendrickson,Gayane Kazarians,Sarah Yearicks,Lisa Guan,Arman Seuylemezian,Linda Lee Matthias,Terry Schrepel,James N Benardini
The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Mars mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on an Atlas V 401 rocket on May 5, 2018. Prior to launch, the InSight spacecraft, associated launch vehicle hardware, and ground support equipment were required to satisfy Planetary Protection requirements to comply with international treaty obligations and
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Discriminating Abiotic and Biotic Fingerprints of Amino Acids and Fatty Acids in Ice Grains Relevant to Ocean Worlds. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 Fabian Klenner,Frank Postberg,Jon Hillier,Nozair Khawaja,Morgan L Cable,Bernd Abel,Sascha Kempf,Christopher R Glein,Jonathan I Lunine,Robert Hodyss,René Reviol,Ferdinand Stolz
Identifying and distinguishing between abiotic and biotic signatures of organic molecules such as amino acids and fatty acids is key to the search for life on extraterrestrial ocean worlds. Impact ionization mass spectrometers can potentially achieve this by sampling water ice grains formed from ocean water and ejected by moons such as Enceladus and Europa, thereby exploring the habitability of their
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Subsurface In Situ Detection of Microbes and Diverse Organic Matter Hotspots in the Greenland Ice Sheet. Astrobiology (IF 4.091) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 Michael J Malaska,Rohit Bhartia,Kenneth S Manatt,John C Priscu,William J Abbey,Boleslaw Mellerowicz,Joseph Palmowski,Gale L Paulsen,Kris Zacny,Evan J Eshelman,Juliana D'Andrilli
We used a deep-ultraviolet fluorescence mapping spectrometer, coupled to a drill system, to scan from the surface to 105 m depth into the Greenland ice sheet. The scan included firn and glacial ice and demonstrated that the instrument is able to determine small (mm) and large (cm) scale regions of organic matter concentration and discriminate spectral types of organic matter at high resolution. Both
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