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Searching for Life in Hot Spring Carbonate Systems: Investigating Raman Spectra of Carotenoid-Bearing Organic Carbonaceous Inclusions from Travertines of Italy. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Alexander E O'Donnell,David K Muirhead,Alexander T Brasier,Enrico Capezzuoli
Carotenoid pigments provide some of the most common exclusively biogenic markers on Earth, and these organic pigments may be present in extraterrestrial life. Raman spectroscopy can be used to identify carotenoids quickly and accurately through the inelastic scattering of laser light. In this study, we show that Raman spectra of organic matter found in hot spring bacterial assemblages exhibit "spectral
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Life Detection and Microbial Biomarker Profiling with Signs of Life Detector-Life Detector Chip During a Mars Drilling Simulation Campaign in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Mercedes Moreno-Paz,Rita Sofia Dos Santos Severino,Laura Sánchez-García,Juan Manuel Manchado,Miriam García-Villadangos,Jacobo Aguirre,Miguel Angel Fernández-Martínez,Daniel Carrizo,Linda Kobayashi,Arwen Dave,Kim Warren-Rhodes,Alfonso Davila,Carol R Stoker,Brian Glass,Víctor Parro
The low organic matter content in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, together with abrupt temperature shifts and high ultraviolet radiation at its surface, makes this region one of the best terrestrial analogs of Mars and one of the best scenarios for testing instrumentation devoted to in situ planetary exploration. We have operated remotely and autonomously the SOLID-LDChip (Signs of Life Detector-Life
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Is There Such a Thing as a Biosignature? Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-01 Christophe Malaterre,Inge Loes Ten Kate,Mickael Baqué,Vinciane Debaille,John Lee Grenfell,Emmanuelle J Javaux,Nozair Khawaja,Fabian Klenner,Yannick J Lara,Sean McMahon,Keavin Moore,Lena Noack,C H Lucas Patty,Frank Postberg
The concept of a biosignature is widely used in astrobiology to suggest a link between some observation and a biological cause, given some context. The term itself has been defined and used in several ways in different parts of the scientific community involved in the search for past or present life on Earth and beyond. With the ongoing acceleration in the search for life in distant time and/or deep
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Field-Based Planetary Protection Operations for Melt Probes: Validation of Clean Access into the Blood Falls, Antarctica, Englacial Ecosystem. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-11-01 J A Mikucki,C G Schuler,I Digel,J Kowalski,M J Tuttle,M Chua,R Davis,A M Purcell,D Ghosh,G Francke,M Feldmann,C Espe,D Heinen,B Dachwald,J Clemens,W B Lyons,S Tulaczyk
Subglacial environments on Earth offer important analogs to Ocean World targets in our solar system. These unique microbial ecosystems remain understudied due to the challenges of access through thick glacial ice (tens to hundreds of meters). Additionally, sub-ice collections must be conducted in a clean manner to ensure sample integrity for downstream microbiological and geochemical analyses. We describe
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The Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Homochirality Emergence in Prebiotic Environments. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-20 Carolina Chieffo,Anastasiia Shvetsova,Fryni Skorda,Augustin Lopez,Michele Fiore
Homochirality is one of the signatures of life. Numerous geological and prebiotic chemistry studies have proved that disordered soups containing small organic molecules, gases, liquids, and minerals (such as those containing phosphorous) yielded racemic mixtures of building blocks for biomolecule assembly. Polymers obtained from these bricks should have been enantiopure with functional properties similar
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A Mission Simulating the Search for Life on Mars with Automated Drilling, Sample Handling, and Life Detection Instruments Performed in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert, Chile. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-19 Carol R Stoker,Brian J Glass,Thomas R Stucky,Arwen I Dave,Linda T Kobayashi,Richard C Quinn,Mercedes Moreno-Paz,Laura Sánchez-García,Maria F Mora,Florian Kehl,Víctor Parro,Peter A Willis,Alfonso Davila,Eldar Noe Dobrea,Jon C Rask,Daniel Ricardo
We report on a field demonstration of a rover-based drilling mission to search for biomolecular evidence of life in the arid core of the Atacama Desert, Chile. The KREX2 rover carried the Honeybee Robotics 1 m depth The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploration of New Terrains (TRIDENT) drill and a robotic arm with scoop that delivered subsurface fines to three flight prototype instruments: (1) The Signs
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Proposed Missions to Collect Samples for Analyzing Evidence of Life in the Venusian Atmosphere. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Dirk Schulze-Makuch,Louis N Irwin,Troy Irwin
The recent and still controversial claim of phosphine detection in the venusian atmosphere has reignited consideration of whether microbial life might reside in its cloud layers. If microbial life were to exist within Venus' cloud deck, these microorganisms would have to be multi-extremophiles enclosed within the cloud aerosol particles. The most straightforward approach for resolving the question
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The Call for a New Definition of Biosignature. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Catherine Gillen,Cyrille Jeancolas,Sean McMahon,Peter Vickers
The term biosignature has become increasingly prevalent in astrobiology literature as our ability to search for life advances. Although this term has been useful to the community, its definition is not settled. Existing definitions conflict sharply over the balance of evidence needed to establish a biosignature, which leads to misunderstanding and confusion about what is being claimed when biosignatures
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Remote Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of Bacterial Growths in Carbonate Rocks in a Mars-like Atmosphere. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Laura García-Gómez,Tomás Delgado,Francisco J Fortes,Yolanda Del Rosal,Cristina Liñán,Luis Efrén Fernández,Luisa M Cabalín,Javier Laserna
Understanding the past habitable environments of Mars increases the requirement to recognize and examine modern analogs and to evaluate the mechanisms that may preserve biosignatures in them. The phenomenon that originates and preserves possible microbial biosignatures in mineral phases is of particular interest in astrobiology. On Earth, the precipitation of carbonate matrices can be mediated by bacteria
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A Comparative Study of Methods for Detecting Extraterrestrial Life in Exploration Missions to Mars and the Solar System II: Targeted Characteristics, Detection Techniques, and Their Combination for Survey, Detection, and Analysis. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-28 Keigo Enya,Akihiko Yamagishi,Kensei Kobayashi,Yoshitaka Yoshimura,Elizabeth J Tasker
We present a comparative study of the methods used in the search for extraterrestrial microorganism life, including a summary table where different life-detection techniques can be easily compared as an aid to mission and instrument design aimed at life detection. This is an extension of previous study, where detection techniques for a series of target characteristics and molecules that could constitute
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Consumption of Hydrogen by Annihilation Reactions in Ultradense Hydrogen H(0) Contributed to Form a Hot and Dry Venus. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-19 Leif Holmlid,Frans Olofson,Dan Gall
When water vapor reacts with metals at temperatures of a few hundred kelvin, free hydrogen and metal oxides are formed. Iron is a common metal giving such reactions. Iron oxide together with a small amount of alkali metal as promoter is a good catalyst for forming ultradense hydrogen H(0) from the released hydrogen. Ultradense hydrogen is the densest form of condensed matter hydrogen. It can be formed
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Origin of Homochirality in Amino Acids Induced by Lyman-α Irradiation in the Early Stage of the Milky Way. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-11 Akimasa Sato,Mitsuo Shoji,Natsuki Watanabe,Mauro Boero,Yasuteru Shigeta,Masayuki Umemura
The enantiomeric excess (ee) of l-form amino acids found in the Murchison meteorite poses some issues about the cosmic origin of their chirality. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of amino acids in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) at around 6.8 eV (182 nm) indicate that the circularly polarized light can induce ee through photochemical reactions. Here, we resort to ab initio calculations to extract the CD spectra
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Life Detection on Icy Moons Using Flow Cytometry and Exogenous Fluorescent Stains. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Matthew L Wallace,Nicholas Tallarida,Wayne W Schubert,James Lambert
Flow cytometry is a potential technology for in situ life detection on icy moons (such as Enceladus and Europa) and on the polar ice caps of Mars. We developed a method for using flow cytometry to positively identify four classes of biomarkers using exogenous fluorescent stains: nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. We demonstrated the effectiveness of exogenous stains with six known
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Investigation of the Cytotoxicity of Mars-Relevant Minerals upon Abrasion. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Martin Kobek-Kjeldager Sigvartsøn,Ebbe Norskov Bak,Per Nørnberg,Svend J Knak Jensen,Jan Thøgersen,Mikkel Begnhøj,Kai Finster
Since the Viking Labeled Release experiments were carried out on Mars in the 1970s, it has been evident that the martian surface regolith has a strong oxidizing capacity that can convert organic compounds into CO2 and probably water. While H2O2 was suggested originally for being the oxidizing agent responsible for the outcome of the Viking experiments, recent analyses of the martian regolith by the
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Raman Spectroscopic and Microbial Study of Biofilms Hosted Gypsum Deposits in the Hypersaline Wetlands: Astrobiological Perspective. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-01 Zach Diloreto,Mirza Shaharyar Ahmad,Hamad Al Saad Al-Kuwari,Fadhil Sadooni,Tomaso R R Bontognali,Maria Dittrich
Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) has been identified at the surface of Mars, by both orbiters and rovers. Because gypsum mostly forms in the presence of liquid water as an essential element for sustaining microbial life and has a low porosity, which is ideal for preserving organic material, it is a promising target to look for signs of past microbial life. In this article, we studied organic matter preservation
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Inducing Homochirality Through Intermediary Catalytic Species: A Stochastic Approach. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Osmel Martín,Yoelsy Leyva,José Suárez-Lezcano,Yunierkis Pérez-Castillo,Yovani Marrero-Ponce
A new chiral amplification mechanism based on a stochastic approach is proposed. The mechanism includes five different chemical species, an achiral substrate (A), two chiral forms (L, D), and two intermediary species (LA, DA). The process occurs within a small, semipermeable compartment that can be diffusively coupled with the outside environment. The study considers two alternative primary sources
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Effects of UV and Calcium Perchlorates on Uracil Deposited on Strontium Fluoride Substrates at Mars Pressure and Temperature. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-18 N Chaouche-Mechidal,F Stalport,E Caupos,E Mebold,C Azémard,C Szopa,P Coll,H Cottin
Organic matter is actively searched on Mars with current and future space missions as it is a key to detecting potential biosignatures. Given the current harsh environmental conditions at the surface of Mars, many organic compounds might not be preserved over a long period as they are exposed to energetic radiation such as ultraviolet light, which is not filtered above 190 nm by the martian atmosphere
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Genetic Biosignatures of Deep-Subsurface Organisms Preserved in Carbonates Over a 100,000 Year Timescale at a Surface-Accessible Mars Analog Site in Southeastern Utah. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-18 Mac P Pierce,William J Brazelton
In recent years, strong evidence has emerged indicating the potential habitability of the subsurface of Mars. Occasional discharge events that bring subsurface fluids to the surface may carry with them the biological traces of subsurface organisms. Similar events are known to take place on Earth and are frequently associated with long-term mineralogical preservation of organic material, including DNA
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Earth to Mars: A Protocol for Characterizing Permafrost in the Context of Climate Change as an Analog for Extraplanetary Exploration. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-11 Kimberley R Miner,Joseph Razzell Hollis,Charles E Miller,Kyle Uckert,Thomas A Douglas,Emily Cardarelli,Rachel Mackelprang
Abstract Permafrost is important from an exobiology and climate change perspective. It serves as an analog for extraplanetary exploration, and it threatens to emit globally significant amounts of greenhouse gases as it thaws due to climate change. Viable microbes survive in Earth's permafrost, slowly metabolizing and transforming organic matter through geologic time. Ancient permafrost microbial communities
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Unavoidable Extinctions in Ecosystems of Extreme Isolation. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-07 Eftychia Symeonidou,John Maxwell Halley
Future systems of extreme isolation, including initiatives in space exploration, may require the services of onboard ecosystems. Biosphere 2, which ran between 1991 and 1993, aspired to mimic the earthly ecosystem and assess the ability of humans and other species to survive in a fully enclosed space. In this study, the data for plant species survival in the tropical rainforest sector from the first
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Identification and Archive of Mars 2020 Spacecraft Microbial Isolates. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Wayne W Schubert,Emily P Seto,Akemi A Hinzer,Lisa Guan
To support NASA's Mars 2020 mission, bioassays were performed to ensure the biological cleanliness of the spacecraft, instruments, and hardware assembly areas. Bioassays began in May 2014, as the first components were assembled, and continued until their launch in July 2020. Over this 6-year period, 1811 bioassay sampling sessions were conducted. To understand the nature of microbiological presence
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Mars 2020 Mission Biological Return Sample Contamination Control Approach and Verification. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-01 Fei Chen,Cynthia Ly,Ioannis Mikellides,Douglas Bernard,Moogega Cooper
The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is equipped with a Sample Caching System (SCS) designed to collect and cache martian core and regolith samples for potential return to Earth. To ensure the integrity of these samples, the mission requirements for each encapsulated sample for return is less than one Earth-sourced viable organism (VO) and more than a 99.9% probability of being free of any Earth-sourced
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Stromatolite-like Structures Within Microbially Laminated Sandstones of the Paleoarchean Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-08-01 C Heubeck,S Reimann,M Homann
We report abundant small calcareous mounds associated with fossilized kerogenous microbial mats in tidal-facies sandstones of the predominantly siliciclastic Moodies Group (ca. 3.22 Ga) of the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB), South Africa and Eswatini. Most of the bulbous, internally microlaminated mounds are several centimeters in diameter and formed at the sediment-water interface contemporaneously
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Organic Catalytic Activity as a Method for Agnostic Life Detection. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-31 Christos D Georgiou,Christopher McKay,Jean-Louis Reymond
An ideal life detection instrument would have high sensitivity but be insensitive to abiotic processes and would be capable of detecting life with alternate molecular structures. In this study, we propose that catalytic activity can be the basis of a nearly ideal life detection instrument. There are several advantages to catalysis as an agnostic life detection method. Demonstrating catalysis does not
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Confidence of Life Detection: The Problem of Unconceived Alternatives. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-28 Peter Vickers,Christopher Cowie,Steven J Dick,Catherine Gillen,Cyrille Jeancolas,Lynn J Rothschild,Sean McMahon
Potential biosignatures that offer the promise of extraterrestrial life (past or present) are to be expected in the coming years and decades, whether from within our own solar system, from an exoplanet atmosphere, or otherwise. With each such potential biosignature, the degree of our uncertainty will be the first question asked. Have we really identified extraterrestrial life? How sure are we? This
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Organic Biosignature Degradation in Hydrothermal and Serpentinizing Environments: Implications for Life Detection on Icy Moons and Mars. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-28 Jonathan S W Tan,Tara L Salter,Jonathan S Watson,J Hunter Waite,Mark A Sephton
Evidence of liquid water is a primary indicator of habitability on the icy moons in our outer solar system as well as on terrestrial planets such as Mars. If liquid water-containing environments host life, some of its organic remains can be fossilized and preserved as organic biosignatures. However, inorganic materials may also be present and water-assisted organic-inorganic reactions can transform
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Are Large Sulfur Isotope Variations Biosignatures in an Ancient, Impact-Induced Hydrothermal Mars Analog? Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-26 Christopher J Tino,Eva E Stüeken,Gernot Arp,Michael Ernst Böttcher,Steven M Bates,Timothy W Lyons
Discrepancies have emerged concerning the application of sulfur stable isotope ratios as a biosignature in impact crater paleolakes. The first in situ δ34S data from Mars at Gale crater display a ∼75‰ range that has been attributed to an abiotic mechanism. Yet biogeochemical studies of ancient environments on Earth generally interpret δ34S fractionations >21‰ as indicative of a biological origin, and
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The Determination of the Spatial Distribution of Indigenous Lipid Biomarkers in an Immature Jurassic Sediment Using Time-of-Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-17 M Joseph Pasterski,Matthias Lorenz,Anton V Ievlev,Raveendra C Wickramasinghe,Luke Hanley,Fabien Kenig
The ability to detect and map lipids, including potential lipid biomarkers, within a sedimentary matrix using mass spectrometry (MS) imaging may be critical to determine whether potential lipids detected in samples returned from Mars are indigenous to Mars or are contaminants. Here, we use gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and time-of-flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) datasets
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Planetary Protection Implementation and Verification Approach for the Mars 2020 Mission. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-03 Moogega Cooper,Fei Chen,Lisa Guan,Akemi A Hinzer,Gayane Kazarians,Cynthia Ly,Timothy B Shirey,Kristina Stott
The Mars 2020 Flight System comprises a Cruise Stage; Aeroshell; Entry, Descent, and Landing system; Perseverance rover; and the Ingenuity helicopter. The Perseverance rover was successfully delivered to Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Among its science objectives, Perseverance is meant to search for rocks that are capable of preserving chemical traces of ancient life, if it existed, and to core
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Real-Time Quantification of Size-Resolved Bioaerosols and Inert Particles in Spacecraft Assembly Facilities at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-29 Sarah Yearicks,Mahjabeen Ahmed,Angie Rivera,Parag Vaishampayan
Abstract Responsible space exploration is a cornerstone of planetary protection, particularly at sites in the Solar System with a high potential for the existence of extant life. To limit bioburden, spacecraft assembly occurs in cleanroom facilities. Cleanroom levels are established through air particulate counters that can assess particle size distribution and concentration but cannot detect bioaerosols
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Astrobiology-Related Virtual Field Trips in Higher Education Settings: A Six-Year Study. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-22 Carol A Oliver,Bronwyn L Teece
Abstract Astrobiology-related laptop-delivered 360-degree immersive Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) are increasingly used in higher education. However, the literature remains sparse on the experiences in approach to pedagogy and what works and what does not in attaining the intended outcomes. Part of the reason for that has been the limitation on the cost of making this educationally promising type of VFT
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Aquatic Ferrous Solutions of Prebiotic Mineral Salts as Strong UV Protectants and Possible Loci of Life Origin. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-16 Vladimir Subbotin,Gennady Fiksel
Liposomes are lipid-bilayer vesicles that spontaneously self-assemble from fatty acids (or other amphiphiles) in water by encapsulating surrounding aqueous media. After British scientist Alec Bangham described this phenomenon in the early 1960s, they became a prominent participant in the hypotheses on life origin, particularly in the Lipid World model. A novel scenario of self-sustained Darwinian liposome
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Venus' Atmospheric Chemistry and Cloud Characteristics Are Compatible with Venusian Life. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 William Bains,Janusz J Petkowski,Sara Seager
Venus is Earth's sister planet, with similar mass and density but an uninhabitably hot surface, an atmosphere with a water activity 50-100 times lower than anywhere on Earths' surface, and clouds believed to be made of concentrated sulfuric acid. These features have been taken to imply that the chances of finding life on Venus are vanishingly small, with several authors describing Venus' clouds as
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Critical Aspects of Material Selection in the Packaging and Transporting of Returned Extraterrestrial Samples. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 A Longobardo,F Dirri,E Palomba,L Berthoud,A Hutzler,C Smith,S Russell
In the framework of the EU-funded EURO-CARES project, aimed at determining the actions to develop a European facility for curation of extraterrestrial samples returned by space missions, we identified the requirements (mainly in terms of materials selection) of the transportation containment facility which should contain the Sample Return Capsule (SRC), which in turn contains the extraterrestrial material
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Microbial Transport by a Descending Ice Melting Probe: Implications for Subglacial and Ocean World Exploration. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-06 Caleb G Schuler,Dale P Winebrenner,W Timothy Elam,Justin Burnett,Bruce W Boles,Jill A Mikucki
Ocean Worlds beneath thick ice covers in our solar system, as well as subglacial lakes on Earth, may harbor biological systems. In both cases, thick ice covers (>100 s of meters) present significant barriers to access. Melt probes are emerging as tools for reaching and sampling these realms due to their small logistical footprint, ability to transport payloads, and ease of cleaning in the field. On
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Evaluation of Decontamination Potential of Wet Wipes Against Microbial Contamination of Chinese Spacecraft Materials. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-06 Xi Qu,Hong Wang,Adil Farooq Lodhi,Yu-Lin Deng,Ying Zhang
Abstract There are many kinds of microorganisms that inhabit the environment of manned space stations. Wet wipes are a common tool used in space stations to clean and reduce microorganisms on surfaces. Here, we compared the performance of five types of wipes used by the Chinese Space Station (CSS) on orbit before 2021 in terms of microbial decontamination. In previous studies, we found that Bacillus
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A Transiently Hypersaline Microbial Mat Harbors a Diverse and Stable Archaeal Community in the Cuatro Cienegas Basin, Mexico. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-06 Nahui-Olin Medina-Chávez,Mariette Viladomat-Jasso,Eugenia Zarza,Africa Islas-Robles,Jorge Valdivia-Anistro,Frédéric Thalasso-Siret,Luis E Eguiarte,Gabriela Olmedo-Álvarez,Valeria Souza,Susana De la Torre-Zavala
Microbial mats are biologically diverse communities that are analogs to some of the earliest ecosystems on Earth. In this study, we describe a unique transiently hypersaline microbial mat uncovered in a shallow pond within the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB) in northern México. The CCB is an endemism-rich site that harbors living stromatolites that have been studied to understand the conditions of the
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Origin of Silicate Spherules and Geochemistry of Re and Platinum-Group Elements Within Microfossil-Bearing Archean Chert from the 3.4 Ga Strelley Pool Formation, Western Australia. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Kenichiro Sugitani,Koichi Mimura,Ryoko Senda,Yui Kouketsu,Simon Wallis,Natsuko Takagi,Tsuyoshi Iizuka,Donald R Lowe
Silicate spherules have been identified from the ca. 3.4 Ga-old Strelley Pool Formation (SPF) in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. Their origins and geochemical characteristics, including the Re and platinum-group elements of their host clastic layer and the overlying and underlying microfossil-bearing finely laminated carbonaceous cherts, were examined. The spherules have various morphologies
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Humid Evolution of Haze in the Atmosphere of Super-Earths in the Habitable Zone. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Julien Maillard,Nathalie Carrasco,Christopher P Rüger,Audrey Chatain,Isabelle Schmitz-Afonso,Chad R Weisbrod,Laetitia Bailly,Emilie Petit,Thomas Gautier,Amy M McKenna,Carlos Afonso
Abstract Photochemical hazes are expected to form and significantly contribute to the chemical and radiative balance of exoplanets with relatively moderate temperatures, possibly in the habitable zone of their host star. In the presence of humidity, haze particles might thus serve as cloud condensation nuclei and trigger the formation of water droplets. In the present work, we are interested in the
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NoRCEL's Engagement in Africa: The AstroScience Exploration Network (ASEN). Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-26 Sohan Jheeta,Martin Dominik,Elias Chatzitheodoridis,Oleg Kotsyurbenko,Miryam Palacios-Pérez,Sávio Torres de Farias,Kathy McGrath,Ahya Rezaei,Mukesh C Bhatt,Richard Gordon
Abstract The AstroScience Exploration Network (ASEN) is the latest innovative initiative from the Network of Researchers on the Chemical Emergence of Life (NoRCEL). Materializing on the vibrancy of the African continent, recognizing its people as a key asset, and building on specific strategic advantages, ASEN will funnel the appetite for scientific knowledge through an educational hub that paves the
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Applied Approach for Assessing Bioburden of the Mars 2020 Parachute Assembly. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-24 Lisa Guan,Brian Clement,Moogega Cooper
The Mars 2020 mission delivered the Perseverance rover to the surface of Mars using a supersonic parachute manufactured at Airborne Systems, California. The Mars 2020 spacecraft, including the flight parachute, was subject to Planetary Protection spore bioburden compliance. Many previous missions with similar parachutes applied manufacturing specifications for calculating bioburden. Although the Mars
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Traces of Ancient Life in Oceanic Basalt Preserved as Iron-Mineralized Ultrastructures: Implications for Detecting Extraterrestrial Biosignatures. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-24 Yuangao Qu,Zongjun Yin,Evelyn Kustatscher,Alexander Nützel,Jörn Peckmann,Vivi Vajda,Magnus Ivarsson
Benefiting from their adaptability to extreme environments, subsurface microorganisms have been discovered in sedimentary and igneous rock environments on Earth and have been advocated as candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life. In this article, we study iron-mineralized microstructures in calcite-filled veins within basaltic pillows of the late Ladinian Fernazza group (Middle Triassic,
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An Accounting of Contamination Control Requirements, Implementation, and Verification of the Sample Tubes for the Mars 2020 Mission and Future Return Sample Science. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-16 Thora R Maltais,Paul Boeder,Carlos Soares,Jerami Mennella,Nicholas Heinz,Vanessa Gomez,John Alred,Mark S Anderson,Ian Clark
The Sample Tubes on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover were required to meet strict cleanliness standards for possible organic and inorganic contamination introduction to collected samples. There were also strict planetary protection cleanliness standards required to limit possible biological contamination. Together, these sets of standards also applied to associated hardware, like the Sample Tube hermetic
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Jack Dwayne Farmer April 18, 1947-February 22, 2023. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-05 David J Des Marais,Maria C Farmer,Ariel D Anbar,Jonathan Zaloumis,Svetlana Shkolyar,Charlene Estrada,Sherry L Cady
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Detection of Short Peptides as Putative Biosignatures of Psychrophiles via Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometry. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-03 Ziqin Ni,Ricardo Arevalo,Anais Bardyn,Lori Willhite,Soumya Ray,Adrian Southard,Ryan Danell,Jacob Graham,Xiang Li,Luoth Chou,Christelle Briois,Laurent Thirkell,Alexander Makarov,William Brinckerhoff,Jennifer Eigenbrode,Karen Junge,Brook L Nunn
Studies of psychrophilic life on Earth provide chemical clues as to how extraterrestrial life could maintain viability in cryogenic environments. If living systems in ocean worlds (e.g., Enceladus) share a similar set of 3-mer and 4-mer peptides to the psychrophile Colwellia psychrerythraea on Earth, spaceflight technologies and analytical methods need to be developed to detect and sequence these putative
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Constraining the Rosalind Franklin Rover/Ma_MISS Instrument Capability in the Detection of Organics. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-02 M Ferrari,S De Angelis,M C De Sanctis,A Frigeri,F Altieri,E Ammannito,M Formisano,V Vinogradoff
The Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies (Ma_MISS) instrument is a miniaturized visible and near-infrared spectrometer that is integrated into the drilling system of the ESA Rosalind Franklin rover, which is devoted to subsurface exploration on Mars. Ma_MISS will acquire spectral data on the Martian subsurface from excavated borehole walls. The spectral data collected by Ma_MISS on unexposed
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Prokaryotic Community Structure, Abundances, and Potential Ecological Functions in a Mars Analog Salt Lake. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-05-01 Wenqi Cai,Ke Yu,Wanting Yang,Rong Mu,Chunang Lian,Luhua Xie,Yan Yan,Shibin Liao,Fan Wang
Barkol Lake, situated northeast of the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, is a hypersaline lake with abundant sulfate and chloride minerals, which can be a potential analog for microbial saline paleolakes on Mars. The lake water, sediments, and surrounding soils of Barkol Lake were sampled for geochemical analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing to investigate the prokaryotic community structure, abundances
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Impact of M Dwarfs Ultraviolet Radiation on Prebiotic Chemistry: The Case of Adenine. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-28 M Zulema Armas-Vázquez,Cristina E González-Espinoza,Antígona Segura,Alejandro Heredia,Arturo Miranda-Rosete
To date, several exoplanets have been found to orbit within the habitable zone of main sequence M stars (M dwarfs). These stars exhibit different levels of chromospheric activity that produces ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV may be harmful to life, but it can also trigger reactions of prebiotic importance on the surface of a potentially habitable planet (PHP). We created a code to obtain the adenine
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Microbial Characterization of Arctic Glacial Ice Cores with a Semiautomated Life Detection System. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-26 David Touchette,Catherine Maggiori,Ianina Altshuler,Alex Tettenborn,Louis-Jacques Bourdages,Elisse Magnuson,Olivia Blenner-Hassett,Isabelle Raymond-Bouchard,Alex Ellery,Lyle G Whyte
The search for extant microbial life will be a major focus of future astrobiology missions; however, no direct extant life detection instrumentation is included in current missions to Mars. In this study, we developed the semiautomated MicroLife detection platform that collects and processes environmental samples, detects biosignatures, and characterizes microbial activity. This platform is composed
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Metagenomic Methods for Addressing NASA's Planetary Protection Policy Requirements on Future Missions: A Workshop Report. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-26 Stefan J Green,Tamas Torok,Jonathan E Allen,Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh,Scott A Jackson,Sunny C Jiang,Stuart S Levine,Shawn Levy,Lynn M Schriml,W Kelley Thomas,Jason M Wood,Scott W Tighe
Molecular biology methods and technologies have advanced substantially over the past decade. These new molecular methods should be incorporated among the standard tools of planetary protection (PP) and could be validated for incorporation by 2026. To address the feasibility of applying modern molecular techniques to such an application, NASA conducted a technology workshop with private industry partners
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BioSentinel: Validating Sensitivity of Yeast Biosensors to Deep Space Relevant Radiation. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-12 Lauren C Liddell,Diana M Gentry,Rachel Gilbert,Diana Marina,Sofia Massaro Tieze,Michael R Padgen,Kylie Akiyama,Kyra Keenan,Sharmila Bhattacharya,Sergio R Santa Maria
With the imminent human exploration of deep space, it is more important than ever to understand the biological risks of deep space radiation exposure. The BioSentinel mission will be the first biological payload to study the effects of radiation beyond low Earth orbit in 50 years. This study is the last in a collection of articles about the BioSentinel biological CubeSat mission, where budding yeast
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What Would an Alien Amino Acid Alphabet Look Like and Why? Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-05 Sean M Brown,Václav Voráček,Stephen Freeland
Life on Earth builds genetically encoded proteins by using a standard alphabet of just 20 L-α-amino acids, although many others were available to life's origins and early evolution. To better understand the causes of this foundational evolutionary outcome, we extend previous analyses which have identified a highly unusual distribution of biophysical properties within the set used by life. Specifically
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Linking Methanogenesis in Low-Temperature Hydrothermal Vent Systems to Planetary Spectra: Methane Biosignatures on an Archean-Earth-like Exoplanet. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-01 Rhys Seeburger,Peter M Higgins,Niall P Whiteford,Charles S Cockell
In this work, the viability of the detection of methane produced by microbial activity in low-temperature hydrothermal vents on an Archean-Earth-like exoplanet in the habitable zone is explored via a simplified bottom-up approach using a toy model. By simulating methanogens at hydrothermal vent sites in the deep ocean, biological methane production for a range of substrate inflow rates was determined
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Thermal Stability of (Bio)Carbonates: A Potential Signature for Detecting Life on Mars? Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-01 Alexandra Perron,Fabien Stalport,Sébastien Dupraz,Alain Person,Patrice Coll,Cyril Szopa,Rafael Navarro-González,Daniel Glavin,Marie Josèphe Vaulay,Bénédicte Ménez
The environmental conditions that prevail on the surface of Mars (i.e., high levels of radiation and oxidants) are not favorable for the long-term preservation of organic compounds on which all strategies for finding life on Mars have been based to date. Since life commonly produces minerals that are considered more resilient, the search for biominerals could constitute a promising alternative approach
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Microbial Protocols for Spacecraft: 3. Spore Monolayer Preparation Methods for Ultraviolet Irradiation Exposures. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-22 Andrew C Schuerger,Erika L Headrick
Developing robust microbial survival models for interplanetary and planetary spacecraft requires precise inactivation kinetics for vehicle bioburdens. To generate such data, reliable protocols are required for preparing, testing, and assaying microbial cells or spores on simulated spacecraft materials. New data are presented on the utility of the liquid droplet protocol for applying Bacillus subtilis
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Ancient Siliciclastic-Evaporites as Seen by Remote Sensing Instrumentation with Implications for the Rover-Scale Exploration of Sedimentary Environments on Mars. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-21 Melissa J Meyer,Ralph E Milliken,Joel E Hurowitz,Kevin M Robertson
Accurate interpretation of the martian sedimentary rock record-and by extension that planet's paleoenvironmental history and potential habitability-relies heavily on rover-based acquisition of textural and compositional data and researchers to properly interpret those data. However, the degree to which this type of remotely sensed information can be unambiguously resolved and accurately linked to geological
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Environmental and Mineralogical Controls on Biosignature Preservation in Magnesium Carbonate Systems Analogous to Jezero Crater, Mars. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-21 Teanna M Burnie,Ian M Power,Carlos Paulo,Hülya Alçiçek,Luisa I Falcón,Yongjie Lin,Siobhan A Wilson
Jezero Crater on Mars is a paleolacustrine environment where Mg-carbonates may host evidence of ancient life. To elucidate the environmental and mineralogical controls on biosignature preservation, we examined samples from five terrestrial analogs: Lake Salda (Turkey), Lake Alchichica (Mexico), Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (China), Mg-carbonate playas (British Columbia, Canada), and a mine with fine-grained
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An Overview of Lipid Biomarkers in Terrestrial Extreme Environments with Relevance for Mars Exploration. Astrobiology (IF 4.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-07 Pablo L Finkel,Daniel Carrizo,Victor Parro,Laura Sánchez-García
Lipid molecules are organic compounds, insoluble in water, and based on carbon-carbon chains that form an integral part of biological cell membranes. As such, lipids are ubiquitous in life on Earth, which is why they are considered useful biomarkers for life detection in terrestrial environments. These molecules display effective membrane-forming properties even under geochemically hostile conditions