1. Life Outside Earth 1/12/2019 Scientistmel.com Twitter.com/scientistmel
Patreon.com/scientistmel
1/12/2019

2. Life in Space What is Astrobiology?
Where could we find life? (what kind)
What needs to be there for life?
Is a Mars Mission Really possible?

3. Astrobiology Breakdown Study of life outside of earth
Looks to chemistry associated with life
Studies extremophiles for comparison
Looks at ancient rock

4. NP
Astrobiology focuses on organisms that live in the harshest conditions of earth…Penn state has an astrobiology research center where they work in coordination with nasa to develop novel and effective approaches at detecting and characterizing life outside of earth through investigating ancient rock that reflect rock found outside of earth. They study these tiny ecosystems looking for biosignatures that could mirror the conditions to find life outside of earth.
Where do they look?

5. Astrobiology Research Biosignatures Ancient rocks
Relevant Microbial Ecosystems
Extraterrestrial Settings
Research
Biosignatures

6. NP Biosignatures in Ancient Rocks
The Earth’s Archean and Proterozoic eons offer the best opportunity for investigating a microbial world, such as might be found elsewhere in the cosmos. The ancient record on Earth provides an opportunity to see what geochemical signatures are produced by microbial life and how these signatures are preserved over geologic time.
Biosignatures in Relevant Microbial Ecosystems
We will investigate microbial life in some of Earth’s most mission-relevant ecosystems: the Dead Sea, the Chesapeake impact structure, the methane seeps of the Eel River Basin, and Greenland glacier ice.
Biosignatures in Extraterrestrial Settings
We will investigate the abundance of sulfur gases and elucidate how these gases can be expected to evolve with time on young terrestrial planets. We will continue studies of planet formation in the presence of migration and model radial transport of volatiles in young planetary systems, and will also be involved with searches for M star planetary companions and planets around K-giant stars.

7. What Kind of Life?
Cellular is most feasible
Tardisgrades give clues

8. NP
0.05 mm – 1.2 mm
They can live anywhere…in extreme heat…survive cosmic radiation…live without water for 10 years…they can be frozen and brought back to life…yhey are over 600 million years old…reproduce both sexually and asexually…there are a whole lot of subspecies… The Tardigrade phylum branches out into:
3 classes
5 orders
20 families
15 subfamilies
105 genera
4 subgenera
1,018 species
67 subspecies

9. NP
There are other extremophiles on earth that are studied to gain insight as to life on othewr pplanets
Acidophile: An organism that grows best at acidic (low) pH values.
Alkaliphile: An organism that grows best at high pH values.
Anaerobe: An organism that can grow in the absence of oxygen.
Facultative Anaerobe: An organism that grows in the presence or in the absence of oxygen.
Obligate Anaerobe: An organism that cannot grow in the presence of oxygen; the presence of oxygen either inhibits growth or kills the organism.
Cyanobacteria from LaDuke spring a thermal site in Yellowstone
showShow caption
Endolith: An organism that lives inside rock or in the pores between mineral grains.
Halophile: An organism requiring high concentrations of salt for growth.
Methanogen: An organism that produces methane from the reaction of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, member of the Archaea.
Oligotroph: An organism with optimal growth in nutrient limited conditions.
Piezophile (Barophile): An organism that lives optimally at high hydrostatic pressure.
Psychrophile: An organism with optimal growth at temperature 15 °C or lower.
Thermophile: An organism with optimal growth at temperature 40 °C or higher.
Hyperthermophile: An organism with optimal growth at temperature 80 °C or higher.
Toxitolerant: An organism able to withstand high levels of damaging elements (e.g., pools of benzene, nuclear waste).
Xerophile: An organism capable of growth at very low water activity.

10. What Kind of Life? Brine Shrimp: Salt water survivors
Methane Ice Worms: Ice dwellers
Rushing Fireball Microbe: Possible CO2 eater
Lazarus Microbe: Radiation Resistant

11. NP
The more we study organisms who live in extreme conditions, the better we can understand how organisms could live outside the safety net of our planet. There are limits to astrobiology. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are publishing a strategy for finding life outside of our planet. It is still under editorial review, but you can actually read the strategy for yourself…all 186 pages of it as experts compiled a list of things that need to be done in order to refine our search for life.

12. Strategy Moving Forward Collab with Private Org. and Countries
Subsurface Life
Extremophile Research
Refine Biosignature Research
SETI Project
Strategy

13. Titan
Moon of Saturn has loads of organic molecules…lots of methane. Scientists are studying Titan as a possibility of extremophile presence.

14. NP
Why Tiatn? It has a large amount of organic molecules we see actively in living organisms within our own planet. It has a large amount of methane which is a byproduct of organisms on our planet. It can also be used as a fuel source. Scientists are intrigued by Titan in that formation of more complex organic molecules have occurred in lab with similar conditions as the Titan atmosphere. The atmosphere resembles that of early earth which also gives a nudge towards life on Titan. Of course more research needs to be performed in order to vet and validate such biosignatures and more information would need to be collected especially at the subsurface levels of titan that presents it’s own challenges. A land rover would have to survive the current conditions are at -179 C

15. MARS ONE https://www.mars-one.com/mission/roadmap
Nasa has a timeline for Mars One…they are looking at landing in 2030…with a Demo mission starting in 2022.

16. NP
The biggest obstacle is preparing for humans to survive the harsh conditions of Mars…robotic spacecraft is the first step in understanding fully the conditions of mars and what to expect for human sustainability. NASA is hopeful we will have a place on Mars in the next 11 years

17. Life in Space What is Astrobiology?
Where could we find life? (what kind)
What needs to be there for life?
Is a Mars Mission Really possible?

18. Thank you to my Patrons James Jenn Carl Melanie Patrick Daniel Steven
Graham
Dragnaucht
Godless Iowan
Jennifer
Richard
Doc Fearsome
Neil
James
Jenn
Carl
Melanie
Patrick
Daniel
Steven
Andy
Zachary
Tony Bo
Steven
Sarah
Chris
Paola
Keri
Circe
Keith
Duke
James
NA/NA

19. You can find me… ScientistMel.com Patreon.com/scientistmel
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20. Life Outside Earth 1/12/2019 Scientistmel.com Twitter.com/scientistmel
Patreon.com/scientistmel
1/12/2019

21. SOURCES
AZONano.com
prevalent-nanoparticles