entire Web this site SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS: March 2001 home > space & science news > space & science news: March 2001 "Life Everywhere" on Voice of America Mar 30, 2001 2001 Mars Odyssey prepares for launch Mar 21, 2001 Panspermia entering scientific mainstream Mar 16, 2001 Linked telescopes to search for extrasolar planets Mar 16, 2001 Two major astrobiology conferences in 2002 Mar 14, 2001 Active volcanoes on Mars? Mar 13, 2001 Dinosaurs died and new life arose fast at KT boundary Mar 9, 2001 Fungus invaders from outer space Mar 8, 2001 Space probes update: Mars Odyssey, Cosmos 1, etc Mar 6, 2001 Orgeuil meteorite implicates comets in life's origins Mar 2, 2001 Chris McKay (NASA Ames) interprets new Mars life claims Mar 1, 2001 "Life Everywhere" on Voice of America (Mar. 30, 2001) To see an article and hear my recent interview about astrobiology with Adam Phillips of Voice of America, go here. To learn more about my new book on which this interview is based, go here. For those of you on the west coast, I'll be speaking at the Chabot Science Center, Oakland, on May 10, and at the University of Washington bookstore on May 11. More dates to follow. 2001 Mars Odyssey prepares for launch (Mar. 21, 2001) The latest Mars probe – the 2001 Mars Odyssey – is scheduled for launch on April 7. Learn more about this orbiter and its attempts to explore further the geology and hydrology of the fourth planet by visiting the Mars Odyssey at JPL. Panspermia entering the scientific mainstream (Mar. 16, 2001) Not so long ago, the very mention of panspermia – the idea that life can drift through space and seed itself on other worlds – would have invited hoots of derision from the research community. But times have changed. Astrobiology is now a very open forum, and talk about panspermia in various guises is no longer considered taboo. The discovery of meteorites from Mars and the realization that primitive life-forms could stow away and survive for long periods aboard such ejecta has made the notion of interplanetary or ballistic panspermia perfectly respectable. But now even the more far-fetched notion of interstellar panspermia is gaining ground. At this week's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Jay Melosh of the University of Arizona estimated that "about one meteorite ejected from a planet belonging to our Solar System is captured by another stellar system every 100 million years". Although UV and cosmic rays would threaten any stowaway microbes, Russell Vreeland of West Chester University of Pennsylvania argues that it would be quite possible for meteorites to carry well-protected organisms over interstellar distances. And the recent discovery that bacterial spores can survive for tens and perhaps hundreds of million of years makes such a scenario at least feasible. For more on this story, go here. For more on panspermia in general, visit Brig Klyce's website. Linked telescopes to search for extrasolar planets (Mar. 16, 2001) The two giant Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii have been linked to work as an optical interferometer. It is hoped the resolving power of the Keck Interferometer will allow it to capture images of large planets in orbit around other Sunlike stars. For more, go here. Two major astrobiology conferences in 2002 (Mar. 14, 2001) The rise of astrobiology as a mature science is further confirmed by the organization of two international conferences on the subject within just a few months of each other in 2002. From April 7-11, 2002, the Second Astrobiology Science Conference will be held at the NASA Ames Research Center. Then from July 8-12, 2002, the IAU will hold its Bioastronomy 2002 Conference, titled "Life Among the Stars". This latter event has the huge bonus of being held on a small subtropical island on the Great Barrier Reef. Active volcanoes on Mars? (Mar. 13, 2001) New data from Mars Global Surveyor suggest that two of the oldest volcanoes on Mars, Tyrrhena Patera and Hadriaca Patera in the planet's southern hemisphere, may still be active. The idea has been put forward by Tracy Gregg of the University of Buffalo and her colleagues. Interestingly these volcanoes also have the largest and greatest numbers of channels associated with them – features that may have been carved when ice on the sides of the mountains turned to running water during eruptions long ago. As Gregg points out: "The combination of the heat and energy from the volcanoes and the liquid water makes conditions ripe for the evolution of life, as least as we understand it on Earth." For more, go here. Dinosaurs died and new life arose rapidly at KT boundary (Mar. 9, 2001) New research suggests the dinosaurs may have been annihilated in as little as 10,000 years – the merest wink of a geological eye. A study of rocks in Italy and Tunisia supports the theory that a single, giant impact of an asteroid or long-period comet led to a rapid extinction 65 million years ago. Sujoy Mukhopadhyay and colleagues report in this week's Science how they analyzed the amount of helium-3 in the rocks of the K-T boundary to establish that it was deposited in about 10,000 years – too short a period to support the rival view that vulcanism caused a more gradual (100,000-year-long) extinction. The constant rate of accumulation of helium-3 also indicates that the impactor was not part of a comet shower or bombardment. More intriguing, however, than the fast demise of the dinosaurs and up to three-quarters of all the other life on Earth at this time is how rapidly new species arose to replace them. This encourages the view that impacts in general – providing they are not too frequent and catastrophic – may actually accelerate evolution rather than slow it down. Fungus invaders from outer space (Mar. 8, 2001) Sound like a 1950s "B" sci-fi movie? But this threat is real (if somewhat remote) and imminent. The Mir space station, now entering the upper atmosphere, and due to fall into the Pacific somewhere off New Zealand later this month, has some alien occupants aboard – various types of fungi that have mutated over the past 15 years or so while the station has been in orbit. The concern is that, as Mir breaks up, these organisms will be released into the Earth's ecosystem with unpredictable consequences. For more, go here. Space probes update (Mar. 6, 2001) For a live view of the Mars Odyssey 2001 orbiter, launch countdown clock, and information on the probe's gamma ray spectrometer, go here. The future of the Pluto-Kuiper probe hangs in the balance after NASA's latest budget squeeze. For more, go here. The Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 – the first ever solar sail mission (with big implications for future planetary/interstellar exploration – is scheduled for launch later this year. Learn more out it about here. And attempts to contact Pioneer 10 – now 11.56 billion km (77.29 AU) from the Sun – continue. Orgueil meteorite implicates comets in life's origins (Mar. 2, 2001) A study by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and their colleagues concludes that the Orgueil meteorite may be the first meteorite traced to a comet, rather than an asteroid parent body. What is more, whereas some asteroid-derived meteorites have been found to contain a large variety of amino acids, including ones not used by terrestrial life, the Orgeuil chondrite contains primarily glycine and beta-alanine – two of the amino acids found in all organisms on Earth. Measurements of carbon isotopes ratios confirm that these materials are extraterrestrial, adding weight to the notion that some of the basic organics upon from which life derived came from space. The study appears in the February 27 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is authored by Jeffrey Bada, Daniel Glavin, and Oliver Botta of Scripps; Pascale Ehrenfreund of the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands; and George Cooper of the NASA Ames Research Center. For more, go here. Chris McKay of NASA Ames comments on the latest Mars life claims (Mar. 1, 2001) Leading astrobiologist Chris McKay believes the new evidence for Martian biogenic traces in ALH 84001 and two other Mars meteorites is compelling. If magnetotactic bacteria existed on the Red Planet 3.9 billion years go, was does this suggest about the nature of the Martian environment at that time? One intriguing possibility is that it was oxygen rich. To see McKay's remarks go here. BACK TO TOP

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