National Aeronautics and Space Exploration (NASA). Goals of NASA for its analysis of extreme environments; Concept behind the Astrobiology Science & Technology for Exploring Planets program; Analogs for extraterrestrial environments on earth; Issues about measurements of life indicators; Examples of ...
There's need to characterize the habitability conditions of a cave environment, be it the availability of water, energy sources and chemical potential. But also to determine if signatures of life are present in the cave environment, the report adds. Human explorers could land near a target cave...
“These two different sources of water in Mars’ interior might be telling us something about the kinds of objects that were available to coalesce into the inner, rocky planets,” Barnes said. Two distinct planetesimals with vastly different water contents could have collided and never fully mixed...
space sheltered from ultraviolet and cosmic radiation and provided a solvent, whereas the below-ground temperature2 and diffusion6,7 of a dense, reduced atmosphere8,9 may have supported simple microbial organisms that consumed H2 and CO2 as energy and carbon sources and produced methane as a ...
These habitable conditions fall under four broad categories: 1) a source of energy; 2) the availability of chemical nutrients; 3) favorable environmental conditions; and 4) accessible water (e.g., Jakosky and Shock, 1998; Cockell et al., 2016). Each of these habitability conditions can ...
Dusty water ice (<~1% dust by mass) is exposed at the surface of Mars at latitudes poleward of 75°1,2. In the martian mid-latitudes (30−60∘ latitude), dusty ice is typically overlain by desiccated material3,4,5. However, recent observations indicate that the overlying desiccated ...
In its three years on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has made remarkable strides in exploring the planet’s surface, uncovering evidence of its water history and geological features that hint at the possibility of ancient life. The ongoing mission and anticipated sample return effort promise to ...
Special Regions on Mars are defined as environments able to host liquid water that simultaneously meets certain temperature and water activity requirements that allow known terrestrial organisms to replicate1,2 and therefore could be habitable. Such regions would be of concern for planetary protection po...
Habitability is centrally based upon the presence of liquid water on a planetary body at some time in its history [1]. However, the origin of life is a multi-stage process that requires a sufficiently dynamic and chemically complex environment to drive the selection and evolution of chemical ...
In the LDWHS, there are strange rocks and valleys that are the result of severe water and wind erosion [18]. During the interview, participants said that the specific shape of the valleys and rocks in the LDWHS, especially the snake tongue valley in Kerman Province, corresponds to their ...