What is Astrobiology? “ Astrobiology is the study of life in the

1. What is Astrobiology? “Astrobiology is the study of life in the universe. It investigates the origin, evolution, distribution, & future of life on Earth, & the search for life beyond Earth. Astrobiology addresses three fundamental questions: 1) How does life begin & evolve? 2) Is there life beyond Earth & how can we detect it? 3) What is the future of life on Earth & in the universe?” (http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/)

2. Is Life Rare? Hard to image, given the potentially large number of ELPs. But we have no evidence of life outside of our own Earth. Is life common? - Life may be a natural process and part of the universe. - Universe may be full of life. - Earth is not “special”. Is life rare? - Origin of life a rare event, perhaps a singular event despite the abundance of ELPs. - Earth is “special”.

3. Fig. 20-18, p.428

4. What are the commonly cited traits? Life does stuff that distinguishes it from other stuff (for instance, computer viruses) Replicates/reproduces Uses energy to maintain “chemical disequilibria” Evolves/adapts Life does stuff longer than if it weren’t alive (“life evades the decay into equilibrium” - Erwin Schöedinger, 1944) Defining Life…on Earth

5. Life is a chemical system in disequilibrium with environment unique trait of replicating itself undergoes Darwinian evolution Defining Life…on Earth

6. Carbon Electrons Energy Water Other nutrients Basic Requirements of Life

7. Earth’s timescale Fig. 26-9, p.599

8. Harold Urey and Stanley Miller (1953), University of Chicago

9. Environment that threatens access to basic requirements the integrity of biomolecules What is an Extreme Environment?

10. Organisms living in extreme habitats on Earth Who, what, & where are they? Extremophiles

11. Genetic Diversity

12. Macroscopic life exhibits two main strategies Photosynthesis based on excreting oxygen Cellular respiration based on consuming oxygen (or other oxygen-containing compounds) Metabolic Diversity

13. Microbial life exhibits these strategies andmany more! Photosynthesis & cellular respiration actually performed by “kidnapped” microbes increased ability to find resources under a variety of circumstances  many more niches in which to live Metabolic Diversity (cont’d.) Hydrothermal vent bacteria (Divediscovery.whoi.edu)

14. Extremophiles on Earth • Many examples of tolerance to extreme environments • temperature • pressure • salinity • pH • desiccation • radiation

15. Examples of extreme habitats & extremophile inhabitants Potential environmental stressors Some physiological adaptations Life in Extreme Environments

16. Acidophiles Alkaliphile Anaerobe Endolith Halophile Barophile Psychrophile Thermophile Xerophile Some Categories of Organisms Adapted to Extreme Habitats - Low pH (< 5) - High pH (> 9) - No O2 • Within rock • High salinity • High hydrostatic pressure • Very cold temp. • Very hot temp. • Very limited H2O

17. Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents www.noaa.gov

19. Life Elsewhere • Studies of life in extreme environments on Earth have led us to focus on some prime places to look for life • Mars • Europa (moon of Jupiter) • Titan (moon of Saturn)

20. Habitable Worlds Photo of Jupiter with moons Europa (near Red Spot) and Callisto (left) - 2001 Cassini Spacecraft image. Offers environmental conditions where someform of life could originate or survive. (NOT whether the planet has life or not). Growing evidence for: - Habitability of Early Mars - Habitability of Oceans of Europa (moon of Jupiter) Artists’ rendition of what Early Mars may have looked like

24. Fig. 26-10, p.601

26. Fig. 23-16, p.518

28. Fig. 15-2, p. 307

29. Fig. 26-11, p.602

30. p.188

33. Life in the Universe Hubble Space Telescope image of Sedna- takes 10,500 years to circle the Sun! Our Solar System has planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and interplanetary dust. Milky Way galaxy has 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars. Universe has 100 billion (or more) galaxies. Many stars have planets. Some like Jupiter and Saturn. Some may be like Earth. Potential for a large number of Earth-like planets (ELPs). Interplanetary Dust Particle -10 µm across made by dying and exploded stars

34. Table 26-1, p.607

35. Fig. 26-14, p.606

36. Arecibo Radio Observatory (Puerto Rico) 305-meter diam. Phoenix Project 1995-present survey of 1000 nearby stars at freq. of 1000-3000 MHz Project SERENDIP 1979-present “piggy-back” survey using various radio telescopes. Arecibo observations (1992-present) scan each sky pointing every 1.7 seconds over 168 million channels centered on 1420 MHz. This enormous data load is farmed out to SETI@home

38. Allen Telescope Array (Hat Creek, California) 350 6-meter dishes (2008) This privately-funded (mostly by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen) telescope will be primarily used by the SETI Institute for SETI surveys. It will be able to scan a wide field of view (2.5 degrees) over a wide frequency range (0.5-11.2 GHz) at each pointing. Over 50 dishes are already in place and taking data for several projects.