|
COSMIC TRIBUNE.COM
|
Russian "flying saucers" to grace U.S. skies . . .
UFOs over Canada, Colombia, U.S. . . .
|
|
|
EXTRATERRESTRIAL:
Is there life on Europa?
|
|
UNIVERSE TODAY
Summary - (Apr 5, 2004) When NASA's Galileo spacecraft uncovered evidence that Europa's icy surface covers a huge ocean, scientists immediately thought... life. Scientists have been analyzing pictures returned by Galileo and Voyager to find evidence of life. Several key chemical compounds, called biomarkers, could indicate life has existed on Europa. Scientists are working on ways to simulate what those biomarkers would look like after being in Jupiter's immense radiation field so spacecraft could detect them from orbit.
Full Story -
Christopher Chyba is the principal investigator for the SETI Institute lead team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). Chyba formerly headed the SETI Institute's Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. His NAI team is pursuing a wide range of research activities, looking at both life's beginnings on Earth and the possibility of life on other worlds. Several of his team's research projects will examine the potential for life - and how one might go about detecting it - on Jupiter's moon Europa. Astrobiology Magazine's managing editor Henry Bortman recently spoke with Chyba about this work.
Astrobiology Magazine: One of the areas of focus of your personal research has been the possibility of life on Jupiter's moon Europa. Several of the projects funded by your NAI grant deal with this ice-covered world.
Christopher Chyba: Right. We're interested in interactions of life and planetary evolution. There are three worlds that are most interesting from that point of view: Earth, Mars and Europa. And we have a handful of projects going that are relevant to Europa. Cynthia Phillips is the leader of one of those projects; my grad student here at Stanford, Kevin Hand, heads up another one; and Max Bernstein, who's a SETI Institute P.I., is a leader on the third.
SEE FULL TEXT
|
|
|