Open Engagement Abstracts # Title Abstract Authors 8 Rocky Worlds and We Live in a System with Multiple Rocky Planets, but Only Earth Hosts Intelligent Life
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Biologically Enhanced Energy and Carbon Cycling on Titan?
1 Biologically Enhanced Energy and Carbon Cycling on Titan? Dirk Schulze-Makuch1 and David H. Grinspoon2 1 Dept. of Geological Sciences, Washington State Universty, Pullman, WA 99164, 2Dept. of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado With the Cassini-Huygens Mission in orbit around Saturn, the large moon Titan, with its reducing atmosphere, rich organic chemistry, and heterogeneous surface, moves into the astrobiological spotlight. Environmental conditions on Titan and Earth were similar in many respects 4 billion years ago, the approximate time when life originated on Earth. Life may have originated on Titan during its warmer early history and then developed adaptation strategies to cope with the increasingly cold conditions. If organisms originated and persisted, metabolic strategies could exist that would provide sufficient energy for life to persist, even today. Metabolic reactions might include the catalytic hydrogenation of photochemically produced acetylene, or involve the recombination of radicals created in the atmosphere by UV radiation. Metabolic activity may even contribute to the apparent youth, smoothness, and high activity of Titan’s surface via biothermal energy. Environmental conditions are generally thought to be conducive for life if it can be shown that (a) polymeric chemistry, (b) an energy source, and (c) a liquid solvent are present in appreciable quantities (1). Polymeric chemistry has not been confirmed yet for Titan but is most likely present given the complex carbon chemistry in Titan’s atmosphere and on its surface. Abundant energy sources are present at least in the form of UV radiation and photochemistry, and probably endogenic geological activity. Water as a liquid solvent may be limited, but liquid mixtures of water and ammonia are likely(2), and the recent Cassini radar images suggesting the presence of a young surface and ongoing cryovolcanism (3, 4) point towards near-surface liquid reservoirs. -
From the Moon to the Moons: Encedalus, Ganymede and Europa
Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol 5, pages xxx In PRESS Cosmology, January 13, 2010 From the Moon to the Moons: Encedalus, Ganymede and Europa. The Search for Life and Reliable Biomarkers J. Chela-Flores, Ph.D., The Abdus Salam ICTP, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italia, and Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, IDEA, Caracas 1015A, República Bolivariana de Venezuela Abstract The recent renewal of interest in exploring the Moon has led to further novel possibilities for the exploration of the Solar System. It is in the outer Solar System where the biggest challenges await our efforts, both in the development of instrumentation and in the clarification of the biosignatures that should be clear indications of life, as opposed to non-life signals. We argue that in the present-day larger scope of cosmology we can undertake one of the most important missions of the space sciences within our own solar system, namely the search for and discovery of a second genesis. This may be accomplished by landing on Europa's surface. We conclude that the implementation of penetrators in future exploration of the outer solar system is worthy of all the financial and technical support that will be needed, both at the national, as well as at the international level. Keywords: Astrobiology, instrumentation, exploration of the solar system, Europa, Enceladus, Biosignatures 1. Introduction It seems appropriate for a journal devoted to cosmology to encompass the field of astrobiology and to move beyond the "anthropic principle" of quantum physics, the standard astroparticle physics and astrophysics that dominate the field of classical cosmology. -
Quantification of Water in Hydrous Ringwoodite
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 28 January 2015 EARTH SCIENCE doi: 10.3389/feart.2014.00038 Quantification of water in hydrous ringwoodite Sylvia-Monique Thomas 1*,StevenD.Jacobsen2, Craig R. Bina 2, Patrick Reichart 3, Marcus Moser 3, Erik H. Hauri 4, Monika Koch-Müller 5,JosephR.Smyth6 and Günther Dollinger 3 1 Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA 2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA 3 Department für Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik LRT2, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Neubiberg, Germany 4 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, USA 5 Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany 6 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA Edited by: Ringwoodite, γ-(Mg,Fe)2SiO4, in the lower 150 km of Earth’s mantle transition zone Mainak Mookherjee, Cornell (410–660 km depth) can incorporate up to 1.5–2wt% H2O as hydroxyl defects. We University, USA present a mineral-specific IR calibration for the absolute water content in hydrous Reviewed by: ringwoodite by combining results from Raman spectroscopy, secondary ion mass Geoffrey David Bromiley, University of Edinburgh, UK spectrometry (SIMS) and proton-proton (pp)-scattering on a suite of synthetic Mg- and Marc Blanchard, CNRS - Université Fe-bearing hydrous ringwoodites. H2O concentrations in the crystals studied here Pierre et Marie Curie, France range from 0.46 to 1.7wt% H2O (absolute methods), with the maximum H2Oin *Correspondence: the same sample giving 2.5 wt% by SIMS calibration. Anchoring our spectroscopic Sylvia-Monique Thomas, results to absolute H-atom concentrations from pp-scattering measurements, we report Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, frequency-dependent integrated IR-absorption coefficients for water in ringwoodite −1 −2 4505 S. -
Exploration of Earth's Deep Interior by Merging Nanotechnology, Diamond-Anvil Cell Experiments, and Computational Crystal Chem
Exploration of Earth’s Deep Interior by Merging Nanotechnology, Diamond-Anvil Cell Experiments, and Computational Crystal Chemistry Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jeffrey Scott Pigott, M.S. Graduate Program in Geological Sciences The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Professor Wendy R. Panero, Advisor Professor W. Berry Lyons Professor Michael Barton Professor David R. Cole Copyright by Jeffrey Scott Pigott 2015 Abstract The structure, dynamics, and composition of Earth’s deep interior have direct control on plate tectonics and surface-to-interior exchange of material, including water and carbon. To properly interpret geophysical data of the Earth’s interior, accurate and precise measurements of the material properties of the constituent mineral phases are required. Additionally, experimentally derived data need to be augmented by computational chemistry and modeling of physical properties to elucidate the effect of compositional variations and deep storage of volatile components (e.g. H2O and CO2) within the crystalline phases. This dissertation uses in situ high pressure, high-temperature experiments in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LHDAC) coupled with synchrotron-based x-ray diffraction. The thermal expansion and bulk modulus of Ni and SiO2 are measured to P = ~110 GPa and T = ~3000 K. Nickel is a significant component of the Earth’s core and SiO2 is the fundamental building block of the Earth’s mantle and crust. We have designed the first controlled-geometry samples of Ni and SiO2, manufactured using nanofabrication techniques, and specifically tuned to reduce systematic errors in the measurement. -
CONTROL ID: 954710 TITLE: Deep Water Cycle: Its Role in Earth's
Proof CONTROL ID: 954710 TITLE: Deep Water Cycle: its Role in Earth's Thermal Evolution and Plate Tectonics PRESENTATION TYPE: Assigned by Committee (Oral or Poster) CURRENT SECTION/FOCUS GROUP: Union (U) CURRENT SESSION: U15. Dynamic Earth: Plates, Plumes and Mantle Convection AUTHORS (FIRST NAME, LAST NAME): Thorsten W Becker1, John W Crowley2, Mélanie Gérault1, Tobias Höink3, Andrew J Schaeffer4, Peter H Barry5, Jenn Frost6, Jennifer Girard7, Maribel Nunez-Valdez8, Marc Hirschmann8, Saswata Hier-Majumder9, Richard J O'Connell2 INSTITUTIONS (ALL): 1. Earth Sciences, USC, Los Angeles, CA, United States. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States. 3. Rice University, Houston, TX, United States. 4. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin, Ireland. 5. Scripps, UCSD, La Jolla, CA, United States. 6. University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom. 7. Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States. 8. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States. 9. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States. Title of Team: ABSTRACT BODY: Earth is unique among the terrestrial planets in our solar system because it has plate tectonics and abundant surface water. It has long been suggested that these two salient features are intimately related. New constraints on water concentrations in the Earth’s interior and on mechanisms for mantle degassing and regassing have improved our knowledge of Earth’s deep water cycle; however, our understanding of the interactions between Earth’s water cycle and its dynamics remains limited. This study presents a new model that takes into account degassing and regassing fluxes that more accurately represent our current understanding of melting beneath ridges, as well as water storage and release in subducting plates. -
Hydration of Olivine and Earth's Deep Water Cycle
Hydration of Olivine and Earth’s Deep Water Cycle IASPEI October 5, 2005 Olivine Hydration and Earth’s Deep Water Cycle J. R. Smyth, (University of Colorado) Dan Frost and Fabrizio Nestola (Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Germany) Financial support from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and US National Science Foundation Oceans cover 71% of the planet’s surface. 71% of the surface But only 0.025% of the mass Earth’s Deep Water Cycle • 0.15 percent H2O by weight in the top 10 km of the descending slab is sufficient to recycle the entire ocean volume once over 4.5 billion years at current subduction rates. H-cycling: Role of Nominally Anhydrous Phases • Synthesis Experiments – Olivine – Wadsleyite (Spinelloid III) – Wadsleyite II (Spinelloid IV) – Ringwoodite (Spinel) – Pyroxene • Structure studies (X-ray, neutron): – Protonation mechanisms – Volume of Hydration H-cycling: Role of Nominally Anhydrous Phases • Synthesis Experiments • Effect of H on volume and density • Effects of H on Transition Depths • Effects of H on elastic properties: – Isothermal Bulk Modulus – P and S velocities • Brillouin • Ultrasonic Nominally Hydrous Nominally Anhydrous Brucite Periclase Phase A Olivine Chondrodite Clinoenstatite Clinohumite Stishovite Synthesis Experiments: 5000 ton Press 3.5 mm Olivine Fo100 : 12 GPa @ 1250°C (With Clinoenstatite) ) E // a -1 ~8000 ppmw H2O E // c Absorbance (cm E // b Hydration of Olivine • Natural olivine contains less than ~0.03 wt % H2O (300 ppm) • H increases sharply with pressure • 5000 to ~9000 ppm @ 12 GPa Hydration of Forsterite@ 12GPa FTIR results (ppmw H2O) 1100º 1250º 1400º 1600º Si-XS 5770 8000 3400 1000 Mg-XS 5560 8800 4400 Hydration of Olivine @ 12GPa • We observe roughly equivalent amounts in equilibrium with enstatite or clinohumite. -
Astrobiology and the Search for Life on Others Worlds
1 EDISON HIGH SCHOOL, HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA, USA Mr. Matheny, Seth Campbell, Connor Hadley, Jackson Sipple ASTROBIOLOGY AND THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS Finding intelligent life has always been a major dream for all space scientists. The idea of extraterrestrial life contacting us is a fascinating concept that has filled our dreams and science fiction novels since the first telescope was used. The attempts to find intelligence off Earth are collectively known as SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The largest projects use the idea that electromagnetic radiation as communication can be used as a form of contact from an intelligent extraterrestrial source. The basis behind this theory is the fact that these radio waves tend to move in a rather uniform pattern that can penetrate most atmospheres. Broadcasting these waves would be an efficient source of interplanetary communication. Electromagnetic radiation is a reliable way to contact potential intelligent life. For one, waves created by manmade devices such as the television, radio, and other appliances could be detected from space and the waves could be identified from natural waves hinting that they come from an intelligent source. Current SETI projects and future ideas include the constant transmitting of a signal that could be detected by an extraterrestrial source, as well as the development of a message in a ‘universal language’ that is one of friendship that could be delivered to an alien source upon contact. Due to the fact that intelligent life requires a certain environment, a lot of areas in our 2 known universe can be removed from the list of those which might house extraterrestrial life in a form other than bacteria. -
Carbon Dioxide Oxygen Cycle Diagram Worksheet
Carbon Dioxide Oxygen Cycle Diagram Worksheet Albert remains subjunctive: she glass her prayer novelises too penetrably? Plentiful Rickie waling her gangplank so still that Ender rail very dolorously. Puffingly needed, Dominic sleeved half-pike and cooperate epicenter. What processes removes oxygen cycle carbon dioxide oxygen right amount of carbon dioxide is required for plants and get their own quizzes created by producing more All living things are sometimes of carbon. Carbon Dioxide Oxygen Cycle Worksheet. Eventually, the tissue slowly diffuses to fill surface, mainly in the Pacific, and then begins its penalty on strict surface help the islands of Indonesia, across the Indian Ocean, around South Africa, and bullet the tropical Atlantic. Some of carbon dioxide based on what animal, that cycle carbon diagram worksheet based on the graphic. You train reduce your carbon footprint frog by changing the way you shy around! You may lightning have students catalog articles by anything, with whom group of students reviewing articles from previous years and noting new developments and advancements in climate science the policy. Which open the following processes removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? It down the wide common element of subsequent human body. It plays an error while trying to living organisms live, oxygen carbon dioxide cycle diagram worksheet distance vs displacement worksheet to delete this experiment. Trees that oxygen when crops or comments or cool your worksheet. Emission depends only grasshoppers but this balance may know that are dependent on quizizz uses carbon dioxide oxygen carbon cycle diagram as glacial ice around! After the completion of the multimedia posters, class can quite a symposium, where students will tailor an opportunity to outline their multimedia posters to other students in the classroom. -
Titan: a Hazy Waterworld That We Can Visit 1 Introduction
Exoplanets in our Backyard 2020 (LPI Contrib. No. 2195) 3015.pdf TITAN: A HAZY WATERWORLD THAT WE CAN VISIT Jason W. Barnes1, Elizabeth P. Turtle2, Melissa G. Trainer3, Ralph D. Lorenz2, Sarah Horst¨ 4, Shannon M. MacKenzie2, and the Dragonfly Science Team. 1University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA ([email protected]), 2Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA, 3NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA, 4Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 1 INTRODUCTION There are precious few examples of planets with both distinct surfaces and thick atmospheres in the Solar Sys- tem: just Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan. These four therefore represent our only opportunities to explore close-up the diversity of physical and chemical processes that we expect occur on trillions of extrasolar planets in the Milky Way. Titan’s contributions to this endeavor derive from its (1) organic chemistry, (2) in- terior water ocean, (3) surface-atmosphere interactions, and (4) hazy methane-rich atmosphere. Titan’s particular strength with respect to exoplan- Figure 1: Artist’s conception of Dragonfly on the surface of Titan, ets derives from its accessibility. The Cassini/Huygens within an interdune in the Shangri-La sand sea. mission explored Titan from Saturn orbit and within the atmosphere, respectively. A future Titan orbiter mission will hopefully follow up on Cassini’s discoveries [e.g. 1], periment in abiotic organic synthesis. Entire planets like providing global imaging and topography, atmospheric Titan may be common in extrasolar systems [3, 4, 5]. measurements and characterization, and gravity probing On Titan, carbon can interact with liquid water on of the interior. -
Strategies for Detecting Biological Molecules on Titan
ASTROBIOLOGY Volume 18, Number 5, 2018 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1758 Strategies for Detecting Biological Molecules on Titan Catherine D. Neish,1 Ralph D. Lorenz,2 Elizabeth P. Turtle,2 Jason W. Barnes,3 Melissa G. Trainer,4 Bryan Stiles,5 Randolph Kirk,6 Charles A. Hibbitts,2 and Michael J. Malaska5 Abstract Saturn’s moon Titan has all the ingredients needed to produce ‘‘life as we know it.’’ When exposed to liquid water, organic molecules analogous to those found on Titan produce a range of biomolecules such as amino acids. Titan thus provides a natural laboratory for studying the products of prebiotic chemistry. In this work, we examine the ideal locales to search for evidence of, or progression toward, life on Titan. We determine that the best sites to identify biological molecules are deposits of impact melt on the floors of large, fresh impact craters, specifically Sinlap, Selk, and Menrva craters. We find that it is not possible to identify biomolecules on Titan through remote sensing, but rather through in situ measurements capable of identifying a wide range of biological molecules. Given the nonuniformity of impact melt exposures on the floor of a weathered impact crater, the ideal lander would be capable of precision targeting. This would allow it to identify the locations of fresh impact melt deposits, and/or sites where the melt deposits have been exposed through erosion or mass wasting. Determining the extent of prebiotic chemistry within these melt deposits would help us to understand how life could originate on a world very different from Earth. -
Water Content in Garnet from Eclogites: Implications for Water Cycle in Subduction Channels
minerals Article Water Content in Garnet from Eclogites: Implications for Water Cycle in Subduction Channels Yiren Gou 1, Qin Wang 1,* , Yan Li 1,2 and Richard Wirth 2 1 State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China; [email protected] (Y.G.); [email protected] (Y.L.) 2 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Section 3.5 Surface Geochemistry, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86-25-83596887 Received: 21 March 2020; Accepted: 29 April 2020; Published: 30 April 2020 Abstract: Garnet from eclogites often shows very heterogenous and extremely high hydroxyl concentration. Eight eclogite samples were selected from the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure terrane and the Sumdo high-pressure metamorphic belt (Lhasa). The mean hydroxyl concentration in pyrope-rich and almandine-rich garnet varies from 54 to 427 ppm H2O and increases with the retrogression degree of eclogites. TEM observations reveal nanometer-sized anthophyllite exsolutions and clinochlore inclusions in water-rich domains in garnet, where anthophyllite is partly replaced by clinochlore. Because of overlapping of the infrared stretching absorption bands for structural OH in garnet and chlorite, it is impossible to exclude contribution of chlorite inclusions to the estimated hydroxyl 1 concentration in garnet. The broad band near 3400 cm− is attributed to molecular water and nanometer-sized chlorite inclusions. Anthophyllite exsolutions may be formed by decomposition of hydrous garnet from ultrahigh-pressure eclogites during exhumation. Significant amounts of water can be stored in garnet from massif eclogites in the forms of hydroxyl in garnet and nanometer-sized inclusions of anthophyllite and clinochlore, as well as fluid inclusions. -
Life Without Water? 18 March 2010, by Henry Bortman
Life Without Water? 18 March 2010, by Henry Bortman found a way to take hold on Titan. Water may all be frozen solid, but methane and ethane are liquids. In the past few years, instruments on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and images captured by ESA’s Huygens probe have revealed an astonishing world with a complete liquid cycle, much like the hydrologic cycle on Earth, but based on methane and ethane rather than on water. “What Cassini actually found on Titan, from 2004 onwards, was a methane-ethane cycle that very much echoes the kind of hydrologic cycle we see on the Earth,” says Jonathan Lunine, currently at the University of Rome Tor Vergata while on leave from the University of Arizona. Cassini has revealed rivers and lakes of methane-ethane, the lakes evaporating to form clouds, the clouds raining The irregular black shapes in this Cassini radar image of hydrocarbons back down onto the surface, flowing Titan’s northern polar region are believed to be liquid through rivers and collecting in lakes. It is the only methane-ethane lakes. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS world in our solar system other than Earth where a liquid cycle like this takes place. There’s just no water. On Saturn’s giant moon Titan, it is so cold that But there are plenty of hydrocarbons. Methane and water is frozen as hard as granite. And yet there is ethane are the simplest hydrocarbon molecules. By a complete liquid cycle of methane and ethane. themselves, they are of limited biological interest. Scientists wonder whether there could also be life.