Space Studies Board Annual Report 1996 (1997) / Chapter Skim
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A.2 The Search for Origins: Findings of a Space Science Workshop, OIctober 28-30, 1996
A.2 The Search for Origins: Findings of a Space Science Workshop, OIctober 28-30, 1996
Pages 77-86
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From page 77... ...
John Gibbons Assists 10 1be Indent far Science ad Technology, ~quesdug that NASA assemble ~ Sup of scientists to Moor ~ o~ec~ve assessment of 1) major questions in space science; 2)
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From page 78... ...
The current and planned space science programs of NASA begin the next steps in the quest for ORIGINS and pose the technology challenges needed for subsequent steps. Missions now under way and in planning, including upgraded instrumentation for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Advanced Xray Astrophysics Facility, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, the Mars Surveyor series, and other planetary and space astronomy and physics projects, will offer powerful tools for advancing the ORIGINS program.
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From page 79... ...
DERIVATION OF EXISTING LlFI~ ON EARTH FROM MICROBES THAT LIVED AT HIGH TEMPERATURES IN THE ABSENCE OF OXYGEN Over the past decade, biologists have enjoyed remarkable success in constructing the "Universal Tree of Life," a family tree of all living organisms. The tree is based on the fundamental insight that all organisms contain subcellular components called ribosomes and that all ribosomes contain structurally similar components made of RNA.
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From page 80... ...
Exotic habitats must be explored more fully on Earth, so that the capability of living organisms to adapt to different environments and the ways in which life has adapted to changing environments can be better understood. Recent studies using molecular approaches to establishing genealogical relationships have revolutionized the way we think about the natural history of life.
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From page 81... ...
Observations of how Earth and the other planets currently interact with the various solar outputs, including light, ionizing radiations and solar wind, provide clues about the physical processes that the early planets and their atmospheres must have undergone in response to exposure to the more extreme young Sun. METEORITE EVIDENCE THAT MICROBIAL LIFE ONCE MAY HAVE EXISTED ON MARS For centuries Mars has been an object of fascination as a possible abode of life.
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From page 82... ...
Comets, asteroids, and the newly discovered Kuiper Belt objects fulfill these requirements and enable us to explore the internal chemical beginnings of the solar system. Comets are small dark bodies composed of a mixture of organic materials, refractory grains, and ices, predominantly water.
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From page 83... ...
These same stations could transmit seismic data to elucidate the Red Planet' s internal structure and could include sophisticated geochemical laboratories to assay local materials. RETURN TO EARTH SOME WELL-CHOSEN MARS SAMPLES TO ELUCIDATE ITS PAST AND TO ENABLE A SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF BOTH FOSSIL AND EXTANT LIFE While the recently announced findings from the Antarctic meteorite ALH84001 are not proof of life on Mars, they have yielded strong evidence that both hydrocarbons and minerals deposited by water are in ancient martian materials.
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From page 84... ...
Early in the history of the solar system similarly scattered fragments may have seeded Earth with water and organic molecules. A crucial next step to understanding whether Earth' s oceans and organic store came from this outer realm is reconnaissance of the Gulper Belt using the most sophisticated chemical remote-sensing techniques available, first from large ground-based telescopes.
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From page 85... ...
Very recent Hubble Space Telescope optical images of the Eagle Nebula, a part of the MiBy Way galaxy long known as a stellar nursery, illustrate the complex processes that transform cold interstellar gas clouds into new stars. The surface of the cloud is contorted into a series of columns that, themselves, display smaller protuberances.
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From page 86... ...
Key areas for study include the detailed characterization of the disks that surround young stars and may go on to form planetary systems, the evolution of the dense molecular clouds that are apparently the source of all star formation in a spiral galaxy like ours, and the role of supernovae and other violent events in triggering star formation in molecular clouds. Space infrared observations will enable astronomers to draw aside the dusty cloaks surrounding local stellar nurseries like those in the Eagle Nebula.
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