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Astrobiology has always been on the sidelines of NASA's scientific programs, and the last time that this one has attempted to break into the mainstream with the establishment of an official SETI program, it has been closed after one year. Now, thanks to tremendous advances in the discovery of exoplanets and Sun-like stars, NASA is seeing a considerable resurgence of interest in research and the study of life beyond the Earth. While the Congress was pushing the agency to embark on the quest for extraterrestrial life, a group of leading scientists made up of scientists from national academies of science, engineering and medicine drafted a report. new document advising NASA to define next steps.
The report offers a whole series of new recommendations, but one of the most important is that the livability of a planet is "not a yes or no type of question". The paper instead recommends research on the concept of "dynamic habitability", which examines how life and its environment change over time. In essence, what may have been habitable 100 million years ago may no longer be, and vice versa. Another major recommendation is the continuation of research on biosignatures, phenomena created by the presence of biological beings such as microbes. According to the report, to find life, we must determine what to look for and how to identify false positives. Oxygen is a good example: the mass production of oxygen on Earth was mainly the result of living creatures on the surface, but other planets can end up with a lot of oxygen through processes that have nothing to do with life.
As for the places where the report is waiting to find life, the consensus is that we should focus on observing beneath the surface of the planets, where the organisms would be protected from cosmic rays. Recent research has shown that life is much more adaptable and resistant than previously thought – according to the report: "… if bacterial life can exist in cold and hypersaline environments (about 10 times as salty ocean) Salty brines under the surface of Mars could also harbor life, as organisms on Earth can grow away from the sun's rays in sediments below the sea floor. and in the deep depths of the land masses of the Earth, we are signs of life. "
You can see the document here and read the highlights summary here.
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