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Two researchers from New England team up to answer a fundamental question: Is there a life in the cosmos?
James Holden, professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst, is working with Darby Dyar of Mount Holyoke College to develop techniques for detecting evidence of life in outer space. NASA recently awarded Holden, the lead investigator, a $ 635,000 grant under the Space Agency's exobiology program, which focuses on the search for life beyond the Earth.
During the three years of effort, the duo focused on tiny forms of life on Earth that could provide clues to the detection of life on other planets.
In his previous work, Holden harvested and studied microbes from deep-water hyperthermal ducts, openings in the seabed off Washington and Oregon, where the water was at high temperature .
"We think that in the past of Mars, there was this type of environment or something very similar," Holden said in an interview. "We are working on the analysis of life as we know it here on Earth and which, in our opinion, could be similar to what we see on Mars."
Microbes will be isolated, mineral-fed and closely monitored.
"We will surround them with different iron minerals and sulfur minerals, things we expect would be in their natural habitat, as well as minerals we think are on the surface of Mars, such as rust," Holden said.
The instruments for detecting life are already on spacecraft.A challenge facing Dyar, which is part of NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover mission and others, is the lack of a robust library to identify near-invisible life on Earth. Holden's research would fill this gap and provide a comparative benchmark for materials found in space.
"If we can use these instruments that allow us to look at and analyze these samples [and catalog the findings]This could be the best way to quickly examine a series of rocks and say, "There seems to be some evidence of life in this rock, but not that one," Holden said.
His research could also have ground-to-earth uses.
"As we learn to detect microbes using these techniques, they could also help us detect life in soils on farmland, or even on the surface of the chicken in a food processing plant, or in a patient with of an illness ". I said.
The project could also help researchers and scientists working with extraterrestrial materials identify life, Holden said.
"If there is a signal of life, if there is something we can detect, how do we detect it, how do we know what to look for?" By practicing the detection of life in the rocks here, it teaches us how to actually get the data for something like the Mars Rover Curiosity, "he said.
Cynthia Fernandez can be contacted at [email protected]
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