by Sebastian Kettley October 15, 2018 (express.co.uk)
• Seventeen scientists representing the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) have released a report urging NASA to focus all future missions on the hunt for astrobiological alien life. The report was mandated by the U.S. Congress.
• The report argues that growing public interest in life outside of Earth will dictate the course of NASA’s research in the “coming decade”. The report reads: “In the three years since publication of NASA’s Astrobiology Strategy 2015, significant scientific, technological and programmatic advances in the quest for life beyond earth have taken place.” “Scientific advances have revolutionised fields of astrobiological study, ranging from results from missions focused on exoplanets, such as Kepler, to continuing discovery from existing planetary missions.”
• NASA’s astrobiologists have primarily looked at candidates for life in the solar system so far, such as Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. In recent years, NASA has found evidence of complex organic molecules in Martian rock, water plumes Saturn’s moon Enceladus and even icy deposits of water on our Moon. But an ever-growing list of exoplanets discovered far out beyond the borders of our corner of space have expanded the potential number of worlds where life could exist.
• Scientists are now hoping to unravel the mysteries of how life begins in the first place and whether these exoplanets have the right conditions for live to thrive. “Evidence from major transitions in environmental conditions from early Earth to today, and an understanding of how they occurred, is critical for the search for life.”
• The new report comes in contrast to NASA’s recent efforts to hunt the universe for signs of alien technosignatures – artificially created evidence of life in space such as radio signals – as opposed to biosignatures.
NASA should focus all future missions on the hunt for astrobiological alien life, top scientists have urged in a new report.
Seventeen scientists representing the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) believe the hunt for alien life is paramount.
In a report mandated by the US Congress, the 17 experts claimed astrobiology needs to be at the forefront of NASA’s research in space.
The scientists labelled astrobiology a “field of rapid change” where technological and scientific progress is advancing the quest to discover alien life.
Their report reads: “In the three years since publication of NASA’s Astrobiology Strategy 2015, significant scientific, technological and programmatic advances in the quest for life beyond earth have taken place.
“Scientific advances have revolutionised fields of astrobiological study, ranging from results from missions focused on exoplanets, such as Kepler, to continuing discovery from existing planetary missions.”
The report further argued growing public interest in astrobiology and life outside of Earth will dictate the course of NASA’s research in the “coming decade”.
Astrobiology is the study of the origins, development and spread of life throughout the universe.
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