"California astronomers are broadening the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) with a new experiment to look for powerful light pulses beamed our way from other star systems. Scientists from the University of California's Lick Observatory, the SETI Institute , UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley are coupling the Lick Observatory's 40-inch Nickel Telescope with a new pulse-detection system capable of finding laser beacons from civilizations many light-years distant. Unlike other optical SETI searches, this new experiment is largely immune to false alarms that slow the reconnaissance of target stars. "

"One of Jupiter's largest moons, Callisto, may hold watery secrets beneath its surface, suggests a new analysis. The satellite's icy crust may be the planetary equivalent of a blanket, insulating an underground ocean."

"The discovery of the induced magnetic field of Callisto has been interpreted as evidence for a subsurface ocean, even though the presence of such an ocean is difficult to understand in the context of existing theoretical models. "

"Microorganisms living in anoxic marine sediments consume more than 80% of the methane produced in the world's oceans. In addition to single-species aggregates, consortia of metabolically interdependent bacteria and archaea are found in methane-rich sediments. "

"Most of the methane that rises toward the surface of the ocean floor vanishes before it even reaches the water. A team of researchers has provided the clinching evidence for where all that methane goes: It is devoured by vast hordes of mud-dwelling microbes that belong to a previously unknown species of archaea. These methane-eating microbes--once thought to be impossible--now look to be profoundly important to the planet's carbon cycle."

"Methane consuming archaeobacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria, acting together, are responsible for consuming most of the methane in the world's oceans, according to a team of microbiologists and geoscientists. "Past research had shown that there is a consortia of these two very different single-celled organisms, and indirect tests indicated they might be the source of methane consumption," said Dr. Christopher H. House, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State. "We decided to directly test if these organisms are responsible."

"The advent of oxygenic photosynthesis on Earth may have increased global biological productivity by a factor of 100­1,000 , profoundly affecting both geochemical and biological evolution. Much of this new productivity probably occurred in microbial mats, which incorporate a range of photosynthetic and anaerobic microorganisms in extremely close physical proximity."

"Darwinian evolution favours genotypes with high replication rates, a process called 'survival of the fittest'. However, knowing the replication rate of each individual genotype may not suffice to predict the eventual survivor, even in an asexual population."

"Chuck Klein, whose nickname came from a popular baseball player of his youth, has been in the forefront of what is now called astrobiology since the 1960s. For decades he was a driving force at the SETI Institute, encouraging and participating in research into the possibilities of life beyond Earth. Klein died on July 15"

"The results of 16 new 3D N-body simulations of the final stage of the formation of the terrestrial planets are presented. The principal effect of using an initially bimodal mass distribution is to increase the final number of planets. Each simulation ends with an object that is an approximate analogue of Earth in terms of mass and heliocentric distance.

"The panel for this hearing was comprised of three eloquent scientists and one NASA bureaucrat. The topics discussed ranged from the definition of intelligent life (and whether there is any in Washington DC); the odds of finding extraterrestrial life (of any kind) in the universe; the extremes to which life seems to be able to adapt and what this suggests for extraterrestrial abodes; and lastly whether UFOs are indeed piloted by intelligent visitors from another world. Not your typical Congressional hearing."

"As an alien sun blazes through its death throes, it is apparently vaporizing a surrounding swarm of comets, releasing a huge cloud of water vapor. The discovery, reported in an article to be published tomorrow in the journal Nature, is the result of observations with the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS), a small radio observatory NASA launched into space in December 1998."

"The remarkable hydrothermal vent structures serendipitously discovered last December in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, including a massive 18-story vent taller than any seen before, are formed in a very different way than ocean-floor vents studied since the 1970s, according to findings published July 12 in the journal Nature. The circulation of fluids that forms this new class of hydrothermal vents apparently is driven by heat generated when seawater reacts with mantle rocks, not by volcanic heat. "

"[This article proposes] the concept of a "Galactic Habitable Zone" (GHZ). Analogous to the Circumstellar Habitable Zone (CHZ), the GHZ is that region in the Milky Way where an Earth-like planet can retain liquid water on its surface and provide a long-term habitat for animal-like aerobic life."

"The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft are currently traveling through the outer reaches of the solar system. Voyager 1 may soon encounter the termination shock, a region that provides a clue to the overall size of the heliosphere. Current estimates suggest that the termination shock is located at 80 to 100 times the Sun-Earth distance; Voyager 1 may soon provide a more precise answer. "

"Formation of the solar system may have been triggered by a stellar wind. From then on, the solar system would have followed a conventional evolutionary path, including the formation of a disk and bipolar jets. The terrestrial planets took ~100 million years to form. Consequently, they would have accreted already differentiated bodies, and their final assembly was not completed until after the solar nebula had dispersed. This implies that water-bearing asteroids and/or icy planetesimals that formed near Jupiter are the likely sources of Earth's water. "

"Biogeochemical and stable carbon isotopic analysis of black-shale sequences deposited during an Albian oceanic anoxic event (~112 million years ago) indicate that up to 80 weight percent of sedimentary organic carbon is derived from marine, nonthermophilic archaea. . Their massive expansion may have been a response to the strong stratification of the ocean during this anoxic event. Indeed, the sedimentary record of archaeal membrane lipids suggests that this anoxic event marks a time in Earth history at which certain hyperthermophilic archaea adapted to low-temperature environments."

"Molecular phylogeny and biogeochemistry indicate that eukaryotes differentiated early in Earth history. [This paper shows] that the cytoskeletal and ecological prerequisites for eukaryotic diversification were already established in eukaryotic microorganisms fossilized nearly 1,500 Myr ago in shales of the early Mesoproterozoic Roper Group in northern Australia."

"[This paper reports] an experimental simulation of nitrogen fixation by lightning over a range of Hadean (4.5­3.8 Gyr ago) and Archaean (3.8­2.5 Gyr ago) atmospheric compositions, from predominantly carbon dioxide to predominantly dinitrogen (but always without oxygen)."

"NRAO Astronomers have found that an aging star is spewing narrow, rotating streams of water molecules into space. The discovery may help resolve a longstanding mystery about how the stunningly beautiful objects called planetary nebulae are formed."

"Astronomers are announcing today the discovery of a sun-like star which is eclipsed in a way never before seen - not by another star, planet or moon, but by dust grains, rocks and maybe even asteroids orbiting it in a clumpy circumstellar disk."

Life flourishes in physical and chemical extremes that, until recently, were thought to preclude life - hence the term "extreme" that is often used to characterize these locales. These extreme environments are also similar to what we expect to find on other worlds. As such astrobiologists view these environments and the life that flourishes there as a preview of what we might find elsewhere in the universe.

"After 15 years of observation and a lot of patience, the world's premier planet-hunting team has found a planetary system that reminds them of our home solar system."

"A thousand miles or so from the Earth's North pole lies our planet's largest uninhabited island, Devon Island. Every summer since 1997, I have journeyed to Devon Island with colleagues and students from many horizons to study the natural wonders of Earth - and Mars, by comparison. We also test out new technologies and strategies that will help us explore Mars and other reaches of space in the future, with both robots and humans." - Pascal Lee.

Various space agencies have been planning for sample return mission from Mars for years. Yet Mars itself has been providing a steady stream of samples (in the form of meteorites) since the dawn of the solar system. All we have to do is go out and pick them up off the ground.

"The search for life has come up as a major issue," said Dr. Kenneth Nealson, a professor of geobiology at the University of Southern California, which means financing, he said, which means in turn that a lot of very smart people will be looking at the problem."

"Surface features on Mars indicate that large amounts of water may have existed on the martian surface in the past. Where has the water gone? In his Perspective, Bell highlights the reports by Boynton et al., Feldman et al., and Mitrofanov et al., who have analyzed initial data from the Mars Odyssey mission. The results indicate that there may be large subsurface water ice deposits, especially toward the poles of our neighboring planet."

"Next month, a star-studded, 20-member scientific panel appointed by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will propose a firm list of priorities for research aboard the space station. To be effective, the panel must make a case convincing enough to win the backing of a cash-strapped NASA, a parochial Congress, and a fed-up research community--a tall order. The timing may be right, however."

"Analyses of a martian meteorite sparked a search for geological markers that record the existence of life from long ago-and perhaps from far away-but mounting failures point up the difficulties. In this issue of Science , for example, two geologists challenge a claim that life existed 3.85 billion years or more ago. The debate highlights the growing realization that as analyses become ever more high-tech, relying on tinier samples and subtler traces, it becomes more important to understand the environment in which a presumed biomarker formed. "

"Two complementary reports provide compelling evidence that the genetic code of certain Archaea and eubacteria encodes a 22nd amino acid. "

"Two teams of researchers from Ohio State University reported today that they had identified the 22nd genetically encoded amino acid, a discovery that is the biological equivalent of physicists finding a new fundamental particle or chemists discovering a new element."

"The UCLA-NASA team has found cloudy, stormy atmospheres on brown dwarfs, the celestial bodies that are less massive than stars but have more mass than giant planets like Jupiter. The discovery will give scientists better tools for interpreting atmospheres and weather on brown dwarfs or on planets around other stars."

"Geologists at the University of California, Davis, are using neutron beams from a nuclear reactor to see inside rocks. The method could be used to look for traces of life in rocks from Mars or very ancient rocks from the Earth. "

"Integrated over solar system history, this suggests that 1 to 10 Gt of carbon could have been successfully delivered to Europa's surface by impacts of large comets (around 1 km in diameter). This is a few times more carbon than is contained in the procaryotic biomass of the upper 200 meters of the Earth's oceans, but about 2 orders of magnitude less if the whole depth of the oceans is considered. Therefore, regardless of its initial formation conditions, Europa should have a substantial inventory of "biogenic" elements, with implications for the chemistry of its oceans, ice cover, and the possibility of life."

"Dr. Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist of NASA's Mars Exploration Program said today that a major announcement is forthcoming about the presence of water ice just under the surface of Mars. NASA has scheduled a Space Science update for next Thursday for 12:00 noon - which is suggestive of the time a press embargo would lift for an article appearing in Science magazine."

"Traces of 425 million-year-old microbial DNA have been found in samples of rock salt, claim a UK team. "This is the oldest DNA described to date," says Bill Grant at Leicester University, who led the research. Other experts on ancient DNA are far from convinced."

"There is good and bad news for the prospects of finding alien life on Jupiter's moon Europa. The raw materials for life do exist on the moon, which is thought to have a liquid ocean under its icy surface. But we may never get to look for any life there because the frozen crust is at least 19 kilometres thick."

"Compelling evidence for a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust makes Jupiter's moon Europa an attractive target for scientists seeking life in distant regions of our solar system. Recent work sheds light on the question of whether enough "biogenic elements," the raw ingredients for life, including carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus, could be present to support Europan life."

"Astronomers using adaptive optics technology on the Gemini North Telescope have observed a brown dwarf orbiting a low-mass star at a distance comparable to just three times the distance between the Earth and Sun. This is the closest separation distance ever found for this type of binary system using direct imaging."

"Gould championed the teaching evolutionary science in school curricula, arguing that it not be challenged by creation science, whose advocates made Gould an enemy. But he also engaged in vigorous disputes with his fellow evolutionary theorists, particularly for his theory of "punctuated equilibria." Gould argued that evolution occurred in relatively rapid spurts of species differentiation rather than via gradual, continuous transformations. He believed short-term contingencies could play as important a role as irresistible evolutionary pressure."

"Tiny grains of magnetite, an iron oxide mineral, from a Martian meteorite are markedly similar in size, shape, and composition to the little oxide magnets used by bacteria on Earth and different from other naturally formed magnetites. Is this good evidence for life on Mars? Or did the Martian magnetite grains form by another process? Our studies reveal that the planes of atoms in the Martian magnetites are aligned with atomic planes in the carbonate in which the magnetites are embedded. This shows that the magnetites formed in the rock and not inside microorganisms."

"Rover-driving scientists eager to "follow the water" on Mars next year are struggling with the tightening constraints of safety-conscious engineers, who told Jet Propulsion Lab planetary geologists at a March workshop that of the four sites under final consideration and two backups, only one could prove safe enough to risk a $300 million landing attempt. Mars scientists are now concerned that they may have to go to a "boring" site, if only to show NASA headquarters that going to scientifically exciting sites would be worth the risk."

"Ten years ago, depressions in the Pampean plains in Argentina were interpreted as impact craters caused by a low-angle asteroid impact that grazed the Earth surface as recently as 10,000 years ago."

  "Borrelly's coma exhibits two types of dust features: fans and highly collimated jets. At encounter, the near-nucleus coma was dominated by a prominent dust jet that resolved into at least three smaller jets emanating from a broad basin in the middle of the nucleus. Because the major dust jet remained fixed in orientation, it is evidently aligned near the rotation axis of the nucleus."

"Microbial life may seem infinitely adaptable and durable, but microbiologists and geologists probing the most voluminous part of the biosphere--the deep subsurface--are finding that organisms living at great depths mostly seem to be living indirectly off the energy of sunlight rather than using local, less tempting sources of energy, such as the rock itself."

"In the mid-1980s, Derek Lovley and Kenneth Nealson independently announced the discovery of microbes that live off metals. The claims were surprising, even heretical, but the near-simultaneous findings opened up a new field of study. Since those early discoveries, Lovley's and Nealson's careers have followed similar trajectories."

"Under the more dim light of a young sun cooler than today's, certain groups of anaerobic bacteria may have been pumping out large amounts of methane, thereby keeping the early climate warm and inviting. The evolution of Earth's atmosphere is linked tightly to the evolution of its biota. "

"Geochemical consequences of hot water-rock interactions render these environments habitable and supply a diverse array of energy sources. Clues to the strategies for how life thrives in these dynamic ecosystems are beginning to be elucidated through a confluence of biogeochemistry, microbiology, ecology, molecular biology, and genomics."

"All planets have one thing in common: a relentless pounding by renegade cosmic debris. About 23 million years ago, one such wanderer slammed into the Canadian High Arctic, blasting a 20-kilometer-wide scar. Now called Haughton crater, the impact has researchers seeing red--not just in the minerals at the crater's dead hydrothermal pipes, but by comparison to Mars.

Five summers of fieldwork at Haughton have shown that the crater and its frigid site, uninhabited Devon Island, is a promising "Mars analog" setting on Earth, says planetary scientist Pascal Lee of the Mountain View-based SETI Institute. Early work focused on eerie similarities between features on Mars and those on the island, such as networks of small valleys that Lee and his team believe were carved beneath a fixed sheet of melting ice."

"GOAL 3: Understand how life evolves on the molecular, organismal, and ecosystem levels. Identify general, perhaps universal, features of evolution. From the molecule to the ecosphere, to understand better how life might have evolved on planets "

"SpaceRef Interactive Inc. today announced the donation of an experimental greenhouse to the SETI Institute. The donation supports research activities on Devon Island, Nunavut, in the Canadian high Arctic, conducted under the auspices of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project."

"Named after and dedicated to Sir Arthur C. Clarke, originator of communications satellites, author of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and almost 100 other books, the "Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse" will support research activities that increase our understanding of life in the universe and help pave the way for the human exploration of Mars. "Look out, Mars - here we come!" said Clarke, about the greenhouse."

"To be certain, NASA loves to come up with mission statements and visions and has a spotty track record when it comes to their actual implementation. That not withstanding, I don't think I can imagine a more astrobiology-friendly collection of words. As such, Its your own damn fault if you folks can't run with these words and gain some new ground."

"An analysis of data obtained by the Pathfinder mission to the Red Planet in 1997 suggests there could be chlorophyll - the molecule used by plants and other organisms on Earth to extract energy from sunlight - in the soil close to the landing site. Researchers stress their work is in a very preliminary state and they are far from making definite claims."

"... we searched for the spectral signature associated with red light absorption by chlorophyll. When this case was met by the search routine, we plotted a full spectrum for the involved pixels and carefully examined the images. The condition was met for small areas in six image cases. All of these cases occur in near field images, where resolution is highest. Four of the cases occur on the spacecraft and appear to be associated with spacecraft structure. Two intriguing cases occur in small areas on the ground near the spacecraft."

"Primitive bacteria exist in huge numbers deep in the Earth, living on hydrogen gas produced in rocks, a NASA scientist reports in the spring issue of the journal Astrobiology."

"The delivery of extraterrestrial organic molecules to Earth by meteorites may have been important for the origin and early evolution of life. Indigenous amino acids have been found in meteorites - over 70 in the Murchison meteorite alone." ... " These results suggest that at least some meteoritic amino acids are the result of interstellar photochemistry, rather than formation in liquid water on an early Solar System body."

"Amino acids are the essential molecular components of living organisms on Earth, but the proposed mechanisms for their spontaneous generation have been unable to account for their presence in Earth's early history." ... "Our results demonstrate that the spontaneous generation of amino acids in the interstellar medium is possible, supporting the suggestion that prebiotic molecules could have been delivered to the early Earth by cometary dust, meteorites or interplanetary dust particles."

"Amino acids, a basic constituent of life, can form in dust grains that are similar to those found in the space between stars. But how much does this tell us about the origins of life on Earth?"

"A team of scientists including SETI Institute and NASA researchers today announced the successful creation of amino acids, chemicals essential to life, in a laboratory simulation of conditions found in deep space."

"Distribution: All NAI members and focus group participants

Friends and colleagues; It is with great sadness that we write to tell you of the sudden, tragic loss of David Wynn-Williams. I have been informed that David was killed Sunday evening in a traffic accident while jogging near his home in Cambridge. Our thoughts are with his family. In a very real sense, the astrobiology science community formed David's extended family. His passion, enthusiasm, commitment, energy, and scholarship touched many of us directly, and many more indirectly. He is missed. I will share information as it becomes available regarding memorial services and sending condolences, if you let me know (rgrymes@arc.nasa.gov) that you wish to be included."

• Space Science Advisory Committee (SScAC) 5-7 Mar 2002
• SScAC Origins Subcommittee 25 Feb 2002
• Sun-Earth Connection Advisory Subcommittee 3-4 Dec 2001
• Solar System Exploration Subcommittee (SSES) 3-4 Dec 2001
• Structure and Evolution of the Universe Subcommittee 3-4 Dec 2001

"To see a dim planet around a bright star is like looking for a candle flame next to a searchlight. To solve this problem, scientists have developed the concept of nulling interferometry, one of the smartest methods to date in the search for extrasolar planets. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) are pooling their expertise to build a new instrument to test this innovative technique from the ground before ESA applies it in space."

"Mankind is being put in its place, but where is that? Mankind felt demoted by Copernicus's news that this cooled cinder, Earth, is not the center of the universe. Now Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal, in his new book "Our Cosmic Habitat," adds insult to injury: "particle chauvinism" must go. All the atoms that make us are, it is truly said, stardust. But Rees puts it more prosaically: they are nuclear waste from the fuel that makes stars shine."

"The subglacial Lake Vostok may be a unique reservoir of genetic material and it may contain organisms with distinct adaptations, but it has yet to be explored directly. The lake and the overlying ice sheet are closely linked, as the ice-sheet thickness drives the lake circulation, while melting and freezing at the ice-sheet base will control the flux of water, biota and sediment through the lake."

"Scientists have figured out why it's wet up north - on Mars. A new computer simulation of the martian atmosphere suggests that the planet's geography causes differences in atmospheric circulation within the northern and southern hemispheres. These differences dump more water on the martian north pole, where it adds to the seasonal ice-cap."

"Global maps of sulfate and methane in marine sediments reveal two provinces of subsurface metabolic activity: a sulfate-rich open-ocean province, and an ocean-margin province where sulfate is limited to shallow sediments. Methane is produced in both regions but is abundant only in sulfate-depleted sediments. Metabolic activity is greatest in narrow zones of sulfate-reducing methane oxidation along ocean margins. The metabolic rates of subseafloor life are orders of magnitude lower than those of life on Earth's surface. Most microorganisms in subseafloor sediments are either inactive or adapted for extraordinarily low metabolic activity."

In 1984, the detection of "excess" infrared emission provided the first signs of dusty disks surrounding main sequence stars similar to our Sun. However not all stars with excess emission are surrounded by disks. Furthermore, imaging studies show that disks can have very different structures even when the central stars are quite similar.

"A claim for the oldest known fossils-fossils that have entered textbooks as the oldest ever found-is under attack as a misinterpretation of intriguingly shaped but purely lifeless minerals. A paper in this week's issue of Nature argues that the microscopic squiggles in a 3.5-billion-year-old Australian chert are not fossilized bacteria, as was claimed in a 1993 Science paper, but the curiously formed dregs of ancient hot-spring chemistry."

"UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf and colleagues have substantiated the biological origin of the earliest known cellular fossils, which are 3.5 billion years old. The research is published in the March 7 issue of the journal Nature."

"In a letter to the journal Nature on Wednesday, Schopf and his colleagues said an analysis of the fossils with a new laser technique supported their earlier conclusions. An analysis of their chemical composition also showed the fossils contain carbon, proving that they once lived. "The results obtained substantiate the biological origin of the earliest cellular fossils known," Schopf said in the journal. But in a separate letter to Nature, Martin Brasier of Oxford University in England and other scientists challenged Schopf's findings, saying the shapes of the fossils bear no resemblance to bacteria and they are more likely blobs of mineral graphite imbedded in the rock. "

"At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held last month in Boston, scientists discussed how humans might pull off a real-life version of "Star Trek," minus the space Lycra and perpetual syndication rights."

"Harrison Ford takes over the narrating duties in the new 23-minute production, which the museum developed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

Initial science data from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which began its mapping mission last week, portend some tantalizing findings by the newest Martian visitor, including possible identification of significant amounts of frozen water. Initial measurements by the gamma-ray spectrometer instrument suite show the presence of significant amounts of hydrogen in the south polar region of Mars. The high hydrogen content is most likely due to water ice, though the amount of ice cannot be quantified yet. Further analysis will be conducted to confirm the interpretation.

Mars Odyssey Images:

Radiation Level Measurements by MARIE:

".. researchers report crushing microbes beneath the equivalent of a 160-kilometer column of water--and showing that some of them can actually survive. To some microbiologists this suggests that similar organisms might survive the high-pressure environments of other celestial bodies, like Jupiter's moon Europa."

"We observed physiological and metabolic activity of Shewanella oneidensis strain MR1 and Escherichia coli strain MG1655 at pressures of 68 to 1680 megapascals (MPa) in diamond anvil cells. We measured biological formate oxidation at high pressures (68 to 1060 MPa). At pressures of 1200 to 1600 MPa, living bacteria resided in fluid inclusions in ice-VI crystals and continued to be viable upon subsequent release to ambient pressures (0.1 MPa). Evidence of microbial viability and activity at these extreme pressures expands by an order of magnitude the range of conditions representing the habitable zone in the solar system. "

"A study published in the February 22, 2002, issue of Science, shows that even common bacteria are viable under high-pressure conditions equivalent to about 50 kilometers beneath the Earth's crust or 160 kilometers in a hypothetical sea. This finding may expand the habitable zone for life within the solar system and it opens new doors for looking for life much deeper inside planetary bodies than previously considered."

"Rock-eating microbes survive in deep ocean off Peru Way down deep in the ocean off the coast of Peru, in the rocks that form the sea floor, live bacteria that don't need sunlight, don't need carbon dioxide, don't need oxygen. These microbes subsist by eating the very rocks they call home."

"Alien cultures more advanced than our own will have spotted us by now, say astronomers. Tell-tale rainbows from any inhabited planets will soon show us where to gaze back."

"Astrobiology is a good idea. When taken in its broader form, it is a unifying theme that resonates with people of all ages, the scientific community and the US government, and its appeal is international. We must break free of the narrow constructionism of astrobiology currently in vogue in the United States. Yes, we would like to know if we are alone in the Universe. But to do that we need to know how solar systems form, how planets evolve, what their interiors are like, how and when oceans and atmospheres form, and how and why environments that are conducive to life emerge. We need to understand what processes resulted in the architecture we find today in our own Solar System, and then how these same processes played out to such different ends in the planetary systems we are finding elsewhere."

"Unknown ecosystems and untapped records of the Earth's past may lie hidden in the lonely waters of Antarctica's Lake Vostok. But the lake's millions of years of isolation may be about to end"

"Europa is similar in size to Earth's moon. Its surface, a frozen crust of water, was previously thought to be tens of kilometers thick, denying the oceans below any exposure. However, the combination of tidal processes, warm waters and periodic surface exposure may be enough to not only warrant life but also encourage evolution."

"Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new detection technology on the nanometer scale that could lead to the next generation of proteomic arrays and new methods for diagnosing infectious diseases."

"... it is possible that hydrothermal activity and/or organics and oxidants provided by the action of radiation chemistry at Europa's surface and subsequent mixing into Europa's ocean could provide the electron donors and acceptors needed to power a Europan ecosystem. It is not premature to draw lessons from the search for life on Mars with the Viking spacecraft for planning exobiological missions to Europa."

"No one can yet detect the most prominent hallmark of our solar system: planets resembling Jupiter in mass and in orbital distance. But two new studies give added hope that systems like ours are out there in abundance. Astronomers could start finding Jupiter-like exoplanets within a few years."

"The pack ice of Earth's polar oceans appears to be frozen white desert, devoid of life. However, beneath the snow lies a unique habitat for a group of bacteria and microscopic plants and animals that are encased in an ice matrix at low temperatures and light levels, with the only liquid being pockets of concentrated brines."

"Next month 43-year-old neuroscientist Jeffrey Sutton takes over as the first onsite director of the fledgling National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) in Houston. ... "Sutton says NASA will remain the institute's primary funder, although he hopes to attract significant support from small, nimble companies and a defense establishment eager to capitalize on new applications that could revolutionize intensive care units and field hospitals on Earth. And he's betting that the organization's streamlined management structure will make it "a poster child" for an economy-minded Bush Administration."

"Research conducted by University of Massachusetts microbiologists and reported in this week's issue of the journal Science concludes that certain microorganisms can transform organic matter commonly found at the bottom of the ocean into electrical energy."

Deep below the surface of the Beverhead Mountains of Idaho, a research team led by Derek Lovley, head of the microbiology department at the University of Massachusetts, and Francis H. Chappelle of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has found an unusual community of microoganisms that may hold the key to understanding how life could survive on Mars. "The microbial community we found in Idaho is unlike any previously described on Earth," said Lovley. "This is as close as we have come to finding life on Earth under geological conditions most like those expected below the surface of Mars."

Planet-like bodies with liquid water formed very early in the history of the Solar System, or so scientists used to think. That scenario may now be due for revision after a finding with ESA's Infrared Space Observatory, ISO. The theory was based on the presence of certain minerals called carbonates in primitive Solar System objects. Carbonates are thought to form in liquid water, which can only exist in large, planet-like bodies. Using ISO, an international team has discovered large amounts of carbonates around two dying stars, where large bodies do not exist. This suggests that carbonates are not necessarily linked to liquid water. This is the first detection of carbonates outside the Solar System.

"Canadian and New Zealand scientists have found living microbes buried deeper than perhaps ever before in Antarctica's ice-free Dry Valleys. They and collaborating planetary scientists at the University of Arizona say new research "opens up the possibility of life on Mars and the possible positions within a soil where it might be found."

"The observation of small gullies on Mars was one of the more unexpected discoveries of the Mars Observer Camera (MOC) aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The characteristics of these gullies suggested that they were formed by flowing water and soil and rocks transported by these flows. They appeared to be surprisingly young, as if they had formed in the last few million years or even more recently. This was a major surprise because the presence of liquid water seemed impossible on Mars in such a recent past."

"Robots that melt their way through ice may one day explore below frozen surfaces of other worlds, based on a pioneering version that successfully bored into an Arctic glacier in an adventurous field test.NASA teamed with the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norwegian Space Center to use the ice-penetrating robot, or Cryobot, for the first time on a glacier on the island of Spitsbergen, far above the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian- administered international territory of Svalbad."

"Of all the extrasolar planetary systems detected by astronomers in recent years, the star 47 Ursae Majoris and its known companions, two Jupiter-sized planets, is the one that most closely resembles our own solar system. Computer simulations now show, however, that Earth-sized planets are unlikely to form in the so-called "habitable zone" of 47 Ursae Majoris (47 UMa)."

"For the first time, millions of bacterial spores have been purposely exposed to outer space, to see how they are affected by solar radiation. The results support the idea that life could have arrived on Earth in the form of bacteria carried from Mars on meteorites."

"Calculations by a team of astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin show that jolts of radiation from space may affect biological and atmospheric evolution on planets in our own solar system and those orbiting other stars."

"The stark message from the black box on the conference table left many of the dozen or so scientists visibly shaken. "It would be very easy for this Administration to walk away from the planetary program," said the voice from Washington, D.C. The speaker was Steve Isakowitz, who oversees space and science programs at the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The stunned audience members were part of a National Research Council (NRC) team working on the first long-term science plan for solar system exploration. "The planetary community is fractured, and we don't have a clear vision," chimed in fellow budgeteer Brant Sponberg during the 15 November teleconference. "And that makes you guys very, very vulnerable."

"To many, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) here is planetary science ... So when Maryland's Applied Physics Laboratory, part of Johns Hopkins University and traditionally a Navy contractor, offered to build an asteroid-rendezvous mission in the early 1990s for less than $150 million, it was seen as something of an upstart. "Everybody laughed," recalls Tom Krimigis, APL's space chief."

"Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, whose modest budget has funded the bulk of university-based research in the field of space science, is being merged with the giant National Space Development Agency and the National Aerospace Laboratory as part of a sweeping streamlining of the nation's bureaucracy. Although there will undoubtedly be benefits to being part of a larger, more powerful agency, scientists are worried that the loss of independence will put science in the shadow of the more commercial aspects of space."

"While NASA struggles to set its priorities for solar system exploration European space scientists are grappling with a more fundamental question: Will they continue to be major players in the game? Recent budget cuts threaten both ongoing programs and new missions, and cuts are forcing space agency officials to scale back their grand plans for the future."

"Academic and NASA officials agree that part of the problem is cultural. Engineers and scientists simply don't talk to each other enough. NASA high-tech funding typically flows to aerospace companies with few ties to academic institutions, and universities spend too little time communicating their scientific needs to industry. However, all sides agree on one thing: The NRC survey must make a strong case for the importance of new technology, even at the risk of jeopardizing some near-term missions, if scientists are to have any chance of powering future missions with something better than what is already on NASA's shelf."

Strangely glowing dark clouds float serenely in this remarkable and beautiful image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. These dense, opaque dust clouds - known as "globules" - are silhouetted against nearby bright stars in the busy star-forming region, IC 2944. These globules were first found in IC 2944 by astronomer A.D. Thackeray in 1950."

"Studies of astronauts' sleep indicate they average about six hours per day while in orbit, which is below the amount they receive on Earth. Although the reasons for this sleep loss are unknown, it is suspected that excitement, extended work schedules, environmental disturbances and microgravity are leading culprits."

"The 500-million-year history of life on Earth is a series of booms and busts. But while the busts, or extinctions, can be either sudden or gradual, the booms of diversification of new organisms rarely happen quickly, according to a new study by a University of California, Berkeley, scientist."

New findings about starbirth in the early universe -- findings that could overturn current theories if verified -- will be presented in a Space Science Update at 2:00 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 8.

Panelists include:

Editor's note: the following paper by one of the participants will be published in the Astrophysical Journal: