As mentioned in a diary entry yesterday by staffordrau, NASA is set for a press conference today at 2 p.m. EST. The details can be found here.
There's been a lot of speculation about what the press conference could be about. This is not surprising considering the wording of the press release:
NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.
The words "extraterrestrial life" around certainly piqued my interest, and I've always wished I could be around on the day that humanity made first contact with another intelligent civilization. Unfortunately, the odds of this happening are pretty low, and the term extraterrestrial life doesn't necessarily mean intelligent life. Life could be anything from microbes to animals, to another planet full of dinosaur-like lifeforms!
If we want to keep from getting out of control, it would probably be best to look at who's talking at this press conference. That way, we can get an idea of what they might be talking about.
NASA's press release mentions:
- Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
- Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
- James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe
Dr. Voytek is currently the director of the Astrobiology Program at NASA. Her research involves the study of life in "extreme environments including Antarctica, hypersaline lakes, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and terrestrial deep- subsurface sites."
Dr. Wolfe-Simon currently works for the U.S. Geological Survey in California. She has lately been looking for life in the arsenic-rich waters of Mono Lake. Arsenic is poisonous to most life on the planet, though some researchers have suggested that life on early Earth may have used arsenic instead of phosphate in metabolism.
Dr. Conrad works on planetary habitability assessment using non-invasive methods to characterize environmental conditions.
Dr. Benner is interested in molecular evolution, particularly evolution of enzymes.
Finally, Dr. Elser studies the "balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in living systems."
Taken together, the work done by these researchers seems focused on the molecular evolution of organisms in extreme enviorments. A few decades ago, scientists thought life (and the origination of life) could only occur in a very narrow range of environmental conditions. Now we know that life can be found in all corners of the earth, from high-pressure undersea thermal vents to hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. We now call organisms that thrive in these environments extremophiles, and there are several types now known. The discovery of these organisms drastically expanded the number of possible habitable zones in our solar system, and presumably, the universe.
So, here are my predictions based on the people speaking, in decreasing order of likelihood:
- Dr. Wolfe-Simon found a microbe in Mono Lake that utilizes arsenate in its metabolism. Most organisms use phosphates for metabolism, and even use phosphate for building DNA/RNA. Scientists believe that arsenate was much more common than phosphate early in Earth's history, so it is possible that a life started out on arsenate, then moved to phosphate later. It would be huge news if Dr. Wolfe-Simon found an organism that uses all arsenate (replacing phosphate in DNA/RNA, arsenylation instead of phosphorylation, etc). It would be cool news if she found an organism that uses arsenate in some metabolic processes.
- They found biomarkers of some sort on either Mars, or one of Saturn's or Jupiter's moons. Even if they found biomarkers, there would always be the possibility that geology produced them, and there would still be no direct evidence of any life. This may be NASA trying to drum up support for more funding for new missions.
- By looking in an environment not terribly conducive to most life, they may have found evidence of the shadow biosphere. This is an interesting theory that claims it is possible for life to have originated more than once on Earth, and that some of that life may still be around somewhere. These life forms may have totally different biochemistry and would open up entire new realms of science for researchers to study. This would be very cool.
So, NASA will probably not have a press conference with the Roswell Aliens today, but the implications of what they're going to say still could be huge. Imagine finding life on another planet! It would definitely put to rest the question of whether or not we're alone. Alternatively, finding a shadow biosphere on Earth would also dramatically increase the likelihood of life showing up on other planets as well. Who knows? We'll have to wait and see what they say.
EDIT: Here we go. Press conference can be watched here. Most people seem to think option 1 above will be the major announcement. It's no aliens, but it's not too shabby.