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Searching for Life Across Space and Time Proceedings of a Workshop (2017) / Chapter Skim
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7 Wrap-Up
Pages 81-86

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 81...
... Desired outputs from this workshop were answers to the following two major questions: • What are the key scientific and technological challenges in astrobiology as they relate to the search for life in the solar system and exoplanetary systems in the next decades? • To what extent will current and planned NASA missions, such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
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From page 82...
... Moving on to ocean worlds, Kasting repeated Kevin Hand in saying that the detection of life on an ocean world would almost certainly indicate an independent origin of life. Therefore, finding DNA there would imply a convergence towards a universal type of biology.
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From page 83...
... Audience Participation Again opening it up to the audience, a participant in the conference agreed with an earlier point and said that the community had become sloppy with the term "biosignature." He cautioned again to use the word "possible" or "potential" before the term "biosignature." Another member of the audience then suggested that the community move away from short, snappy descriptions of what a biosignature is. The entire environmental context must always be taken into account in order to avoid false positives.
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From page 84...
... Clark also said that the Viking results provide a cautionary tale about thinking about false positives carefully before announcing any results. In his talk, Gary Ruvkun explained that looking for DNA-based life is easy.
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From page 85...
... in order to provide them with a coherent set of principles and suggestions. Michael Moloney, the director of Space and Aeronautics at the National Academies, then thanked the committee, the workshop participants, and the members of the Space Studies Board staff for a great two days of discussions.
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Key Terms

  • water worlds
  • dry land
  • false positives
  • workshop participant
  • water world

  • boundary conditions
  • light energy
  • curiosity rover
  • ocean worlds
  • redox chemistry

  • water hydrolysis
  • genetic biopolymer
  • environmental context
  • secondary minerals
  • accretion phase

  • understanding mineral
  • icy ocean
  • kasting repeated
  • bonds stable
  • essential factor

  • selection effects
  • energy source
  • energy sources
  • weathering process
  • international missions

  • slow life
  • participant clarified
  • results provide
  • delayed due
  • sufficient actionable


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