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News Services
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Contact Information:
Nick Woolf, 520-621-3234, nwoolf{at}as.arizona.edu
For other UA scientists:
Lori Stiles, 520-621-1877, lstiles{at}u.arizona.edu
For NOAO scientists:
Doug Isbell, 520-318-8214, disbell{at}noao.edu

Jun 25, 2003

UA and NOAO Join NASA-funded Search for Life on Other Planets
By Lori Stiles

The University of Arizona and National Optical Astronomy Observatory
(NOAO) will bring top scientists and world-class telescope facilities
to the NASA-funded search for life on other planets, strengthening
the "astro" part of the U.S. space agency's astrobiology program.

NASA yesterday announced it has selected 12 new teams to join the
NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), a national and international
research consortium that studies the origin, evolution, distribution
and future of life on Earth and in the universe.

"The search for the origin of life, and the related question of how
often life occurs in our galaxy and the universe are potentially the
most interesting and challenging topics in all of 21st century
science," said UA astronomy Professor Nick Woolf, who leads the new
Tucson-based project. 

"We want to link the existing strengths of Arizona in astronomy,
optics and planetary sciences to planned new strengths in life
sciences. Not only is the search for how we and our planet started
expected to be a key area of 21st century science, but these studies
are important to high technologies in optics and life sciences that
are valuable to our state's economy and the lives of all our
citizens," Woolf said last night. 

He and Michael R. Meyer, UA assistant professor of astronomy and
deputy principal investigator on the UA/NOAO astrobiology project,
are currently on Mount Graham, where they are using the 1.8-meter
Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope to observe "earthshine," a
spectrum of our planet reflected from the dark part of the moon that
will be useful in their future searches for Earth-like planets around
other stars. 

"We are enormously excited to participate in this Tucson-based team,
which links the strengths of Steward Observatory, the Lunar and
Planetary Laboratory and NOAO," said Stephen Strom, associate
director for science at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory,
the organization that operates Kitt Peak National Observatory. "Our
scientific targets are youthful solar systems. By observing the
circumstellar disks of gas and dust from which planets form,
especially around stars similar to a young sun, we expect to learn
when in a star's life that planets can form, and how changes in the
young sun's energy output might influence the evolution of life on
Earth-like planets elsewhere." 

The team includes 22 co-investigators and collaborators: 17 from the
UA, three from NOAO, and one each from the University of
California-Berkeley and Ohio State University.

"Our goal is to contribute a strong astronomical element to the NAI
program and to develop connections with chemistry and biochemistry,"
Woolf said. 

The scientists will focus on three research themes:

* UA astrochemist Professor Lucy Ziurys leads research on the
prebiotic compounds and complex organic molecules in the interstellar
medium that are the building blocks of life. Team member Aldo Apponi
said research will involve studies of prebiotic compounds and
molecules already known in space, searches for new ones by laboratory
experiments and follow-up observations, and theoretical modeling.
* Stephen Strom and Joan Najita of NOAO will lead astronomers in
studying environments and conditions under which habitable worlds
form and evolve. They will use such state-of-the-art facilities as
the Gemini and Keck telescopes to study gas content and physical
structure of disks in the planet forming regions as well as model
thermal and chemical structure of the disks, Najita said. Mark
Giampapa of the Tucson-based National Solar Observatory will study
how magnetic activity leads to variability in the luminous output of
sun-like stars, from "young suns" to stars the age of our sun.
* UA Regents' Professor of astronomy J. Roger P. Angel and astronomer
Phil Hinz lead observations to directly detect and characterize
extra-solar giant planets. They also lead theoretical studies that
aim to learn about giant planet atmospheres that contain water, and
even whether these atmospheres support some kind of microbial life.
And their group will make near-infrared observations of the
"earthshine" spectrum.

Education and outreach are other important parts of the UA/NOAO
astrobiology program, said UA planetary sciences Professor Jonathan
I. Lunine. Lunine, who has been involved with NAI and wrote a 1999
book titled "Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World," is a member of
the science steering committee for the Tucson-based astrobiology
program. 

UA will create a center called the "Life And Planets Astrobiology
Center," or the Laplace Center, within the College of Science to
promote interdisciplinary studies needed to develop the astrobiology
community beyond the departmental level and across institutional
boundaries. 

"This is not only an opportunity for linking astronomy and biology,
but such sciences as chemistry and geology," Woolf said. "There are
parts of this study that link to all the sciences and help break down
barriers between disciplines." 

In addition, UA will create a winter astrobiology school to train
about 20 graduate students, half from outside the UA, Lunine said.

The UA has major programs in astronomy, astrochemistry, planetary
sciences, optical sciences, and biological sciences. The UA Steward
Observatory is a major partner in world-class optical/infrared and
radio telescopes, including the 11.8-meter Large Binocular Telescope
on Arizona's Mount Graham, the 6.5-meter MMT on Arizona's Mount
Hopkins, the twin Magellan 6.5-meter telescopes in Chile, the
10-meter Submillimeter Telescope on Mount Graham, and the Kitt Peak
12-meter Telescope. 

NOAO observatories in Tucson and Chile are also key in the new
Tucson-based astrobiology effort. NOAO is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Inc., under a
cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

The institutional awards begin in fall 2003, when current agreements
with the NAI's 11 founding team conclude, NASA said in yesterday's
announcement. NAI team awards are for five years, with annual
reviews, at an average annual funding level of $1 million. Funding
supports interdisciplinary research along with professional,
educational and public outreach activities, coordinated through NAI's
offices at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 

The NAI, founded in 1997, is a partnership between NASA, 16 major
U.S. teams and five international consortia. NAI's goal is to
promote, conduct and lead integrated multidisciplinary astrobiology
research and to train a new generation of astrobiology researchers.

"We would not have won this opportunity without the help of Tucson
scientists both from NOAO and the university," Woolf said. "The
university and NOAO both have provided matching funds for this work."

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