Astrobiology

Astobiology is the search for the origin, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Our Carnegie team in now in our tenth year of receiving generous support from the NASA Astrobiology Institute, of which we are a founding team. Our first project (from 1998 to 2003) explored the hypothesis that hydrothermal systems on Earth and other planets and moons might have contributed to the formation of organic molecules, and thus the origin of life. In our second proposal (2003 to 2008) we examined the cosmochemistry of carbon, the essential element of life. We are now discussing possible topics for another 5-year NAI project, which would run from 2008 to 2013.