Astrobiology

Svetlana ShkolyarPhD student, Arizona State University

http://awesomewallpapers.files.wordpress.com/

Anyone Out There?

Themes of Astrobiology

Illustration Credit: R. Hurt (SSC), JPL-Caltech, NASA

Presentation courtesy of:

http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/

Star Formation

Stars provide the climate for planets Star mass Lifetime Temperature

Analog: our sun

Astronomy

Hunt for Exoplanets

Artist conception of Kepler Mission Image credit: NASA/Tim Pyle Astronomy

http://kepler.nasa.gov/

How Many of These Worlds Have the “Right” Environment??

What does“Right” mean?Small, rocky planetThat has a heat source And an atmosphere

What we’re really looking for is…

Earth Sciences/Geology

Liquid Water!

Why water?• All life (that we’ve discovered) on Earth

requires liquid water to thrive• Good solvent for transporting nutrients,

etc. Chemistry

How Many Habitable Planets Develop Any Life Forms?

Start with what we know: Our Solar System

Just 1 that we know of - Earth!

Algae Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Biology/Chemistry

Brief Interlude…

Wait!

What does this all have to do with my (and my team’s) work

here at ASU?

http://astrobiology.asu.edu/

My “tough” job…

Fossilized fluorescent fecal pellets… Clues to life on Mars?

Searching For Biosginatures

My journey to Astrobiology…

How Many Habitable Planets Develop Any Life Forms?

Start with what we know: Our Solar System

Just 1 that we know of - Earth!

Algae Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-StatesmanBiology/Chemistry

IntelligenceDoes life always

become more complex over time?

Analogues for E.T. intelligence Animals Computers Robots

Photo credit: from the IMAX® film Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees/Courtesy Science Museum of Minnesota

Animal Science/AI/Robotics

Communicating Civilizations ?

• We have sent and received messages to deep space

• Is anyone now or ever going to receive them and answer?

Engineering/Astronomy/Creativity!

Lifetime of a Civilization

How long will we survive?

[Cue the doomsday scenario… now!]

Sustainability

Take-Home Messages Astrobiology is an

interdisciplinary framework to study fundamental questions about our origins

A career in astrobiology can be achieved through any of the home disciplines it spans

Astrobiology makes it easy to inspire kids to like science

Thanks!

Feel free to contact me! Svetlana Shkolyar: sshkolya@asu.edu