NASA announced Oct. 2 that ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration is one of 10 research teams from across the country to be awarded five-year grants, averaging $7 million each, for refining the criteria that guide the search for life on other worlds by characterizing life's elemental requirements.
According to ASU, "The team will pursue a three-pronged research initiative to explore the relationship between the elemental composition of organisms and their environments, the impact of planetary processes on the abundance of bioessential elements, and the effects of astrophysical processes on the abundance of life-supporting elements."
"Astrobiologists assume that life may develop and survive on any planet that has water and energy. But in the search for extraterrestrial life, these criteria are too vague. Within the solar system there is abundant evidence of water-rich environments. Focused exploration on Mars has identified many ancient aqueous environments, Galileo spacecraft data indicate that the icy crust of Europa conceals a salty ocean, and the Cassini mission discovered water jets on Enceladus. Beyond the solar system, there are probably many Earth-like planets. Theories suggest that many of these planets are "waterworlds," with oceans so deep that they have no exposed continents. All of these environments have sufficient energy to support microbial life."