Bonnie Teese, a postdoc in NASA's Astrobiology Lab, dives into the groundbreaking Viking missions of the 1970s that sought signs of life on Mars. She shares how these early explorations shaped modern astrobiological research, highlighting the crucial link between biology, geology, and environmental factors. Teese discusses the challenges of studying unique ecosystems, potential biosignatures on exoplanet K2-18b, and the importance of collaboration in this field. With humor, she even touches on the unexpected connection between oral hygiene and broader health issues.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Pioneering Viking Mars Life Search
The Viking 1 and 2 missions landed on Mars in 1976 with soil experiments to detect life.
Their inconclusive findings still shaped astrobiology and searching for life beyond Earth.
insights INSIGHT
Life Shapes Its Environment
Life and environment co-evolve, modifying each other over billions of years.
The Great Oxidation Event shows life transformed Earth's atmosphere to support current life forms.
insights INSIGHT
Geology Preserves Biological History
Geology preserves life's history far longer than direct biology can.
Most evidence for ancient life comes from geological records, not living organisms.
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The book follows Arthur Dent, an ordinary Englishman, whose house and planet are about to be demolished. He is rescued by his friend Ford Prefect, an alien researcher for the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. Together, they embark on a journey through space, encountering various characters such as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed president of the galaxy, Trillian, a human woman, and Marvin, a paranoid android. The story involves their adventures on the spaceship Heart of Gold, which has an Infinite Improbability Drive, and their quest to understand the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, which is revealed to be '42'. The novel is known for its humor, satire, and imaginative storytelling.
Life, the Universe and Everything
Douglas Adams
In 'Life, the Universe and Everything', Arthur Dent and his companions find themselves on a series of bizarre adventures through time and space. The story involves their attempts to find the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything, and their encounters with various eccentric characters, including an immortal alien intent on insulting every living creature in the universe. The book is known for its witty humor and creative plot twists, bringing closure to some of the unanswered questions from the earlier novels in the series.
In 1975, NASA launched two spacecraft to Mars. Viking 1 and Viking 2 arrived at their destination less than a year later, each bringing a lander to explore the surface of the planet and an orbiter to survey above. What was supposed to be a 90 day mission ended up lasting until the early 1980s. Those years provided scientists with important data about the Martian landscape, from seismometer readings of marsquakes to the reddish color of the sky.
But the Viking missions had another important task: they were going to look for possible signs of life. The Viking experiments would go on to become an important landmark in science, one that’s helped researchers in a number of fields figure out what we can be doing better to find signs of life beyond Earth.
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