An increasing number of scientists are wondering: If it can happen here, why not somewhere else?

"We recognize that there's a good possibility that life exists in the solar system outside Earth, but if life does exist, it would be microbial, not the higher forms," says James Staley, director of the astrobiology program. As a microbiology professor, he has made a career of studying microscopic beings and is intrigued by the prospect that such life on another celestial body could be the forerunner of intelligent life there.

"We have microbial systems on Earth that are good models for those on Mars or Europa, and those systems are poorly studied," Staley said. He expects the astrobiology program to help change that.

The new program comes along just as excitement is being fueled by a succession of discoveries ­ from more than a dozen planets orbiting nearby stars to probable liquid water on Europa and Callisto. The UW's program isn't the first to explore astrobiology; a handful of institutions have some type of undergraduate programs. Last year, NASA established an Astrobiology Institute, headquartered near San Francisco, with 11 participating institutions. Though the UW proposal narrowly missed the cut for financial support from NASA, Staley, Sullivan and Conway Leovy, an atmospheric sciences professor who also is an astrobiology co-director, promise they'll try again. They hope to capitalize on the mounting excitement around the world and on the UW campus. Meanwhile, the program will go forward with a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and $500,000 from the University.


A black smoker from the floor of the Pacific. Photo courtesy of Deborah Kelley, UW School of Oceanography.

Delaney has sparked his share of the excitement surrounding astrobiology by leading expeditions to thermal vents on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, 180 miles off the Washington-British Columbia coast. Last summer, Delaney and scientists from several U.S. and Canadian institutions, including the American Museum of Natural History, reeled in four "black smokers" from the ocean floor more than 8,000 feet below the surface. The sulfide chimneys held samples of the unusual life found in that unfriendly climate.

Delaney sees a clear tie between his work and astrobiology. "Part of exploring outer space is understanding what goes on in inner space," he says

Jody Deming agrees. She's a deep-sea microbiologist who marvels at the adaptability of micro-organisms, particularly those locked in polar ice. Microbes have been on Earth longer than any other creatures, she says, so if anything can overcome barriers to life, they can.

Close-up pictures of Europa from the Galileo probe draw the oceanography professor's special interest. "There are lots of features here that resemble the ice caps on our own planet," Deming says. Surface temperatures are in the neighborhood of 200 below zero Celsius, and images taken from high above the surface reveal irregularities. Bubbles in the ice could be evidence of subsurface thermal activity. Spectroscopy indicates salt content in some areas, she says, and salt is a good electrical conductor ­ meaning another potential energy source to support life. And long, squiggly lines on the surface, she jokes, are evidence of icebreakers plowing through the frozen landscape.

But Deming also sounds some cautionary notes. Life on Earth has been found only to about minus 80 degrees Celsius (-110 Fahrenheit), so it could be that any microbes found on the surface of Europa would lie dormant at minus 200 (-330 F).

Life also has been found at the greatest pressure known on Earth ­ about 300 atmospheres, or 300 times greater than the air pressure at sea level. That's enough force to flatten an Army tank and strain even a heavily reinforced nuclear submarine. But the pressure on Europa is expected to be 1,000 atmospheres or more, and no one knows what the upper survival limit is. "It may be just above what we have on Earth. Then we're out of business," she says.


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