Astrobiology: The Case for Venus

TITLE AND SUBTITLE:
Astrobiology: The Case for Venus

AUTHOR(S):
Geoffrey A. Landis

REPORT DATE:
July 2003

FUNDING NUMBERS:
WBS-22-755-60-02

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES):
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field
Cleveland, Ohio 44135-3191

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER:
E-13895

SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES):
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, DC 20546-0001

REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED:
Technical Memorandum

SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER:
NASA TM-2003-212310

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES:
Prepared for the Journal of The British Interplanetary Society, vol. 56, no. 7/8, July-August 2003, pp. 250-254.Responsible person, Geoffrey A. Landis, organization code 5410, 216-433-2238.

ABSTRACT:
The scientific discipline of astrobiology addresses one of the most fundamental unanswered questions of science: are we alone? Is there life elsewhere in the universe, or is life unique to Earth? The field of astrobiology includes the study of the chemical precursors for life in the solar system; it also includes the search for both presently existing life and fossil signs of previously existing life elsewhere in our own solar system, as well as the search for life outside the solar system. Two of the promising environments within the solar system being currently considered are the surface of the planet Mars, and the hypothesized oceans underneath the ice covering the moon Europa. Both of these environments differ in several key ways from the environments where life is found on Earth; the Mars environment in most places too cold and at too low pressure for liquid water to be stable, and the sub-ice environment of Europa lacking an abundance of free energy in the form of sunlight. The only place in the solar system where we know that life exists today is the Earth. To look for life elsewhere in the solar system, one promising search strategy would be to find and study the environment in the solar system with conditions that are most similar to the environmental conditions where life thrives on the Earth. Specifically, we would like to study a location in the solar system with atmospheric pressure near one bar; temperature in the range where water is liquid, 0 to 100 °C; abundant solar energy; and with the primary materials required for life, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen, present. Other than the surface of the Earth, the only other place where these conditions exist is the atmosphere of Venus, at an altitude of about fifty kilometers above the surface.

SUBJECT TERMS:
Venus

NUMBER OF PAGES:
15

PDF AVAILABLE FROM URL:
2003/TM-2003-212310.pdf ( 1,157 KB )
This page contains an Adobe® Acrobat® Reader PDF file. The PDF documents have been created to show thumbnails of each page. If the thumbnails do not display properly, download the file to the hard drive and view through Acrobat® Reader. You can download Acrobat® Reader for free.

A service of the NASA Glenn Research Center Logistics and Technical Information Division

Suggestions or questions about this site can be directed to:

NASA official: Technical Publications Manager, Sue.E.Butts@nasa.gov

Web curator: Caroline.A.Rist@grc.nasa.gov

Privacy Policy and Important Notices