NAI Research Archive

Moon Samples Found to Contain Water

Using new techniques, scientists from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington Team have discovered for the first time that tiny beads of volcanic glasses collected from two Apollo missions to the Moon contain water. The researchers found that, contrary to previous thought, water was not entirely vaporized in the violent events that formed the Moon. The new study suggests that the water came from the Moon’s interior and was delivered to the surface via volcanic eruptions over 3 billion years ago. The finding calls into question some critical aspects of the “giant impact” theory of the Moon’s formation and may have implications for the origin of possible water reservoirs at the Moon’s poles. The research is published in the July 10, 2008, of Nature.

New Extrasolar Planetary System May Be Much Like Our Own

Researchers from the NAI’s University of Arizona Team have published a new study in the current issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters of the potential habitability of the extrasolar planetary system OGLE-2006-BLG-109L. The first multiple-planet system ever to be discovered by gravitational microlensing, it has two large planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn. It’s possible that the system harbors other planets, including Earth-like planets, that are beyond the sensitivity of the microlensing observations. Their study examines the prospects for an Earth-like habitable planet in this system. They found that two smaller putative Earth-mass planets, perhaps yet undetected, could produce a planetary architecture of a potentially habitable system. With two “terrestrial” planets and two Jovian planets, it could bear very close resemblance to our own solar system.

Extraterrestrial Nucleobases in the Murchison Meteorite

A recent study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters from NAI’s Teams at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and University of Wisconsin, shows that nucleic acids of extraterrestrial origin are present in the Murchison meteorite. Carbon-rich meteorites such as the Murchison are thought to be responsible for delivering biologically-relevant organic material to the young Earth. These results demonstrate that the nucleic acids discovered in the meteorite, which are components of the genetic code in modern biochemistry, were already present in the early solar system and may have played a key role in life’s origin. Read more at ScienceNOW.

Novel Species of Bacteria Found Deep Within Greenland Glacier

Researchers from NAI's Penn State Team announced at the American Society of Microbiology General Meeting in Boston their discovery of a novel species of ultra-small bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles. The species is related genetically to certain bacteria found in fish, marine mud, and the roots of some plants, yet it has persisted in a low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, and nutrient-poor habitat. The study's authors speculate that it's unusual size helped enable it's survival in the ice for so long.

Erosion on Earth and Mars: Mere Seepage or Megaflood?

Researchers from NAI's University of California, Berkeley Team have a new study in Science focused on Box Canyon in Idaho. Incised into a basaltic plain with no drainage network upstream, and approximately 10 cubic meters per second of seepage emanating from its vertical headwall, the canyon is a veritable poster child of groundwater seepage erosion. But this new study posits evidence that the canyon?s formation was caused rather by catastrophic megaflood 45,000 years ago. Their results imply that flooding of this kind may have caused similar features on Mars.