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A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses
As the exploration of Mars and other worlds for signs of life has increased, the need for a common nomenclature and consensus has become significantly important for proper identification of nonterrestrial/non-Earth biology, biogenic structures, and chemical processes generated from biological proces...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8403179/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34357788 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2020.2318 |
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author | Perl, Scott M. Celestian, Aaron J. Cockell, Charles S. Corsetti, Frank A. Barge, Laura M. Bottjer, David Filiberto, Justin Baxter, Bonnie K. Kanik, Isik Potter-McIntyre, Sally Weber, Jessica M. Rodriguez, Laura E. Melwani Daswani, Mohit |
author_facet | Perl, Scott M. Celestian, Aaron J. Cockell, Charles S. Corsetti, Frank A. Barge, Laura M. Bottjer, David Filiberto, Justin Baxter, Bonnie K. Kanik, Isik Potter-McIntyre, Sally Weber, Jessica M. Rodriguez, Laura E. Melwani Daswani, Mohit |
author_sort | Perl, Scott M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | As the exploration of Mars and other worlds for signs of life has increased, the need for a common nomenclature and consensus has become significantly important for proper identification of nonterrestrial/non-Earth biology, biogenic structures, and chemical processes generated from biological processes. The fact that Earth is our single data point for all life, diversity, and evolution means that there is an inherent bias toward life as we know it through our own planet's history. The search for life “as we don't know it” then brings this bias forward to decision-making regarding mission instruments and payloads. Understandably, this leads to several top-level scientific, theoretical, and philosophical questions regarding the definition of life and what it means for future life detection missions. How can we decide on how and where to detect known and unknown signs of life with a single biased data point? What features could act as universal biosignatures that support Darwinian evolution in the geological context of nonterrestrial time lines? The purpose of this article is to generate an improved nomenclature for terrestrial features that have mineral/microbial interactions within structures and to confirm which features can only exist from life (biotic), features that are modified by biological processes (biogenic), features that life does not affect (abiotic), and properties that can exist or not regardless of the presence of biology (abiogenic). These four categories are critical in understanding and deciphering future returned samples from Mars, signs of potential extinct/ancient and extant life on Mars, and in situ analyses from ocean worlds to distinguish and separate what physical structures and chemical patterns are due to life and which are not. Moreover, we discuss hypothetical detection and preservation environments for extant and extinct life, respectively. These proposed environments will take into account independent active and ancient in situ detection prospects by using previous planetary exploration studies and discuss the geobiological implications within an astrobiological context. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8403179 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84031792021-08-30 A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses Perl, Scott M. Celestian, Aaron J. Cockell, Charles S. Corsetti, Frank A. Barge, Laura M. Bottjer, David Filiberto, Justin Baxter, Bonnie K. Kanik, Isik Potter-McIntyre, Sally Weber, Jessica M. Rodriguez, Laura E. Melwani Daswani, Mohit Astrobiology Special Collection Articles As the exploration of Mars and other worlds for signs of life has increased, the need for a common nomenclature and consensus has become significantly important for proper identification of nonterrestrial/non-Earth biology, biogenic structures, and chemical processes generated from biological processes. The fact that Earth is our single data point for all life, diversity, and evolution means that there is an inherent bias toward life as we know it through our own planet's history. The search for life “as we don't know it” then brings this bias forward to decision-making regarding mission instruments and payloads. Understandably, this leads to several top-level scientific, theoretical, and philosophical questions regarding the definition of life and what it means for future life detection missions. How can we decide on how and where to detect known and unknown signs of life with a single biased data point? What features could act as universal biosignatures that support Darwinian evolution in the geological context of nonterrestrial time lines? The purpose of this article is to generate an improved nomenclature for terrestrial features that have mineral/microbial interactions within structures and to confirm which features can only exist from life (biotic), features that are modified by biological processes (biogenic), features that life does not affect (abiotic), and properties that can exist or not regardless of the presence of biology (abiogenic). These four categories are critical in understanding and deciphering future returned samples from Mars, signs of potential extinct/ancient and extant life on Mars, and in situ analyses from ocean worlds to distinguish and separate what physical structures and chemical patterns are due to life and which are not. Moreover, we discuss hypothetical detection and preservation environments for extant and extinct life, respectively. These proposed environments will take into account independent active and ancient in situ detection prospects by using previous planetary exploration studies and discuss the geobiological implications within an astrobiological context. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2021-08-01 2021-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8403179/ /pubmed/34357788 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2020.2318 Text en © Scott M. Perl et al., 2021; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Special Collection Articles Perl, Scott M. Celestian, Aaron J. Cockell, Charles S. Corsetti, Frank A. Barge, Laura M. Bottjer, David Filiberto, Justin Baxter, Bonnie K. Kanik, Isik Potter-McIntyre, Sally Weber, Jessica M. Rodriguez, Laura E. Melwani Daswani, Mohit A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses |
title | A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses |
title_full | A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses |
title_fullStr | A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses |
title_full_unstemmed | A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses |
title_short | A Proposed Geobiology-Driven Nomenclature for Astrobiological In Situ Observations and Sample Analyses |
title_sort | proposed geobiology-driven nomenclature for astrobiological in situ observations and sample analyses |
topic | Special Collection Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8403179/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34357788 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2020.2318 |
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