The University of Colorado at Boulder's Center for Astrobiology will continue helping NASA search for extraterrestrial life after winning a $5 million grant from the agency.
"We have been asking whether we are alone in the universe for literally thousands of years," center Director Bruce Jakosky said. "Ours is the first generation that might have a chance to answer that question within our lifetimes. This makes for an extremely exciting program, and I'm proud and excited that CU can be a part of it."
Jakosky is a professor in the CU-Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, where the Center for Astrobiology is housed and operated, and in the department of geological sciences. A scientist on several NASA Mars missions, he has directed the CU-Boulder Center for Astrobiology since 1998, when NASA chose CU as one of the original 11 institutions in its Astrobiology Institute.
In 1998 NASA awarded the CU-Boulder center a five-year, $3 million grant. The agency's new grant increases funding to $5 million over the next five years, and CU-Boulder's center also will receive substantial contributions of non-NASA funds from the university and other partners.
"Although we know of no life beyond Earth at present, we are studying the planets both in our solar system and those orbiting other stars in order to understand where life might exist," Jakosky said. "In addition to understanding the habitability of planets, we are searching for life on Mars and Europa in our solar system over the next two decades, and planning for ways to search for life in planets orbiting other stars using Earth-orbiting telescopes."
NASA officials said that the small group of institutions participating in the agency's Astrobiology Institute will generate groundbreaking research to help guide space exploration priorities. CU-Boulder is collaborating with Ball Aerospace Corp. and Lockheed-Martin Astronautics to develop technology for exploration. "The technology will address Earth-orbiting telescopes, instruments that will fly on spacecraft to other planets, and entire spacecraft that can address astrobiology-related issues," Jakosky said.
In addition to research, the CU-Boulder center offers a graduate certificate program in astrobiology and related courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. "The faculty who are involved in our program are truly outstanding, with both national and international reputations, and we have been able to build a world-class program in astrobiology over the last few years," Jakosky said.
The CU-Boulder Center for Astrobiology involves researchers in the astrophysical and planetary sciences; atmospheric and space physics; the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics; geological sciences; environmental, population and organismic biology; molecular, cellular and developmental biology and philosophy. Their common goal is learning about the origin, nature and distribution of life in the universe.
The CU-Boulder center is partnering with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for public education and outreach. "Our efforts will provide materials that they can use in their museum directly, as well as materials that can be distributed around the state for use in classrooms," Jakosky said. "We also have a concerted effort to take the excitement of astrobiology research around the state, especially to institutions and places that normally do not have access to the results of cutting-edge research." To view the center's site go to: .
Of the initial eleven members of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, CU-Boulder and five others have been selected to continue their programs and six new teams have been added. Other universities chosen in 2003 for funding and participation in the NASA institute were the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Arizona, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Hawaii.
Research institutes include the Carnegie Institute of Washington D.C., the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. The NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, Calif., and Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are the participating NASA centers.
The NASA Astrobiology Institute is an international research consortium with central offices located at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. NASA Ames is the agency's lead center for astrobiology, the search for the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. For further information about the NAI, visit .