NASA Supports Extraterrestrial Life Research for 5 Years

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is providing a total of $24 million in funding to three research teams that will search for signs of extraterrestrial life over the next five years.

NASA's chief scientist, Jim Green, stated in a press release that NASA has multiple missions that provide data in the search for life.

Green expressed confidence that these teams will provide the critical expertise needed to help interpret data from these missions and future astrobiological tasks.

The teams conducting this exciting new research include:

A team that will explore the formation of prebiotic molecules, which precede the emergence of single-celled organisms, in the finest detail. (ENIGMA)
An astrobiological center focused on isotopic research that will seek answers regarding the origins of organic molecules. (ACIR)
Finally, NASA's own research lab, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will investigate the hidden corners of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which is currently believed to have a habitable environment, in great detail.

The coordinated efforts of biologists, geologists, and space researchers may be justified by two prevailing hypotheses regarding the origin of life on Earth. The first suggests that nucleic acids and proteins, which served as the starting point for the development of single-celled and then multicellular organisms, came together into more complex systems purely by chance. The second theory posits that asteroids striking Earth from space regularly inoculated the planet with organic molecules carried on their surfaces. This could happen again elsewhere at any time.