How should we search for life in subsurface oceans in our solar system?
The exploration of icy ocean worlds present in our solar system is the next frontier of space exploration. Some of these icy ocean worlds – like Europa (moon of Jupiter) and Enceladus (moon of Saturn) – display evidence of potential hydrothermalism in their subsurface oceans. Hydrothermal systems could deliver organic molecules and elements that could be harnessed to support life in the absence of light. So, a promising target in the exploration of these worlds would be to target hydrothermal systems at the sea floor. However, these systems can be extremely varied, and it’s important to understand which substrates and which types of systems would best increase our chances of finding life. To address this, we deployed two microbial traps for two years at two different low-temperature diffuse sites within the ASHES vent field at Axial Seamount. Each microbial trap contained four hydrothermally relevant substrates, and after collection we examined the substrates with space flight relevant techniques to understand which substrates could be the most compelling to target in ocean world exploration. In this talk, I will present our results so far, and how they could relate to informing future astrobiological missions to these bodies.
Bio: Bonnie Teece is an assistant research professor in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell. She is researching organic biosignature detection and alteration, organo-mineral associations, preparation for sample return missions, and distinguishing biotic from abiotic signals in challenging samples. She is a mission formulator and was one of the primary science architects of Mars Sample Return, as well as in the leadership for Search for Life Science Analysis Group (SFL-SAG) which examined how to detect modern life in the icy mid-latitudes of Mars. She earned her Ph.D. at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and conducted her postdoctoral fellowship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research examines how signs of life are preserved and detected on Earth and other planetary bodies. She works on hydrothermal systems, early Earth rocks, and Ocean World and Mars-analogue sites in the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand, Chile, Yellowstone National Park, and across Australia.