Mines in Canada, South Africa may point to life on Mars

Recent scientific discoveries indicate that life on Mars may be more likely than previously thought, geosciences professor Tullis Onstott said Friday.

Speaking in Peyton Hall at the academic year's first meeting of the Princeton Astrobiology Club (P-ABC), Onstott said that recent high-resolution images of Mars have shown topographical features like volcanoes to be much younger than originally suspected.

With the issue of age in doubt, the question of life on Mars has also been revived. The primary method for exploring this possibility is to look for water, he said, because living things require water for survival.

Scientists are encouraged by the discovery of microbial life in water from gold mines in South Africa and Canada, Onstott said. The water, four kilometers below ground, is the same depth at which water is believed to be trapped on Mars. The next step will be to locate the same organisms on the "Red Planet", he added.

While undergraduates are not needed to help with that project, Onstott said, the P-ABC is an excellent place to "seek answers to the most important questions."

The club, which aims to promote astrobiological issues on campus, was founded last spring by Zach Berta '07, David Smith '07, Mike Dreibelbis '07 and Jason Aramburu '07. They were inspired by GEO/AST/EEB 255 "Life in the Universe," which Onstott co-taught last fall.

The P-ABC "is an important club on campus. It brings together all the different sciences, uniting ... different topics for the common goal of viewing life in an astronomical context," Berta said. "Earth may be cool, but we also have perspective in terms of feeling very, very small."

The club's previous activities included several lectures, a "Star Party" using Peyton Hall's telescope and a trip to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with a Wilson School task force.

Future plans for the P-ABC's expansion include a field trip to the Goddard Space Center in Maryland and the establishment of a certificate in astrobiology. The certificate would be modeled after a program like environmental studies and would most likely involve four courses in astronomy, ecology and evolutionary biology, geology and chemistry, as well as related JP and thesis work, Smith said.

The club is also planning a lecture by Greg Olsen, a Princeton resident who was the third tourist to visit the International Space Station.