WARC DISCOVERIES

Below we summarize major research findings and discoveries in Astrobiology that have been made recently by WARC researchers. In addition to funding from NASA, these projects may have been supported by other funding agencies.

Lithium in the world’s oldest minerals indicate an active weathering cycle in the first few hundred million years of Earth’s history

Isotopic evidence that microbial cycling of carbon, sulfur, and iron developed at different times in the first three billion years of Earth’s history

Evidence that “iron-eating" bacteria existed on the early Earth two to three billion years ago

Early histories of the Earth and Moon: Similar, but different

Baked BIFs: Can isotopic biosignatures survive the effects of high-grade metamorphism in the Earth’s earliest sediments?

Preparing for in situ measurements of isotopic biosignatures on Mars

Promising new approaches in micro isotopic analysis of minerals that may record the earliest processes on Earth

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission and the search for the organic remnants of life on Mars

A breakthrough in our understanding of the iron isotope fingerprint that iron-eating bacteria may leave in the rock record

Can the iron contents of ancient soils really be used to estimate atmospheric oxygen contents in the early Earth?