NMT Earth and Environmental Science graduate Student Zoë Havlena was recently awarded a prestigious NASA grant to fund her doctoral research in geomicrobiology. Her project is “Interpreting Acidic Gypsum Deposits as Hosts for Past and Present Microbial Life.” Havlena will be collecting and analyzing gypsum samples from four cave systems in an effort to shed light on how life could grow in harsh ecosystems, such as other planets or moons.
The Atlantic
A volcano erupting on the island is a living replica of what once happened on Mars.
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After 15 months of intense and disruptive earthquakes on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, the region finally let off some pressure. On March 19, lava roared out of the ground in the uninhabited valley of Geldingadalur, marking the first time in 800 years that this strip of land has been rocked by an eruption.
Volcanologists are thrilled, but this spectacle isn’t just an opportunity to explore Iceland’s fiery underworld. It’s also a window into another world entirely. “The eruption is, in my view, a fantastic analogue for Mars,” says Christopher Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona.
NASA successfully lands Perseverance rover on Mars
Feb 18, 2021 17:32 EST with 39 comments
The American space agency, NASA, has confirmed that its Perseverance rover has successfully landed on the red planet, Mars. NASA announced the landing from its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST following a 203-day ride covering 472 million kilometres.
Commenting on the successful landing, NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said:
“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human