Authors:

Gretchen K Minich

Date Created:

Not specified

Course Title:

Professor:

Not specified

About Paper:

The search for life beyond Earth requires knowledge of robust biosignatures. With such a diversity of potentially inhabited planetary environments in the Solar System, e.g., subsurface oceans on the Moons of Jupiter, it is prudent to develop strategies to detect life that are independent of chemical composition. Movement has been previously suggested to be a biosignature (Glaser, 1996; Nadeau, 2016; Nadeau, 2017). However, it is not yet understood whether living movement and non-living movement can be distinguished with accuracy. The purpose of this study is to investigate microscopic movement of life that may be definitively distinguished from various forms of abiotic movement. This study involves recording videos on a microscopic level of random abiotic movement that could be detected on planets beyond Earth such as evaporation, melting, and vibration. In addition, videos depicting distinct movements of microbial life such as mitosis, flagellar motility, and swarming will be taken and compared to the distinct abiotic motion. In collaboration with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, a computer program will be developed using velocity vectors of the motions to train the program to characterize motions as abiotic or biotic. The program will be tested for false positives and negatives across a diverse array of videos taken in our lab and our collaborators' lab at Niagara University. The development and training of a program such as this using the described videos could be utilized to analyze recorded data from a probe on a different planet to passively search for life. Keywords: Microbiology; Movement; Astrobiology; Biosignature; Abiotic

Source:

Purdue University / 2025

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Gretchen K Minich