[Saturday, August 1, 2009] Virtual worlds are shaping up as possible venues for online meetings--and astrobiology graduate students are leading the way in exploring their potential.

[Monday, August 3, 2009] NASA will hold a media briefing on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss early science results of the Kepler mission. Kepler is the first spacecraft with the ability to find Earth-size planets orbiting stars like our sun in a zone where liquid water

[Monday, August 3, 2009] Instead of handling a few experiments on a bench top, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results -- literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail.

[Tuesday, August 4, 2009] We conclude that, as far as we have been exhaustive, we have discovered a planetary companion, named CoRoT-7b, for which we derive a period of 0.853 59 +/- 3 10-5 day and a radius of Rp = 1.68 +/- 0.09 REarth.

[Tuesday, August 4, 2009] On Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, the LCROSS spacecraft successfully completed its first Earth-look calibration of its science payload. An additional Earth-look and a moon-look are scheduled for the remainder of the cruise phase of the mission.

[Wednesday, August 5, 2009] AMASE has established Svalbard as a test bed for life-detection technology to fly on future NASA and ESA 'Search for Life' missions to Mars (i.e., Mars Science Laboratory, EXOMars).

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] Juan D. Rodriguez (AMASE team): This is my first post to the blog about AMASE 2009. I am writing it from the Spitzbergen Guest house, a nice little accommodation place located in Nybyen at the SE end of Longyearbyen (Svalbard).

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] Since the discovery of its presence in the Martian atmosphere, methane has remained an intriguing atmospheric component which source (either of biotic or abiotic origin) is not yet fully understood.

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] After 36hrs or more of flying and all the jetlag, the first view of Svalbard does not disappoint. Such a stark beauty with dramatic geology rising out of the ocean bearing floating chunks of ice.

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] Today saw the transformation of bare labs and storage warehouses into fully equipped biology and biogeochemistry facilities and Mars rover assembly rooms.

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] The sun was shining on the glaciers all day yesterday, giving us a chance to take some spectacular photos in between projects. It also resulted in an abundance of 'small' icebergs let loose into the water in the bay.

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] NASA's new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope's extraordinary scientific capabilities. The discovery will be published Friday, Aug. 7, in the journal Science.

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] Saturn’s haze-enshrouded moon Titan turns out to have much in common with Earth in the way that weather and geology shape its terrain, according to two pieces of research to be presented at the XXVII General Assembly of the IAU.

[Thursday, August 6, 2009] The Astrophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate is pleased to announce the establishment an Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group, or ExoPAG.

[Monday, August 10, 2009] Tomorrow the newbies on AMASE are taking part in arctic safety classes so we are ready to head out to the hills on field sampling trips

[Monday, August 10, 2009] There were dark circles under many eyes and not a few sore shoulders today from the ice coring team after returning from the glacier very late last night carrying 35 Kg of ice and metal each.

[Monday, August 10, 2009] Tired eyes with dark and puffy circles greeted each other from either side of the railing of the R/V Lance, but smiles were found all around as we were reunited with friends and colleagues as the research vessel docked.

[Monday, August 10, 2009] How rare life is in the Universe is one of the key questions in the natural sciences today. By pulling in multidisciplinary expertise from biology, geology, physics and astronomy, astrobiologists are addressing different facets of this very profound quest

[Wednesday, August 12, 2009] You know you are in for a good day when the first thing you do after breakfast is get fitted for a pair of crampons.

[Wednesday, August 12, 2009] WASP-17 appears to have been the victim of a game of planetary billiards, flung into its unusual orbit by a close encounter with a ``big brother'' planet.

[Wednesday, August 12, 2009] For all its similarities to Earth Titan, is generally "a very bland place, weatherwise," says Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology.

[Wednesday, August 12, 2009] In the last days things have moved ahead in AMASE. Very busy days doing science. The Sun never sets and there are always plenty of things to do!

[Friday, August 14, 2009] Australians will have the opportunity to send text-like messages to potential intelligent life beyond Earth thanks to an initiative to be launched today to mark National Science Week

[Monday, August 17, 2009] NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.

[Tuesday, August 18, 2009] When Earth was just cooling down from its fiery creation, the sun was faint - so faint that it should not have been able to keep the oceans of earth from freezing. But fortunately for the creation of life, water was kept liquid on our young planet.

[Wednesday, August 19, 2009] Humans might not be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, NASA-funded research has found.

[Saturday, August 22, 2009] Driving a rover on Mars and obtaining useful scientific information is something you don't learn from one day to another. You need a lot of training and you need to be able to work with people that have different scientific backgrounds.

[Saturday, August 22, 2009] New images released today by ESO delve into the heart of a cosmic cloud, called RCW 38, crowded with budding stars and planetary systems. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with powerful winds and blazing light.

[Saturday, August 22, 2009] The AMASE crews were united today thanks to several helicopter lifts from NyAlesund and some willing and able volunteers who established a tent camp on shore to free up enough rooms for all the NyAlesund personnel to move onto the ship.

[Monday, August 24, 2009] The next rovers that will be sent to Mars will not look only for signs of liquid water. They also will have to accomplish a very complicated task: the search for past (or present) microbial life.

[Wednesday, August 26, 2009] Before we get into the blogs, you may have noticed that we were unable to post everyday while we were aboard Lance. Loss of internet contact is part of an arctic expedition, and we were not able to get the posts out until now that we are off the ship.

[Thursday, August 27, 2009] Lakes in Antarctica, concealed under miles of ice, require scientists to come up with creative ways to identify and analyze these hidden features.

[Friday, August 28, 2009] One of the 'fun science" activities we have carried out during AMASE 2009 is "iceberg chasing". Naturally this was all for a good scientific reason as we were interested in acquiring sediments trapped in calved icebergs for further characterization.