Astrobiology最新文献

{"title":"Microbial Motility at the Bottom of North America: Digital Holographic Microscopy and Genomic Motility Signatures in Badwater Spring, Death Valley National Park.","authors":"Carl Snyder,&nbsp;Jakob P Centlivre,&nbsp;Shrikant Bhute,&nbsp;Gözde Shipman,&nbsp;Ariel D Friel,&nbsp;Tomeu Viver,&nbsp;Marike Palmer,&nbsp;Konstantinos T Konstantinidis,&nbsp;Henry J Sun,&nbsp;Ramon Rossello-Mora,&nbsp;Jay Nadeau,&nbsp;Brian P Hedlund","doi":"10.1089/ast.2022.0090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0090","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Motility is widely distributed across the tree of life and can be recognized by microscopy regardless of phylogenetic affiliation, biochemical composition, or mechanism. Microscopy has thus been proposed as a potential tool for detection of biosignatures for extraterrestrial life; however, traditional light microscopy is poorly suited for this purpose, as it requires sample preparation, involves fragile moving parts, and has a limited volume of view. In this study, we deployed a field-portable digital holographic microscope (DHM) to explore microbial motility in Badwater Spring, a saline spring in Death Valley National Park, and complemented DHM imaging with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and shotgun metagenomics. The DHM identified diverse morphologies and distinguished run-reverse-flick and run-reverse types of flagellar motility. PICRUSt2- and literature-based predictions based on 16S rRNA gene amplicons were used to predict motility genotypes/phenotypes for 36.0-60.1% of identified taxa, with the predicted motile taxa being dominated by members of Burkholderiaceae and Spirochaetota. A shotgun metagenome confirmed the abundance of genes encoding flagellar motility, and a <i>Ralstonia</i> metagenome-assembled genome encoded a full flagellar gene cluster. This study demonstrates the potential of DHM for planetary life detection, presents the first microbial census of Badwater Spring and brine pool, and confirms the abundance of mobile microbial taxa in an extreme environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 3","pages":"295-307"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9170285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Protective Effects of Halite to Vacuum and Vacuum-Ultraviolet Radiation: A Potential Scenario During a Young Sun Superflare.","authors":"Ximena C Abrevaya,&nbsp;Douglas Galante,&nbsp;Paula M Tribelli,&nbsp;Oscar J Oppezzo,&nbsp;Felipe Nóbrega,&nbsp;Gabriel G Araujo,&nbsp;Fabio Rodrigues,&nbsp;Petra Odert,&nbsp;Martin Leitzinger,&nbsp;Martiniano M Ricardi,&nbsp;Maria Eugenia Varela,&nbsp;Tamires Gallo,&nbsp;Jorge Sanz-Forcada,&nbsp;Ignasi Ribas,&nbsp;Gustavo F Porto de Mello,&nbsp;Florian Rodler,&nbsp;Maria Fernanda Cerini,&nbsp;Arnold Hanslmeier,&nbsp;Jorge E Horvath","doi":"10.1089/ast.2022.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Halite (NaCl mineral) has exhibited the potential to preserve microorganisms for millions of years on Earth. This mineral was also identified on Mars and in meteorites. In this study, we investigated the potential of halite crystals to protect microbial life-forms on the surface of an airless body (<i>e.g</i>., meteorite), for instance, during a lithopanspermia process (interplanetary travel step) in the early Solar System. To investigate the effect of the radiation of the young Sun on microorganisms, we performed extensive simulation experiments by employing a synchrotron facility. We focused on two exposure conditions: vacuum (low Earth orbit, 10^-4 Pa) and vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) radiation (range 57.6-124 nm, flux 7.14 W/m²), with the latter representing an extreme scenario with high VUV fluxes comparable to the amount of radiation of a stellar superflare from the young Sun. The stellar VUV parameters were estimated by using the very well-studied solar analog of the young Sun, κ¹ Cet. To evaluate the protective effects of halite, we entrapped a halophilic archaeon (<i>Haloferax volcanii</i>) and a non-halophilic bacterium (<i>Deinococcus radiodurans</i>) in laboratory-grown halite. Control groups were cells entrapped in salt crystals (mixtures of different salts and NaCl) and non-trapped (naked) cells, respectively. All groups were exposed either to vacuum alone or to vacuum plus VUV. Our results demonstrate that halite can serve as protection against vacuum and VUV radiation, regardless of the type of microorganism. In addition, we found that the protection is higher than provided by crystals obtained from mixtures of salts. This extends the protective effects of halite documented in previous studies and reinforces the possibility to consider the crystals of this mineral as potential preservation structures in airless bodies or as vehicles for the interplanetary transfer of microorganisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 3","pages":"245-268"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9170461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the Lipid World Hypothesis: A Novel Scenario of Self-Sustained Darwinian Evolution of the Liposomes.","authors":"Vladimir Subbotin, Gennady Fiksel","doi":"10.1089/ast.2021.0161","DOIUrl":"10.1089/ast.2021.0161","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>According to the Lipid World hypothesis, life on Earth originated with the emergence of amphiphilic assemblies in the form of lipid micelles and vesicles (liposomes). However, the mechanism of appearance of the information molecules (ribozymes/RNA) accompanying that process, considered obligatory for Darwinian evolution, is unclear. We propose a novel scenario of self-sustained Darwinian evolution of the liposomes driven by ever-present natural phenomena: solar UV radiation, day/night cycle, gravity, and the formation of liposomes in an aqueous media. The central tenet of this scenario is the liposomes' encapsulation of the heavy solutes, followed by their gravitational submerging in the water. The submerged liposomes, being protected from the damaging UV radiation, acquire the longevity necessary for autocatalytic replication of amphiphiles, their mutation, and the selection of those amphiphilic assemblies that provide the greatest membrane stability. These two sets of adaptive compositional information (heavy content and amphiphilic assemblies design) generate a population of liposomes with self-replication/reproduction properties, which are amendable to mutation, inheritance, and selection, thereby establishing Darwinian progression. Temporary and spatial expansion of this liposomal population will provide the basis for the next evolutionary step-a transition of accidentally entrapped RNA precursor molecules into complex functional molecules, such as ribozymes/RNA.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 3","pages":"344-357"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9986030/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9167667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Signatures of Life Detected in Images of Rocks Using Neural Network Analysis Demonstrate New Potential for Searching for Biosignatures on the Surface of Mars.","authors":"Dov Corenblit,&nbsp;Olivier Decaux,&nbsp;Sébastien Delmotte,&nbsp;Jean-Pierre Toumazet,&nbsp;Florent Arrignon,&nbsp;Marie-Françoise André,&nbsp;José Darrozes,&nbsp;Neil S Davies,&nbsp;Frédéric Julien,&nbsp;Thierry Otto,&nbsp;Guillaume Ramillien,&nbsp;Erwan Roussel,&nbsp;Johannes Steiger,&nbsp;Heather Viles","doi":"10.1089/ast.2022.0034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0034","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microorganisms play a role in the construction or modulation of various types of landforms. They are especially notable for forming microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS). Such microbial structures have been considered to be among the most likely biosignatures that might be encountered on the martian surface. Twenty-nine algorithms have been tested with images taken during a laboratory experiment for testing their performance in discriminating mat cracks (MISS) from abiotic mud cracks. Among the algorithms, neural network types produced excellent predictions with similar precision of 0.99. Following that step, a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach has been tested to see whether it can conclusively detect MISS in images of rocks and sediment surfaces taken at different natural sites where present and ancient (fossil) microbial mat cracks and abiotic desiccation cracks were observed. The CNN approach showed excellent prediction of biotic and abiotic structures from the images (global precision, sensitivity, and specificity, respectively, 0.99, 0.99, and 0.97). The key areas of interest of the machine matched well with human expertise for distinguishing biotic and abiotic forms (in their geomorphological meaning). The images indicated clear differences between the abiotic and biotic situations expressed at three embedded scales: texture (size, shape, and arrangement of the grains constituting the surface of one form), form (outer shape of one form), and pattern of form arrangement (arrangement of the forms over a few square meters). The most discriminative components for biogenicity were the border of the mat cracks with their tortuous enlarged and blistered morphology more or less curved upward, sometimes with thin laminations. To apply this innovative biogeomorphological approach to the images obtained by rovers on Mars, the main physical and biological sources of variation in abiotic and biotic outcomes must now be further considered.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 3","pages":"308-326"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9167655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biosignatures Preserved in Carbonate Nodules from the Western Qaidam Basin, NW China: Implications for Life Detection on Mars.","authors":"Yan Chen,&nbsp;Yu Sun,&nbsp;Li Liu,&nbsp;Jianxun Shen,&nbsp;Yuangao Qu,&nbsp;Yongxin Pan,&nbsp;Wei Lin","doi":"10.1089/ast.2021.0196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0196","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The search for organic matter on Mars is one of the major objectives of Mars exploration. However, limited detection of organic signals by Mars rovers to date demands further investigation on this topic. The Curiosity rover recently discovered numerous nodules in Gale Crater on Mars. These nodules have been considered to precipitate in the neutral-to-alkaline and saline diagenetic fluids and could be beneficial for organic preservation. Here, we examine this possibility by studying the carbonate nodules in the western Qaidam Basin, NW China, one of the terrestrial analog sites for Mars. Fourier transform infrared spectra of the carbonate nodules reveal that the aliphatic and aromatic molecules can be readily preserved inside nodules in Mars-like environments. The chain-branching index of the Qaidam nodules suggests that the diagenetic fluids where nodules precipitated were able to support diverse microbial communities that could vary with the water salinity. Findings of this study provide new perspectives on the astrobiological significance of nodules in Gale Crater and the further detection of organic matter on Mars.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 2","pages":"172-182"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10713710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Habitability and Biosignature Formation in Simulated Martian Aqueous Environments.","authors":"Michael C Macey,&nbsp;Nisha K Ramkissoon,&nbsp;Simone Cogliati,&nbsp;Mario Toubes-Rodrigo,&nbsp;Ben P Stephens,&nbsp;Ezgi Kucukkilic-Stephens,&nbsp;Susanne P Schwenzer,&nbsp;Victoria K Pearson,&nbsp;Louisa J Preston,&nbsp;Karen Olsson-Francis","doi":"10.1089/ast.2021.0197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0197","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Water present on early Mars is often assumed to have been habitable. In this study, experiments were performed to investigate the habitability of well-defined putative martian fluids and to identify the accompanying potential formation of biosignatures. Simulated martian environments were developed by combining martian fluid and regolith simulants based on the chemistry of the Rocknest sand shadow at Gale Crater. The simulated chemical environment was inoculated with terrestrial anoxic sediment from the Pyefleet mudflats (United Kingdom). These enrichments were cultured for 28 days and subsequently subcultured seven times to ensure that the microbial community was solely grown on the defined, simulated chemistry. The impact of the simulated chemistries on the microbial community was assessed by cell counts and sequencing of 16S rRNA gene profiles. Associated changes to the fluid and precipitate chemistries were established by using ICP-OES, IC, FTIR, and NIR. The fluids were confirmed as habitable, with the enriched microbial community showing a reduction in abundance and diversity over multiple subcultures relating to the selection of specific metabolic groups. The final community comprised sulfate-reducing, acetogenic, and other anaerobic and fermentative bacteria. Geochemical characterization and modeling of the simulant and fluid chemistries identified clear differences between the biotic and abiotic experiments. These differences included the elimination of sulfur owing to the presence of sulfate-reducing bacteria and more general changes in pH associated with actively respiring cells that impacted the mineral assemblages formed. This study confirmed that a system simulating the fluid chemistry of Gale Crater could support a microbial community and that variation in chemistries under biotic and abiotic conditions can be used to inform future life-detection missions.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 2","pages":"144-154"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10713712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hydrothermal Regeneration of Ammonium as a Basin-Scale Driver of Primary Productivity.","authors":"Eva E Stüeken,&nbsp;Kalle Kirsimäe,&nbsp;Aivo Lepland,&nbsp;Anthony R Prave","doi":"10.1089/ast.2021.0203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0203","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hydrothermal vents are important targets in the search for life on other planets due to their potential to generate key catalytic surfaces and organic compounds for biogenesis. Less well studied, however, is the role of hydrothermal circulation in maintaining a biosphere beyond its origin. In this study, we explored this question with analyses of organic carbon, nitrogen abundances, and isotopic ratios from the Paleoproterozoic Zaonega Formation (2.0 Ga), NW Russia, which is composed of interbedded sedimentary and mafic igneous rocks. Previous studies have documented mobilization of hydrocarbons, likely associated with magmatic intrusions into unconsolidated sediments. The igneous bodies are extensively hydrothermally altered. Our data reveal strong nitrogen enrichments of up to 0.6 wt % in these altered igneous rocks, suggesting that the hydrothermal fluids carried ammonium concentrations in the millimolar range, which is consistent with some modern hydrothermal vents. Furthermore, large isotopic offsets of ∼10‰ between organic-bound and silicate-bound nitrogen are most parsimoniously explained by partial biological uptake of ammonium from the vent fluid. Our results, therefore, show that hydrothermal activity in ancient marine basins could provide a locally high flux of recycled nitrogen. Hydrothermal nutrient recycling may thus be an important mechanism for maintaining a large biosphere on anoxic worlds.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 2","pages":"195-212"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10771261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Selection and Analytical Performances of the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer Gas Chromatographic Columns to Support the Search for Organic Molecules of Astrobiological Interest on Titan.","authors":"Valentin Moulay,&nbsp;Caroline Freissinet,&nbsp;Malak Rizk-Bigourd,&nbsp;Arnaud Buch,&nbsp;Mayline Ancelin,&nbsp;Elise Couturier,&nbsp;Caroline Breton,&nbsp;Melissa G Trainer,&nbsp;Cyril Szopa","doi":"10.1089/ast.2022.0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0038","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Titan is a key planetary body for astrobiology, with the presence of a subsurface ocean and a dense atmosphere, in which complex chemistry is known to occur. Approximately 1-Titan-year after the Cassini-Huygens mission arrived in the saturnian system, <i>Dragonfly</i> rotorcraft will land on Titan's surface by 2034 for an exhaustive geophysical and chemical investigation of the Shangri-La organic sand sea region. Among the four instruments onboard <i>Dragonfly</i>, the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DraMS) is dedicated to analyze the chemical composition of surface samples and noble gases in the atmosphere. One of the DraMS analysis modes, the Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), is devoted to the detection and identification of organic molecules that could be involved in the development of a prebiotic chemistry or even representative of traces of past or present life. Therefore, DraMS-GC subsystem should be optimized to detect and identify relevant organic compounds to meet this objective. This work is focused on the experimental methods employed to select the chromatographic column to be integrated in DraMS-GC, to assess the analytical performances of the column selected, and also to assess the performances of the second DraMS-GC column, which is devoted to the separation of organic enantiomers. Four different stationary phases have been tested to select the most relevant one for the separation of the targeted chemical species. The results show that the stationary phase composed of polymethyl (95%) diphenyl (5%) siloxane is the best compromise in terms of efficiency, robustness, and retention times of the molecules. The combination of the general and the chiral columns in DraMS is perfectly suited to <i>in situ</i> chemical analysis on Titan and for the detection of expected diverse and complex organic compounds.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 2","pages":"213-229"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10771264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A New Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective on the Emergence of Oxygenic Photosynthesis.","authors":"David S Stevenson","doi":"10.1089/ast.2021.0165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0165","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this hypothesis article, we propose that the timing of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and the diversification of cyanobacteria is firmly tied to the geological evolution of Earth in the Mesoarchean to Neoarchean. Specifically, the diversification of species capable of oxygenic photosynthesis is tied to the growth of subaerial (above sea-level/terrestrial) continental crust, which provided niches for their diversification. Moreover, we suggest that some formerly aerobic bacterial lineages evolved to become anoxygenic photosynthetic as a result of changes in selection following the reintroduction of ferruginous conditions in the oceans at 1.88 GYa. Both conclusions are fully compatible with phylogenetic evidence. The hypothesis carries with it a predictive component-at least for terrestrial organisms-that the development and expansion of photosynthesis species was dependent on the geological evolution of Earth.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 2","pages":"230-237"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10718647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Solid-Phase Microextraction for Organic Contamination Control Throughout Assembly and Operational Phases of Space Missions.","authors":"Samuel H Royle,&nbsp;Lorcan Cropper,&nbsp;Jonathan S Watson,&nbsp;Silvio Sinibaldi,&nbsp;Michael Entwisle,&nbsp;Mark A Sephton","doi":"10.1089/ast.2021.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Space missions concerned with life detection contain highly sensitive instruments for the detection of organics. Terrestrial contamination can interfere with signals of indigenous organics in samples and has the potential to cause false-positive biosignature detections, which may lead to incorrect suggestions of the presence of life elsewhere in the solar system. This study assessed the capability of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) as a method for monitoring organic contamination encountered by spacecraft hardware during assembly and operation. SPME-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) analysis was performed on potential contaminant source materials, which are commonly used in spacecraft construction. The sensitivity of SPME-GC-MS to organics was assessed in the context of contaminants identified in molecular wipes taken from hardware surfaces on the ExoMars <i>Rosalind Franklin</i> rover. SPME was found to be effective at detecting a wide range of common organic contaminants that include aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen-containing compounds, alcohols, and carbonyls. A notable example of correlation of contaminant with source material was the detection of benzenamine compounds in an epoxy adhesive analyzed by SPME-GC-MS and in the ExoMars rover surface wipe samples. The current form of SPME-GC-MS does not enable quantitative evaluation of contaminants, nor is it suitable for the detection of every group of organic molecules relevant to astrobiological contamination concerns, namely large and/or polar molecules such as amino acids. However, it nonetheless represents an effective new monitoring method for rapid, easy identification of organic contaminants commonly present on spacecraft hardware and could thus be utilized in future space missions as part of their contamination control and mitigation protocols.</p>","PeriodicalId":8645,"journal":{"name":"Astrobiology","volume":"23 2","pages":"127-143"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10702996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}