Sentences with phrase «whether microbial life»

If we can collect a sample, we can determine whether microbial life exists in order to understand how it evolved and how it continues in this cold environment with no sunlight or energy.»

If we can collect a sample of the water, we may determine whether microbial life exists, how it evolved, and how it continues to live in this cold environment with no connection to the atmosphere.»

Not exact matches

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover completed a Martian year — 687 Earth days — on June 24, having accomplished the mission's main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

Upon arrival in October, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will train its instruments on the Red Planet, in the hopes of resolving questions about the existence of methane gas, and whether it could hint at microbial life.

By examining peak ring rocks closely, they hope to test models of crater formation and determine whether the crater itself was one of the first habitats for microbial life after the impact.

Understanding microbial life and the mineral breakdown that it incites under the ice sheet could help answer some momentous questions about whether global warming will speed up as Antarctica's ice recedes.

Scientists have been arguing for decades over whether such structures are remnants of early microbial life, but the Australian formations are the best evidence yet.

Curiosity's next task is to determine whether other conditions on ancient Mars, like the chemistry of the soil and air, were also favorable to the development of microbial life.

With its three cameras, four spectrometers, two radiation detectors, and weather monitoring station, MSL's primary goal is to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support microbial life.

Researchers are using Curiosity's 10 instruments to investigate whether areas in Gale Crater ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

«An outstanding question has been whether or not the environment at the base of the ice sheet is actually suitable for microbial life to persist,» explains Brent Christner, a microbiologist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

While the jury's out on whether these supplements have any effect on the gut's bacterial environment, it is clear that not having a thriving microbial community in one's intestines can be dangerous, with consequences ranging from a day or two of diarrhea to life - threatening infection with a nasty bug called Clostridium difficile, which can gain a foothold in patients treated with antibiotics.

Whether learning that I am only 10 % human, 90 % bacteria, or musing on the concept of composting as animal husbandry, my life has taken a decidedly microbial turn of late.