ASTROBIOLOGY IN ARGENTINA

ABREVAYA X.C

Workshop; South American Space Generation Workshop; 2016

Astrobiology is a relatively new and multidisciplinary field of science involving areas as astronomy, biology, chemistry and geology, among others. One of the most important goals in this field is to find out which places in the universe are capable to host life. The amazing discovery of life forms inhabiting in environments with extreme conditions on Earth has opened new horizons to consider the possibility of life ?as we know it? in other planetary bodies. In the light of the surveys being carried out to find rocky planets in the habitable zone around their parent stars, we need to understand how stellar radiation does limit the possibility of life forms to thrive in these environments. From the biological point of view, radioresistant microorganisms as halophilic archaea inhabiting hypersaline environments on Earth demonstrate that organisms do employ several strategies to cope with high-energy radiation and therefore are highly relevant in astrobiological studies. Moreover, the relevance of these studies gain even more importance when considering that these hypersaline environments can be also analogs of other extraterrestrial environments in the Solar System as those it is possible to find on Mars. During my talk I will review some of the interdisciplinary research projects that we carry out in Argentina, which include: -The study of stellar radiation and their effects on life in exoplanetary and early planetary scenarios -Lab experiments simulating planetary and interplanetary environmental conditions, with the goal to evaluate the survival of radioresistant microorganisms. -Studies related to the possibility of survival of microorganisms on meteorites during interplanetary travels (?lithopanspermia?). -Hypersaline environments and halophilic archaea, evaluating similarities between Mars and the Earth and the possibility to consider these microorganisms as potential life forms on Mars.- Development of bioelectrochemical methods for the in situ detection of extraterrestrial life in other planetary bodies.