Formerly a nurse, Roe decided to switch careers and obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry before joining Anbar's laboratory and joining the hunt for exotic life. Also contributing to the project were research scientist Jane Barling of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and scientist Kenneth Nealson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The work comes as scientists are rapidly expanding their criteria for environments that can support life. Living organisms have been found at the bottom of the ocean, far from any light source, and in highly acidic environments. With each of these findings, the possibility that life exists or once existed in a harsh or remote outpost of our solar system, like Mars or one of Jupiter's moons, moves up a notch.
People are optimistic that the conditions for life are out there.
Among the group's next research projects is the analysis of an iron meteorite that is part of the rubble from the formation of our solar system. The team will study the rock to develop techniques for tracking the chemical activity of the metals within, then hopes to use those methods to study other meteorites that may hold signs of life. We do our best to understand the map, but we don't really know where it will lead. The image was processed by Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V., Berlin, Germany.