Researchers have developed a Compact Color Biofinder, an innovative scientific instrument, that may bring radical changes in the search for signs of extraterrestrial life. In a study published in Nature Scientific Reports recently, the team of researchers from University of Hawai’i at Manoa reported that the Biofinder is so sensitive that it can accurately detect the bio-residue in fish fossils from the 34-56 million year-old Green River formation.
Most biological materials, for example, amino acids, fossils, sedimentary rocks, plants, microbes, proteins and lipids, have strong organic fluorescence signals that can be detected by specialized scanning cameras.
Quoting Anupam Misra, lead instrument developer and researcher at the Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at the UH Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) as saying, it is reported that the Biofinder is the first system of its kind. “At present, there is no other equipment that can detect minute amounts of bio-residue on a rock during the daytime. Additional strengths of the Biofinder are that it works from a distance of several meters, takes video and can quickly scan a large area”, Misra added.
First developed in 2012 by Misra, advances of the Biofinder supported by the NASA PICASSO program culminated in the latest color version of the compact Biofinder.
“Fluorescence imaging will be critical in future NASA missions to detect organics and the existence of life on other planetary bodies”. – Anupam Misra
While scientists say finding evidence of biological residue in a vast planetary landscape is an enormous challenge, the team tested the Biofinder’s detection abilities on the ancient Green River fish fossils and corroborated the results through laboratory spectroscopy analysis, scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.
Misra states that there are some unknowns regarding how quickly bio-residues are replaced by minerals in the fossilization process, adding, however, “our findings confirm once more that biological residues can survive millions of years, and that using biofluorescence imaging effectively detects these trace residues in real time”
The search for life, which may be existing or already extinct, on planetary bodies is one of the main goals of planetary exploration missions conducted by NASA and other international space agencies.
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According to Misra, if the Biofinder were mounted on a rover on Mars or another planet, “we would be able to rapidly scan large areas quickly to detect evidence of past life, even if the organism was small, not easy to see with our eyes, and dead for many millions of years”. Misra also informed they anticipated that “fluorescence imaging will be critical in future NASA missions to detect organics and the existence of life on other planetary bodies”.
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Likewise, Sonia J. Rowley, the team biologist and co-author on the study, is aslo reported as saying that the Biofinder’s capabilities would be critical for NASA’s Planetary Protection program, for the accurate and no-invasive detection of contaminants such as microbes or extraterrestrial biohazards to or from planet Earth..
The team of researchers are applying to have the opportunity to send the Biofinder on a future NASA mission.
The detection of such biomarkers would constitute groundbreaking evidence for life outside of planet Earth, said Misra.
