An artists conception of a planetary system in the early stages of formation.

Linda Jahnke, Ames Research Center, examining thermophilic bacteria from Yellowstone that she will analyze for biomarkers.

Carol Tang, California Academy of Sciences, at the IMAX showing of "Aliens of the Deep", showing students specimens from hydrothermal vents.

Astrobiology exhibits at California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.

Astrobiology window display at California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park.

Ames Team Members at Yellowstone National Park - Baruch Blumgerg, Linda Young (YNP), Lynn Rothschild, Nancy Hinman (University of Montana), Catherine Tsairides, David Des Marais.

A 25-amino acid fragment of the M2 protein of the influenza virus is an example of a very simple protein that spontaneously inserts itself into membranes and forms tetrameric channels capable of efficient and selective transport of protons.

Lynn Rothschild working in a thermal outflow in the Bolivian altiplano.

David Des Marais, Ames Research Center, and Dan Albert, University of North Carolina, conducting flux experiments on microbial mats in Guerrero Negro.

Mars Exploration Rover (Illustration by Dan Maass, Cornell University)

Microbial mat community (cyanobacteria: brown and green; purple sulfur bacteria: red) developed within gypsum rock deposited in a brine concentration pond of Exportadora de Sal, S.A., Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Tori Hoehler, Ames Research Center, collects samples of algal mat from a warm spring near Bockfjorden, Spitzbergen (Norwegian Artic).

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) deviations after El Nino episodes.

David Des Marais in the "archean gardens" greenhouse at Ames Research Center.

Vesicles formed spontaneously from an aqueous solution of decanoic acid and decanol (D. Deamer, University of California, Santa Cruz).

Lagoons and salina at Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Max Bernstein, Ames Research Center, participating in the Earth to Sky Institute.

Grand Prismatic at Yellowstone National Park.