Melissa Trainer

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Melissa G. Trainer (born April 22, 1978) [1] is an American astrobiologist who in 2004 demonstrated empirically that life could have formed on Earth through the interaction of methane, carbon dioxide and ultraviolet light (sunlight). She is Assistant Chief for Science, Operations, and Strategic Planning in the Planetary Environments Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Contents

Early life and education

Raised in northern New Jersey since the age of four, Trainer attended Hackensack High School, [1] from which she graduated as Valedictorian in 1996.

She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2000, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Abstract Mathematics. [2]

She completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2006, where she worked with Margaret A. Tolbert. Her dissertation was “Laboratory Studies of Organic Haze Aerosols in Simulated Planetary Atmospheres”. [2]

Research

As a doctoral student with Melissa A. Tolbert at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences, working in the field of atmospheric chemistry, Trainer conducted two experimental studies on the formation of aerosols (tholins) in the early atmosphere of Earth [3] and the current atmosphere of Titan. [4] Project investigator Owen Toon reported, "As had been predicted in some theoretical studies we found that the production rate of aerosols declines as the abundance of CO2 relative to methane increases in simulated terrestrial atmospheres." [5]

Trainer and her coexperimenters reported on their findings in Astrobiology in a 2004 paper called "Haze Aerosols in the Atmosphere of Early Earth: Manna from Heaven". [3] She later presented the findings at the 2006 NASA Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon) in March 2006 where she was recognized for her work.

Trainer was a graduate research assistant at the University of Colorado, Boulder from 2000 to 2006, and a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Astrobiology Institute from 2006 to 2009. [2] As of 2009 she became a planetary atmospheric chemist at Goddard Space Flight Center. [2] [6] As of 2015, she became Assistant Chief for Science, Operations, and Strategic Planning in the Planetary Environments Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. [2]

Trainer continues to study the properties of Titan and early Earth aerosol analogs, [7] using a wide variety of techniques including chemical, optical, and isotopic characterizations of analogs. [8] She is active in astrobiology projects examining Mars, Titan, Venus. [2]

Dragonfly mission

On June 27, 2019, NASA selected the Dragonfly mission to Titan as the next project of the New Frontiers exploration program. [9] Trainer is the co-Deputy Principal Investigator. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrobiology</span> Science concerned with life in the universe

Astrobiology is a scientific field within the life and environmental sciences that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe by investigating its deterministic conditions and contingent events. As a discipline, astrobiology is founded on the premise that life may exist beyond Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titan (moon)</span> Largest moon of Saturn and second-largest moon in Solar System

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest in the Solar System, larger than any of the dwarf planets of the Solar System. It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and is the only known object in space other than Earth on which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.

<i>Huygens</i> (spacecraft) European reconnaissance lander sent to Saturns moon Titan

Huygens was an atmospheric entry robotic space probe that landed successfully on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched by NASA, it was part of the Cassini–Huygens mission and became the first spacecraft to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made. The probe was named after the 17th-century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tholin</span> Class of molecules formed by ultraviolet irradiation of organic compounds

Tholins are a wide variety of organic compounds formed by solar ultraviolet or cosmic ray irradiation of simple carbon-containing compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane or ethane, often in combination with nitrogen or water. Tholins are disordered polymer-like materials made of repeating chains of linked subunits and complex combinations of functional groups, typically nitriles and hydrocarbons, and their degraded forms such as amines and phenyls. Tholins do not form naturally on modern-day Earth, but they are found in great abundance on the surfaces of icy bodies in the outer Solar System, and as reddish aerosols in the atmospheres of outer Solar System planets and moons.

A biosignature is any substance – such as an element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon – that provides scientific evidence of past or present life on a planet. Measurable attributes of life include its complex physical or chemical structures, its use of free energy, and the production of biomass and wastes.

The anti-greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a celestial object's sun is absorbed or scattered by the object's upper atmosphere, preventing that energy from reaching the surface, which results in surface cooling – the opposite of the greenhouse effect. In an ideal case where the upper atmosphere absorbs all sunlight and is nearly transparent to infrared (heat) energy from the surface, the surface temperature would be reduced by 16%, which is a significant amount of cooling.

The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of furthering the understanding of the Solar System. The program selects medium-class missions which can provide high science returns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life on Titan</span> Scientific assessments on the microbial habitability of Titan

Whether there is life on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is currently an open question and a topic of scientific assessment and research. Titan is far colder than Earth, but of all the places in the Solar System, Titan is the only place besides Earth known to have liquids in the form of rivers, lakes, and seas on its surface. Its thick atmosphere is chemically active and rich in carbon compounds. On the surface there are small and large bodies of both liquid methane and ethane, and it is likely that there is a layer of liquid water under its ice shell. Some scientists speculate that these liquid mixes may provide prebiotic chemistry for living cells different from those on Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmosphere of Titan</span> Thick atmospheric layers of Saturns moon Titan

The atmosphere of Titan is the dense layer of gases surrounding Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only thick atmosphere of a natural satellite in the Solar System. Titan's lower atmosphere is primarily composed of nitrogen (94.2%), methane (5.65%), and hydrogen (0.099%). There are trace amounts of other hydrocarbons, such as ethane, diacetylene, methylacetylene, acetylene, propane, PAHs and of other gases, such as cyanoacetylene, hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, cyanogen, acetonitrile, argon and helium. The isotopic study of nitrogen isotopes ratio also suggests acetonitrile may be present in quantities exceeding hydrogen cyanide and cyanoacetylene. The surface pressure is about 50% higher than on Earth at 1.5 bars which is near the triple point of methane and allows there to be gaseous methane in the atmosphere and liquid methane on the surface. The orange color as seen from space is produced by other more complex chemicals in small quantities, possibly tholins, tar-like organic precipitates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate of Titan</span> Climate of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn

The climate of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is similar in many respects to that of Earth, despite having a far lower surface temperature. Its thick atmosphere, methane rain, and possible cryovolcanism create an analogue, though with different materials, to the climatic changes undergone by Earth during its far shorter year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titan Saturn System Mission</span> Joint NASA–ESA proposal

Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM) was a joint NASA–ESA proposal for an exploration of Saturn and its moons Titan and Enceladus, where many complex phenomena were revealed by Cassini. TSSM was proposed to launch in 2020, get gravity assists from Earth and Venus, and arrive at the Saturn system in 2029. The 4-year prime mission would include a two-year Saturn tour, a 2-month Titan aero-sampling phase, and a 20-month Titan orbit phase.

Journey to Enceladus and Titan (JET) is an astrobiology mission concept to assess the habitability potential of Enceladus and Titan, moons of Saturn.

<i>Dragonfly</i> (Titan space probe) Robotic space exploration mission to Titan

Dragonfly is a planned spacecraft and NASA mission to send a robotic rotorcraft to the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. It is planned to be launched in July 2028 and arrive in 2034. It would be the first aircraft on Titan and is intended to make the first powered and fully controlled atmospheric flight on any moon, with the intention of studying prebiotic chemistry and extraterrestrial habitability. It would then use its vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL) capability to move between exploration sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oceanus (Titan orbiter)</span>

Oceanus is a NASA/JPL orbiter mission concept proposed in 2017 for the New Frontiers mission #4, but it was not selected for development. If selected at some future opportunity, Oceanus would travel to Saturn's moon Titan to assess its habitability. Studying Titan would help understand the early Earth and exoplanets which orbit other stars. The mission is named after Oceanus, the Greek god of oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SPRITE (spacecraft)</span> Proposed NASA Saturn atmospheric probe mission concept

SPRITE was a proposed Saturn atmospheric probe mission concept of the NASA. SPRITE is a design for an atmospheric entry probe that would travel to Saturn from Earth on its own cruise stage, then enter the atmosphere of Saturn, and descend taking measurements in situ.

CAESAR (spacecraft) Proposed sample-return mission to a comet

CAESAR is a sample-return mission concept to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The mission was proposed in 2017 to NASA's New Frontiers program mission 4, and on 20 December 2017 it was one of two finalists selected for further concept development. On 27 June 2019, the other finalist, the Dragonfly mission, was chosen instead.

Sarah Hörst is an associate professor of planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University, who focuses on understanding planetary atmospheric hazes, in particular the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrie Anderson</span> American planetary scientist

Carrie Anderson is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Walker (astrochemist)</span> Astrochemist, science communicator, and activist

Ashley Lindalía Walker is an astrochemist, science communicator, and activist. In response to police brutality against Black Americans and sparked by the success of Black Birders Week, Walker co-organized #BlackinChem, #BlackInAstro, and #BlackInPhysics to highlight and amplify the voices of Black researchers and scholars in these fields.

Margaret A. Tolbert is an American atmospheric chemist, specializing in polar stratospheric clouds.

References

  1. 1 2 Saks, Kaet. "She'll reap the rewards of continuous activity", The Record (Bergen County) , November 14, 1995, backed up by the Internet Archive as of March 6, 2016. Accessed August 13, 2018. "Hackensack High School senior Melissa Trainer finds herself with an embarrassment of riches"
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Melissa Grady Trainer". Goddard Space Flight Center. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 Trainer, Melissa (2004). "Research Paper Haze Aerosols in the Atmosphere of Early Earth: Manna from Heaven" (PDF). Astrobiology. 4 (4): 409–419. Bibcode:2004AsBio...4..409T. doi:10.1089/ast.2004.4.409. PMID   15684721 . Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  4. ↑ Trainer, Melissa G.; Pavlov, Alexander A.; Jimenez, Jose L.; McKay, Christopher P.; Worsnop, Douglas R.; Toon, Owen B.; Tolbert, Margaret A. (September 2004). "Chemical composition of Titan's haze: Are PAHs present?" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 31 (17): n/a. Bibcode:2004GeoRL..3117S08T. doi: 10.1029/2004GL019859 . Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Toon, Owen. "2004 Annual Report". Nasa Astrobiology Institute. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  6. ↑ "Melissa Trainer - This Planetary Scientist's Job is Out of This World". Goddard Space Flight Center. 2014-10-21. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Trainer, M.G., Kahn, R.A., Domagal-Goldman, S.D., Schnittman, J.D., Del Genio, A.D., Oman, L. D., Conrad, P. G., Guzewich, S. D., Oreopoulos, L., & Mandell, A.D. (2015). "Aerosols in the Solar System and beyond." Astrobiology Science Conference, 2015.
  8. ↑ Trainer, Melissa (1 July 2013). "Atmospheric Prebiotic Chemistry and Organic Hazes". Current Organic Chemistry. 17 (16): 1710–1723. doi:10.2174/13852728113179990078. PMC   3796891 . PMID   24143126.
  9. ↑ Brown, David W. (June 27, 2019). "NASA Announces New Dragonfly Drone Mission to Explore Titan". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "Dragonfly". Dragonfly.
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