Planetary scientist, organic chemist, astrobiologist, field scientist. Works at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. Champion of Titan exploration. Fascinated by life in Deep Ice. Studies the mysterious labyrinths and dissolution geology (karst) on Titan. Opinions expressed are my own. He/Him.
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2026-07-03T23:43:06Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska View from spheroidally weathered granite blocks in the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area, California. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska "Gosh, Mike, I bet running around in the desert you probably see a lot of wierd-looking plants, right?" npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Fine. I'll ditch the hashtag. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Seriously? I can't post explanations? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska The edge of a canebrake in snowy woods. Orange County, North Carolina. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Part 2: Tryptophan discovery: How do we know what we know? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Why is the potential discovery of tryptophan in an asteroid sample such a big deal for #astrobiology? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Freeze expected tomorrow. I pulled the okra and put it by compost bin to chop later. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska My Incedible Superpower is spotting useful seedlings at the three or four-leaf stage. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Please RT. This link will help find the nearest foodbank in the United States. There is a search bar by zip code that provides a list of food pantries nearby. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska By combining gases, adding some metal vapor, and using colored glass and blowing multiple tubes with different effects you can make some interesting signs. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska "Neon" is a generic term for sticking rarified noble gases (and maybe some metal vapor) in a tube and zapping it with high voltage alternating current. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Yes. That previous piece is a neon art representation of the freeway system around downtown Los Angeles! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Today I went to the Neon Museum of Modern Art in Glendale, CA. Very fun! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska The NISAR mission's radar antenna has fully unfurled! Whoo-hoo! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Sunset on the Salish Sea. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Floating in Kraken Mare and looking for life has its own issues. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Imma push back on this way hard. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska The other recurring theme is that we need to improve planetary instrumentation and lower the detection limit. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska But the really big news (that got missed in the hype) is that TITAN IS HABITABLE. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska In micropockets, you can get concentration effects of about 1E6 as ice grains squeeze out non-water molecules. So you could get a hyperlocalized concentration. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Another thing is where are all those cells. Are they gonna be swimming around in the dilute-ass ocean? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska An analogy is that 1 person can live on 1 frozen pizza a day. So if you go into a grocery store and just count number of frozen pizzas, then that gives you an estimate of how many people that grocery store can feed, right? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska We only considered glycine fermentation. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska If you dilute that out over the whole subsurface ocean, it give you numbers around 0.001 cells per cm3 (1E-3 cells per cm3) - that is one hundred time LOWER than medically sterile. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska In the Titan habitability calculation, we estimated the total amount of cell mass that could be supported by glycine fermentation based on the estimate glycine delivery from the top surface all the way through 100 km of ice into the deep subsurface ocean of Titan. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Here are some numbers for comparison, in microbes per cm3 volume: npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska "Habitability" is one of the most misused words in astrobiology. It is a usually a blurry concept used to justify a mission: “The [insert mission name here] will investigate the habitability of [insert world name here]”. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska #astrobiology thread time! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska A symmetrical scene on a #SilentSunday on the shore of the Salish Sea. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska As the Huygens probe descended, it took lots of pictures on its way down to the surface. Those are just a gold mine of information. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Ahhhhh. That's still a mystery! You will read in Wikpedia or some of the literature that it is water ice. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska So. Streams or floods, rocks eroding, sorting. Faster than getting covered by atmospheric organic molecules. Got it. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska And also what you DON'T SEE. We don't see a uniform snowscape blanket of organic molecules everywhere. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Just from this surface image, you can figure stuff out. All those rocks (whatever they are made of - that is still a mystery), are all rounded, and the same size. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska On January 14, 2005 just over 20 years ago today, the Huygens probe touched down on the organic-rich surface of Saturn's moon Titan. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska For example, if someone found a single-dose cure for Alzheimer's they could probably name their price. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Would agree sorta. Some of these issues are baked into the system. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Costs for clinical trials should be the same for either private or public sector. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Sorry. I wasnt super-clear in explanation. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska ...the other implication is that you gotta make up for that initial cash outlay on the back end. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska So, if you want new antibiotics, someone's gotta: npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska (those are very old numbers, btw. Prolly double now.) npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Former medicinal chemist here. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska haha! Perfect timing! I just switched my field compass' declination offset just yesterday! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Picnic Point County Park, Snohomish County, Washington. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska #SilentSunday npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska All these ideas are described in: Waite et al (2024) "MASPEX-Europa: The Europa Clipper Neutral Gas Mass Specteometer Investigation." Space Science Reviews 220:30. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Some fatty acids (lawyer warning here: "this only applies to satutated linear (unbranched) fatty acids in certain life forms on Earth.") have a 2C homologation pattern because of how they were built up by enzymes. (Fatty Acid Synthesis - FAS pathway. Although there is another pathway at high pressures.) npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Other clues are that a few different pieces get assembled up into bigger things. When amino acids get assembled up they become proteins and enzymes. Assembled up, nucleotide bases become DNA and RNA. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska One clue, is that there are many many possible structural isomers for a molecule of a given size. Abiotic chemistry makes a (sorta) random mess. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Europa Clipper is a mission to chatacterize the "habitability" of Europa. That is its goal. The team has been very very careful to not claim that it is looking for life. It is effectively being pitched as an early precursor #OceanWorld #astrobiology mission. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Europa Clipper unfolded its solar panels! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Europa Clipper launch live stream: npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska (Read last sentence in 'Shigella-classification' section in the Wikipedia entry) npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Also "taxon in disguise" where they figure out later that things fit together differently. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Geological Society of America pre-conference field trip thread! npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Ever wonder if there are analogs for Saturn's moon Titan in Death Valley? Would you like to try a clickable map choose-your-own-adventure-style StoryMap? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Heya #mapstodon , npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska I just captured a one-in-a-million image. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska No complex life without oxygen? npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska Blackwood Farm Park, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. npub1v0m8cmljfy9kze8fucetd2eqv3ptf7v9e092f8r5k2l0wpd485fs4vw4tq Mike Malaska I let my lettuce bolt last year. Chopped it in fall before I threw into compost tumbler. In early spring, I found volunteer little lettuce-lings at the three-leaf stage where I had chopped it up. Moved them to a bed and they did just fine. (Pretty sure it was Tropicana lettuce variety, btw.)
