The Compact Color Biofinder, a cutting-edge scientific tool created by a team of researchers from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa may completely alter the way we look for evidence of extraterrestrial life, according to a new study.

Figure 1: A new scientific tool for extraterrestrial life.

Figure 1 shows that 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.

The research team 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. [1]

“The Biofinder is the first system of its kind,” said Anupam Misra. “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.”

The Biofinder was first developed in 2012 by Misra. Finding evidence of biological residue in a vast planetary landscape is an enormous challenge. So, 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.

“There are some unknowns regarding how quickly bio-residues are replaced by minerals in the fossilization process,” said Misra.

However, our findings confirm once more that biological residues can survive millions of years, and that using fluorescence imaging effectively detects these trace residues in real-time.[2]

“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,” said Misra.

“We anticipate that fluorescence imaging will be critical in future NASA missions to detect organics and the existence of life on other planetary bodies.” Misra and colleagues 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. [3]

References:

1. https://www.zee5.com/articles/research-reveals-biofinder-improves-detection-of-extraterrestrial-life
2. https://theprint.in/science/research-reveals-biofinder-improves-detection-of-extraterrestrial-life/1013741/
3. https://www.labmanager.com/news/biofinder-advances-detection-of-extraterrestrial-life-28349

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), A New Scientific Tool to Find the Evidence of Extraterrestrial Life, AnaTechMax, pp.196