Editor’s note: This blog entry is adapted from content originally published on NASA social media accounts in September 2022.
In September 2022, researchers from NASA’s Goddard Instrument Field Team (GIFT) were guests on the island of Hawaii, studying volcanoes and caves. The team investigates our planet’s most otherworldly places, working to answer questions about our solar system’s history and the search for life beyond Earth.
Special thanks to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) for hosting us as visiting researchers. We’re all visitors here. Hawaii’s volcanoes and caves have been cherished cultural landscapes since long before NASA existed.
Hawaii’s volcanic terrain has much to teach us about our planet and our place in the universe. Volcanic activity is common throughout our solar system, and Earth rocks are very similar to rocks on other worlds.
Searching for life (or not-life)
At the very beginning of the expedition, before the rest of the team arrives and breathes all over the work site, the astrobiologists get to work. Human contamination could get in the way of their search for signs of tiny life forms.
Inside the lava cave, scientists Bethany Theiling and Jen Stern of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center set up a makeshift lab. Their questions: What kinds of microbial (invisibly small) life might these cavern walls hold? What gases do those life forms release? Can we find out by testing the air in the underground chamber?
They’re also on the lookout for false positives, or things that appea …