Welcome to Penn State's Astrobiology Research Centers (PSARC)
PSARC Mission
The Penn State Astrobiology Research Centers (PSARC) foster NASA-relevant research across the University, enabling effective collaboration related to the Origin of Life, Life Detection, Life in Extreme Environments, and Planetary Science. 


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​Astrobiology at Penn State

​The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds (CEHW) was established in 2008 by Dr. Alex Wolszczan to promote research related to the discovery and understanding of planets and possible habitable worlds outside of our solar system. CEHW is based in Penn State's Eberly College of Science, and most of the researchers affiliated with CEHW are drawn from the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. One of the center's achievements is the addition of the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET).

The newly formed Astrobiology Center for Isotopologue Research (ACIR) recently received a fourth NAI grant for Dr. Katherine Freeman's project “The Origins of Molecules in Diverse Space and Planetary Environments and Their Intramolecular Isotope Signatures.”​ The ACIR team seeks to discover and document isotope patterns in organic molecules found in meteorites, dissolved in deep Earth fluids, from individual living organisms, within microbial ecosystems, and in organics associated with minerals and ice. Employing advanced computational tools and a rich observation portfolio, they plan to build a predictive understanding of how abiotic and biotic processes and environments are encoded in the isotopes of simple to complex organic compounds.
​PSARC History
PSARC was formed in 1998 by Dr. Hiroshi Ohmoto, when Penn State joined the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). Penn State’s direct NAI involvement continued with another 5-year project called “The Evolution of a Habitable World." In 2008, Penn State received a third NAI grant for the project "Signatures from Earth and Beyond” led by Dr. Christopher House. 
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​Dr. Jason T. Wright leads the new
Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSETI Center). The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is among the most profound and inspirational quests. A group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and educators have come together to endow a research center that will provide reliable long-term SETI funding.

Penn State is also a member of the NASA NFOLD research network through the  "Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures" project headed by Dr. Sarah Stewart Johnson at Georgetown University. This team is working to understand how biosignatures can be applied assuming as little as possible about life as we know it from Earth.

The NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) has been promoting NASA-relevant space-related higher education since 1989. Penn State is the PSGC's lead institution, which hosts the Student Space Programs Laboratory (SSPL) and the Lunar Lion project team.
Contact Us

Dr. Christopher House
Director
Professor of Geosciences
2217 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building
University Park, PA 16802
chrishouse@psu.edu
Phone: 814.865.8802 | Fax: 814.863.9563






Links
Latest News
Penn State celebrates Apollo 11 anniversary with STEM events
Penn State News - July 31, 2019
Neil Armstrong took “one giant step” 50 years ago when he became the first human to walk on the moon. To mark the Apollo 11 mission’s anniversary and promote STEM education, Penn State held family events last week to honor the historic launch and lunar landing. More

Aerospace engineers to develop drone for NASA 
Penn State News - July 17, 2019
Researchers from the Penn State Department of Aerospace Engineering are part of a team led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) whose proposal for a revolutionary rotorcraft to investigate Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has been selected by NASA as one of two finalists for the agency’s next New Frontiers mission.
Dragonfly, a drone-like multi-rotor lander, would take advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere (four times denser than Earth’s atmosphere) and low gravity (one-seventh of Earth's) to fly between widely-spaced landing sites on Titan’s surface. At each landing site, Dragonfly would employ a suite of science instruments to investigate Titan’s organic chemistry and habitability; monitor atmospheric and surface conditions; image landforms to investigate geological processes; and perform seismic studies. More

Apollo 11 moon landing speaker and film event
Penn State News - July 17, 2019
To celebrate the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Penn State will host a speaker and film event at The State Theatre in downtown State College on Saturday, July 20. Former NASA astronaut James Pawelczyk, associate professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State who flew aboard the NASA STS-90 Space Shuttle mission, will speak before introducing the 2019 documentary “Apollo 11.” More