NutMEG is a python module for predicting the growth behaviour of microbial organisms in astrobiology. It’s flexibly designed for astrobiologsts to assess habitablility, biomass potential, and biosignature production in a variety of setings.

Check out NutMEG's documentation! [mirror] Or, go straight to the code on GitHub.

To be habitable, an environment needs enough energy and nutrients for life to beat out the costs of survival. This is something we can quantify.

For example, at high temperatures or adverse pH it becomes more difficult for life to maintain the structure of important biomolecules like proteins and DNA.

One way to identify candidate worlds for life detection missions is to demonstrate, through several lines of evidence, that data we have collected already may contain signs of biology. This can be through metabolic by-products, isotopic fractionation, particular properties of organic chemical species, etc. These signals can also help us work out what else a biosphere, if present, might be doing.

Crucially, analysing biosignatures requires we evaluate how they compare against the `abiotic background'. Which, on exotic extraterrestrial geologies, can be difficult to constrain.