WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. space agency NASA announced Thursday that it has awarded five-year grants, averaging 7 million U.S. dollars each, to 10 research teams from across the country to study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

    The interdisciplinary teams will become new members of the NASAA strobiology Institute, located at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.

    "The research of these new teams reflects the increasing maturity of astrobiology," said NASA Astrobiology Institute Director Carl Pilcher. "They are focused on fundamental questions of life in the universe, but their work has implications for all of science. The research of these teams, together with that of th efour continuing institute teams, will bridge the basic science of astrobiology to NASA's current and planned space exploration missions."

    For example, one of these new team will investigate the habitability of icy worlds, such as Titan, and Saturn moons Europa and Enceladus. They also will investigate how life could be detected in such environments and begin to define related instrumentation for future missions.

    "The new teams provide a superb foundation for the institute as it enters its second decade," said Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director at NASA Headquarters. "They bring together the many disciplines necessary for a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to studying life in the universe."