Astrobiologist helps IMAX director film

Graduate student Kevin Hand explores the potential for life on Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, for his doctoral work in geological and environmental sciences. Like most astrobiologists and planetary scientists, Hand must do his research from afar. He can't ride a rocket 365 million miles to Europa, drill into the ice-capped ocean and scuba dive to find signs of life. Recently, however, film director and exploration enthusiast James Cameron (Titanic, Aliens) gave Hand a chance to search for "alien" life a bit closer to home - a mere 2 miles below the ocean surface - as part of Cameron's IMAX documentary, Aliens of the Deep, which opens Jan. 28. The communities studied by Hand and presented in the film are as close to alien as anything on Earth. "We can then begin to understand the task ahead of us as we search for life beyond Earth," Hand says.