New NASA technology straight out of "Star Trek" could help scientists detect life on other worlds.

The device, dubbed the "chemical laptop," is a miniature, portable laboratory that resembles the TV show's famous tricorder scanning device, and is designed to make data collection easier and faster than ever before.

The laptop, currently in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is a chemical analyzer made to detect both amino acids and fatty acids, often called "the building blocks of life," in samples from extraterrestrial terrain.

Amino acids bind together to create proteins, which are vital to almost all processes that occur within a cell, and fatty acids are an important component of cell membranes, so researchers believe finding both could indicate that life is now or was once present.

Though it's roughly the size of a regular laptop, the chemical laptop isn't like any computer on store shelves. It's much thicker, to make room for chemical analysis components inside. But perhaps the biggest difference is that this laptop doesn't shut down when it gets wet — it actually needs liquid to work.

NASA's new "chemical laptop" perches on a test rover at the Jet Propulsion Lab's Mars Yard next to an ordinary laptop.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

This could be "an especially useful tool for icy-world targets such as [Saturn moon] Enceladus and [Jupiter moon] Europa," Jessica Creamer, a NASA postdoctoral fellow based at JPL, said in a statement. "All you would need to do is melt a little bit of the ice, and you could sample it and analyze it directly."

The device uses technology similar to an espresso machine to analyze a sample. It picks up a liquid or ice sample, puts it in a tube with liquid water and heats it above 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, it mixes the sample with a fluorescent dye that attaches to amino and fatty acids.

Researchers are looking to see how long the fatty acids' carbon chains are, which would indicate what kind of organisms are or were there. But they're also interested in the ratio of "left-handed" amino acids to "right-handed" amino acids.

Living things on Earth are made up almost exclusively of left-handed amino acids, but scientists believe it's possible that life on other worlds could be made of right-handed amino acids. The key is that life would create more of whichever type of amino acid it was made of, leading to a higher prevalence of one than of the other.

"If a test found a 50-50 mixture of left-handed and right-handed amino acids, we could conclude that the sample was probably not of biological origin," Creamer said in the statement. "But if we were to find an excess of either left- or right-[handed amino acids], that would be the golden ticket. That would be the best evidence so far that life exists on other planets."

This is a condensed version of an article that appeared on Space.com. Read the original story here. Follow Kasandra Brabaw on Twitter @KassieBrabaw. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+.

MORE FROM SPACE.COM

{ http://www.nbcnews.com/ }

OLD SECRET NASA PHOTOS STOLEN BY A HACKER... NOW UNCOVERED?!

NASA is the agency responsible for the space trips and discoveries we hear about on the news. Because of their consistent mentions on social media, it’s hard for them to avoid conspiracy theories spun by people to make the truth either more transparent or hard to grasp. But this one probably takes the cake. A photo compilation allegedly taken and stolen from NASA which will probably make you think if the conspiracy theories really are speaking the truth.

Press play on the video at the end of the article and see for yourself what some hackers were able to dig out from NASA’s closet of secrets. Another skeleton excavated by an explorer which appears to be bigger than the normal human skeleton. Is this another evidence of the existence of the Anunnaki?

Another civilization could have been existing even before the human race plagued the Earth. Another puzzle in history that was kept from us. Until now.

An unearthed structure? Guess again. Found lodged several feet beneath the ground, this could have been a vessel carrying something from another place to ours. A discovery such as this would spark controversy. But what was about this unknown structure that was so important that it was kept a secret from us?

We apologize in advance for the low resolution of some of these photos. This is the best quality we could find. As you can see most of these photos are very old. At first, you would think this was a beat-up fuselage from a plane crash incident. But no. If this photo was kept from people, then this might not be your ordinary plane crash debris. This might not even be a plane! What was once a UFO in what appears to be taken by photograph in the snowy mountains is now on the ground but still remains unidentified. What could this vessel be, who was driving it, and where did it come from?

A fiery comet or meteor blazes across the horizon. This documented shot of yet another UFO brings up a lot of questions: where did it come from? More importantly, where did it land? When you know documented shots like this are kept from you, you know there’s something else going on.

A man examines a dug-up skeleton. A skeleton five times his size. For any being to have this kind of a skeleton would mean that he or she was a giant. This could be the remains of the mythological giants, the Anunnaki. If any of these beings are still alive, would they be considered friend? Or foe?

Skeleton found and excavated by people. Unearthed from probably an old civilization, the Anunnaki. This skeleton is too big to be considered human. So we have yet to know more about them. These giant aliens might have made Earth their home before we did.

A submarine probes the deep blue and stumbles upon an infrastructure made of rock, bricks, and stone. The way the stones are arranged has a similarity with the Mayan temples or the pyramids in Egypt. But located underwater makes it more intriguing. How did this end up submerged in water? Did they find any signs of life or evidence that it was occupied by living things before it was submerged? They must have found out something. Why else would they keep it a secret?

Boom! A huge geyser of water is caught on camera as it ensues in an ocean. Surrounding it are a couple of ships. The only probable reason why this happened would be an explosion. An explosion and these ships could be the reason behind it. What were these fleets trying to blow up in the middle of the sea? A creature under the sea? An ancient civilization known only to a few? What could this be that would make it enough for someone to blow it up?

Hard to make out but if you look closely, this heavily filtered in green photo shows us an infrastructure located in the middle of a mountainous terrain. Such a huge structure left unnoticed by people only means that this can be found in a place where no one usually passes through making it even more suspicious as a secret. What are they keeping from us inside that place, do we ask us here at Disclose.tv?

Zoom in and see how these golden pieces contain a language unknown to man. These have yet to be deciphered probably. Makes you wonder what these would tell us if only we knew how to read it? Could this reveal something bigger than us? Or is this part of the Scriptures we have invested our lives in today? As if this wasn’t a secret already, now we have to find out what the secret within the secret means.

Dark, dingy, and probably wet. A tunnel with smooth rock formations on the walls. There’s a hundred chances that this could be on Earth. But if this photo was hidden from the eyes of the public, then there’s a very good chance that this subterranean tunnel would not be found here. But why take a picture of a tunnel? Could this have led to somewhere? Or could this be a cave containing something?

A vaulted infrastructure made of metal in an icy landscape. Frozen over how many years? I wonder. Could this have been a part of something that was once alive, in full operation? And if so, what did it do? Appears to have no signs of life but enough to keep it a secret from everyone. Places found in unlikely places such as the icy plains always mean something more than what meets the eye. An anomaly found and photographed on the side of a cliff or gorge. Rock formations don’t always turn out like this so what could have caused this to happen and show? This could be the result of activities not made by ordinary human beings. Why else would they keep snapshots of these from us?

A trail of anomalies that appear like a gash on the side of a cliff or gorge. Appears to be charred or blackened rock that could be the result of extraterrestrial or supernatural or paranormal events. We have yet to know more about these places documented in photographs but one thing’s for sure: there’s something more to this than what we see.

A man is photographed beside a rock wall and on the rock wall, a hole. Where could this hole lead to? An even bigger question was who made it? Experts have yet to explore holes not made by man. Tunnels hidden from prying eyes usually mean that it contains (or contained) something valuable.

It’s never a coincidence when you find several holes symmetrical in appearance on the side of a cliff. What could these holes hold for us? Or were they a part of something that a group of people kept from us? We could know more about this if only we knew where it is but it seems a lot of people would go out of their way just to keep this a secret.

On the left lower corner of this photo is a gear. A blackened, probably petrified, gear. Or it could be a gear of sorts. An authentic petrified gear which would mean that we weren’t the first ones to occupy our planet. How old could this be? Miillions? Billions? The ones better suited to answer this would be the ones who discovered it. A photograph of a canvass of which appears to be the galaxy dotted with several lights. These blue and red lights could be indicative of stars, planets, or something else. It’s normal for a government agency dealing in space exploration and travel to have shots of the night sky and the space beyond that but why keep it from us?

This photo contains the same blue and red lights but this time taken as if it was watermarked against a new photo, triangular structures and a couple of surrounding dotted structures smaller than the triangular ones. Why would they have this photo hidden from us? Could this mean something much more than a watermarked photo of two pictures?

An aerial shot of pyramids in Egypt and smaller structures surrounding it. But if you look back on the previous photos, the conspiracy of it all falls in. Have they been withholding information from us regarding how the lights in the cosmic plane could probably determine the strategic locations of these structures on Earth? Or vice-versa maybe?

What appears to be an ancient artifact with images engraved on it. Hard to make out probably due to years of collecting dust. But it’s not too much to conclude that this old relic could hold an ancient secret that has yet to be discovered. But maybe the people who kept this photo to themselves already knows what it might hold.

Same image of the old relic found on the previous photos. But this time, clearer than before as a part of it has either been blackened or cleaned of dust. The image that became visible depicts a man operating a contraption of some sort. But still, its secrets still unknown. Yet maybe, the people from NASA already knows where it came from or what stories it held.

Taken underneath the sea of what appears to be infrastructures of an old civilization. Photos like this make one think how one civilization could end up submerged. Were there people living here before? Why wasn’t this made public to the world like all the other discoveries though?

A scuba diver braves the deep probing through infrastructures found under the sea. This is proof that some people already know about this place but has made sure that it was kept from us. But why would they do that? What do they have to gain from keeping from us an old civilization long forgotten to the world? Unless they have something to hide down there, then leaked photos like these would come out as very shady and peculiar.

In the photo, we see several scuba divers plowing through the deep with a pyramidal structure like in the pyramids of Egypt or the Mayan temples. Were they able to find something down there? If not, then why keep this from us? These structures could be a part of a civilization that should be shared to the general public.

Blue luminescent lights on a black canvass. Are these stars? Or extraterrestrial activities? Could there be more to this? Formations in the sky were theorized to mean or symbolize structures. Wonder what these could mean.

Blue luminescent lights mapped out in a blueprint format. It’s all coming to place that these could mean something. Could these lights lead to somewhere if meticulously mapped out? They’re not telling us something and this points to conspiracy theories concerning galactic and cosmic matters.

A blueprint of some sort. What could this be? Figures on the side can be seen which might lead to possible conclusions in Science and discovery. When photos of images that don’t make any sense come from a government agency, you know that something bigger than you is to be expected. What can you make out of this photo?

A huge structure found in the middle of a jungle beside a stream. This could probably be a part of an even bigger structure now left abandoned. Do the people know what this place was before? The people who made the effort and went all the lengths to hide this picture from us?

A diagram of the Earth highlighting the central core and the coverage of gravity. Is there any scientific significance to this? Could someone else have been studying the schematics of the only planet we have?

Cloud formation found on the surface of the Earth. But what could have caused this? Such anomalies have yet to have conclusions drawn from it. But can we hold someone (or something) responsible for this phenomenal event?

Photo taken in outer space of satellite looming over a cloud formation on the Earth’s surface. This cloud formation could be a result of something bigger than us. This could be the result of extraterrestrial creatures manipulating how Earth behaves.

Gigantic flower-like formations photographed over a deserted landscape. What are these? Better question is, “Where are these?” You can see people in space suits near them which makes it safe to conclude that these photos were not taken on our planet.”

Another photo taken of an over-sized skeleton. Over-sized skeletons like these fit the characteristic profile of the Anunnaki. Giant alien people rumored to once roam the Earth. This could serve as evidence that they really did exist.

Highlighted above is the cranial part of an over-sized skull. Believed to have been the skull of the mythological Anunnaki. Could these fabled giant aliens have existed? Not much is known about them but hopefully, with this photo leaked out, there could be hope that we could understand a new civilization that existed on our planet before we did.

A trail of explorers in the tundra. Headed to no one knows where. Could they be on a mission to find out what lies beyond the cold?

A black and white shot of the landscape showing trail marks in the snow. Made by whom? And leading to where? A secret could be lost in the deep cold since no one would ever bother to look for it. Until now.