Direct imaging of exoplanets remains in its infancy, but goodness what a treat it is already and what a promise of things to come. Almost all of the 3,714 exoplanets confirmed so far were detected via the powerful but indirect transit and radial velocity methods -- measures of slightly decreased light as a planet crosses …
Diamonds and Science: The Deep Earth, Deep Time, and Extraterrestrial Crystal Rain
We all know that cut diamonds sparkle and shine, one of the great aesthetic creations from nature. Less well known is that diamonds and the bits of minerals, gases and water encased in them offer a unique opportunity to probe the deepest regions of our planet. Thought to be some of the oldest available materials …
A Reprieve for Space Science?
A quick update on a recent column about whether our "golden age" of space science and discovery was in peril because of cost overruns and Trump administration budget priorities that emphasized human space travel over science. The 2018 omnibus spending bill that was passed Wednesday night by the House of Representatives and Thursday night …
Space Science In Peril
NASA's decades-long success at enabling ground-breaking discoveries about our planet, our solar system, our galaxy, our origins and the billions of other planets out there is one of the crown jewels of our nation's collective inventiveness and will, and surely of our global soft power. Others have of course made major contributions as well. But …
The Northern Lights (Part Two)
In my recent column about The Northern Lights, the Magnetic Field and Life, I explored the science and the beauty of our planet's aurora borealis, one of the great natural phenomenon we are most fortunate to see in the far North (and much less frequently in the not-quite-so-far North.) I learned the hard way that …
The Northern Lights, the Magnetic Field and Life
May I please invite you to join me in the presence of one of the great natural phenomena and spectacles of our world. Not only is it enthralling to witness and scientifically crucial, but it’s quite emotionally moving as well. Why? Because what’s before me is a physical manifestation of one of the primary, but …
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False Positives, False Negatives; The World of Distant Biosignatures Attracts and Confounds
What observations, or groups of observations, would tell exoplanet scientists that life might be present on a particular distant planet? The most often discussed biosignature is oxygen, the product of life on Earth. But while oxygen remains central to the search for biosignatures afar, there are some serious problems with relying on that molecule. It …
Putting Together a Community Strategy To Search for Extraterrestrial Life
I regret that the formatting of this column was askew earlier; I hope it didn't make reading too difficult. But now those problems are fixed. Behind the front page space science discoveries that tell us about the intricacies and wonders of our world are generally years of technical and intellectual development, years of planning and …
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The Mars Water Story Gets Ever More Interesting
Huge escarpments of quite pure water ice have been found in the Southern Highlands of Mars -- accessible enough that astronauts might some day be able to turn the ice into water, hydrogen and oxygen. Some of these deposits are more than 100 meters thick and begin only a meter or two below the …
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Two Tempting Reprise Missions: Explore Titan or Bring Back a Piece of A Comet
Unmanned missions to planets and moons and asteroids in our solar system have been some of NASA's most successful efforts in recent years, with completed or on-going ventures to Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, the asteroid Bennu, our moon, Pluto, Mercury and bodies around them all. On deck are a funded mission to Europa, another to Mars …
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Many Worlds 