The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or “NExSS,” began four years ago as a NASA initiative to bring together a wide range of scientists involved generally in the search for life on planets outside our solar system. With teams from seventeen academic and NASA centers, NExSS was founded on the conviction that this search …
Our Ever-Growing Menagerie of Exoplanets
With so many exoplanets already detected, with the pace of discovery continuing to be so fast, and with efforts to find more distant worlds so constant and global, it's easy to become somewhat blase´ about new discoveries. After so many "firsts," and so many different kinds of planets found in very different ways, it certainly …
A Significant Advance: Primitive Earth Life Survives an 18-Month Exposure to Mars-Like Conditions in Space
The question of whether simple life can survive in space is hardly new, but it has lately taken on a new urgency. It is not only a pressing scientific question -- might life from Mars or another body have seeded life on Earth? Might organisms similar to extreme Earth life survive Mars-like conditions? -- but …
How Creatures End Up Miles Below the Surface of Earth, and Maybe Mars Too
When scientists speculate about possible life on Mars, they generally speak of microbial or other simple creatures living deep below the irradiated and desiccated surface. While Mars long ago had a substantial period that was wetter and warmer when it also had a far more protective atmosphere, the surface now is considered to be …
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Artifacts In Space
All of a sudden, we have spacecraft and objects both coming into our solar system and leaving for interstellar space. This is highly unusual, and very intriguing. The departing spacecraft is Voyager 2, which launched in 1977 and has traveled spaceward some 11 billion miles. It has now officially left the heliosphere, the protective …
Does Proxima Centauri Create an Environment Too Horrifying for Life?
In 2016, the La Silla Observatory in Chile spotted evidence of possibly the most eagerly anticipated exoplanet in the Galaxy. It was a world orbiting the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, making this our closest possible exoplanet neighbour. Moreover, the planet might even be rocky and temperate. Proxima Centauri b had been …
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Technosignatures and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
The word "SETI" pretty much brings to mind the search for radio signals come from distant planets, the movie "Contact," Jill Tarter, Frank Drake and perhaps the SETI Institute, where the effort lives and breathes. But there was a time when SETI -- the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence -- was a significantly broader concept, that …
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Water Worlds, Aquaplanets and Habitability
The more exoplanet scientists learn about the billions and billions of celestial bodies out there, the more the question of unusual planets -- those with characteristics quite different from those in our solar system -- has come into play. Hot Jupiters, super-Earths, planets orbiting much smaller red dwarf stars -- they are all grist …
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Curiosity Rover Looks Around Full Circle And Sees A Once Habitable World Through The Dust
https://youtu.be/lcJLZfPiyfc An annotated 360-degree view from the Curiosity mast camera. Dust remaining from an enormous recent storm can be seen on the platform and in the sky. And holes in the tires speak of the rough terrain Curiosity has traveled, but now avoids whenever possible. Make the screen bigger for best results and enjoy the …
Piecing Together The Narrative of Evolution
An essential characteristic of life is that it evolves. Whether on Earth or potentially Mars, Europa or distant exoplanets, we can assume that whatever life might be present has the capacity and the need to change. Evolution is intimately tied to the origin-of-life question, which this column often explores. Having more answers regarding how life …
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Many Worlds 