A decades-long quest for incontrovertible and complex Martian organics -- the chemical building blocks of life -- is over. After almost six years of searching, drilling and analyzing on Mars, the Curiosity rover team has conclusively detected three types of naturally-occurring organics that had not been identified before on the planet. The Mars organics Science …
Continue reading "Breakthrough Findings on Mars Organics and Mars Methane"
The world of biology is filled with labs where living creatures are cultured and studied, where the dynamics of life are explored and analyzed to learn about behavior, reproduction, structure, growth and so much more. In the field of astrobiology, however, you don't see much lab biology -- especially when it comes to …
Continue reading "Joining the Microscope and the Telescope in the Search for Life Beyond Earth"
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading "The Northern Lights, the Magnetic Field and Life"
“You can feel what it’s like on Venus here on Earth,” said Kevin McGouldrick from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “Heat a hot plate until it glows red, place your palm on its surface and then run over that hand with a truck.” The surface of Venus …
Continue reading "To Understand Habitability, We Need to Return to Venus"
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 …
The media was abuzz last week with the latest NASA news conference. A neural network -- a form of artificial intelligence or machine learning -- developed at Google had found two planets in data previously collected by NASA’s prolific Kepler Space Telescope. It’s a technique that could ultimately track-down our most Earth-like planets. The new …
Water worlds, especially if they have no land on them, are unlikely to be home to life, or at least life we can detect. Some of the basic atmospheric and mineral cycles that make a planet habitable will be absent. Cool animation of such a world. (NASA) Wherever we find water on Earth, we find …
Along the edge of an inlet on a tiny Japanese island can be found– side by side – striking examples of conditions on Earth some 2.4 billion years ago, then 1.4 billion years ago and then the Philippine Sea of today. First is a small channel with iron red, steaming and largely oxygen-free water – …
Continue reading "2.5 Billion Years of Earth History in 100 Square Feet"
Many Worlds 