In the search for life on distant planets, scientists generally focus on identifying Earth-sized, rocky planets, finding planets in their host star's habitable zone, and having available the telescope power to read the chemical make-up of the atmospheres. A relatively small number of Earth-sized exoplanets discovered by telescopes in space and on Earth have meet …
Continue reading "The JWST Discovers its First Earth-Sized Exoplanet"
The search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets is extremely difficult and time-consuming work. The telescopes that can potentially take the measurements required are few and more will come only slowly. And for the current and next generation of observatories, staring at a single exoplanet long enough to get a measurement of the …
Continue reading "A New Way to Find Signals of Habitable Exoplanets?"
The search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets is extremely difficult and time-consuming work. The telescopes that can potentially take the measurements required are few and more will come only slowly. And for the current and next generation of observatories, staring at a single exoplanet long enough to get a measurement of the …
Continue reading "A New Way to Find Signals of Habitable Exoplanets?"
I remember the first time I heard about the atmospheres of distant exoplanets and how could and would let us know whether life was present below. The key was oxygen or its light-modified form, ozone. Because both oxygen and ozone molecules bond so quickly with other molecules -- think rust or iron oxide on …
Continue reading "Getting Real About the Oxygen Biosignature"
I remember the first time I heard about the atmospheres of distant exoplanets and how could and would let us know whether life was present below. The key was oxygen or its light-modified form, ozone. Because both oxygen and ozone molecules bond so quickly with other molecules -- think rust or iron oxide on Mars, …
Continue reading "Getting Real About the Oxygen Biosignature"
The search for life beyond our solar system has focused largely on the detection of an ever-increasing number of exoplanets, determinations of whether the planets are in a habitable zone, and what the atmospheres of those planets might look like. It is a sign of how far the field has progressed that scientists are now …
The search for life beyond our solar system has focused largely on the detection of an ever-increasing number of exoplanets, determinations of whether the planets are in a habitable zone, and what the atmospheres of those planets might look like. It is a sign of how far the field has progressed that scientists are now …
Forty light-years away is no small distance. But an announcement of the discovery of two planets at that separation that have been determined to be rocky and Earth-sized adds a significant new twist to the ever-growing collection of relatively close-by exoplanets that just might be habitable. The two planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system orbit what …
Continue reading "Rocky, Close and Potentially Habitable Planets Around a Dwarf Star"
Forty light-years away is no small distance. But an announcement of the discovery of two planets at that separation that have been determined to be rocky and Earth-sized adds a significant new twist to the ever-growing collection of relatively close-by exoplanets that just might be habitable. The two planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system orbit what …
Continue reading "Rocky, Close and Potentially Habitable Planets Around a Dwarf Star"
This “Many Worlds” post is written by Andrew Rushby, a postdoctoral fellow from the United Kingdom who recently began working with NASA's NExSS initiative. The column will hopefully serve to both introduce this new NExSS colleague and to let him share his thoughts about the initiative and what lies ahead. I’m most excited to join …
Continue reading "Out of the Stovepipes and Into the Galaxy"
Many Worlds 