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Astrobiology news
How did life get started on Earth? Atmospheric haze might have been the key
A recent study accepted to The Planetary Science Journal and currently posted to the arXiv preprint server investigates how the organic hazes that existed on Earth between the planet's initial formation and 500 million years ...
Astrobiology
Feb 1, 2024
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Researchers are spying for signs of life among exoplanet atmospheres
The next generation of advanced telescopes could sharpen the hunt for potential extraterrestrial life by closely scrutinizing the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets, new research suggests.
Astrobiology
Jan 29, 2024
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The improbable origins of life on Earth
We do not yet know how, where, or why life first appeared on our planet. Part of the difficulty is that "life" has no strict, universally agreed-upon definition.
Astrobiology
Jan 29, 2024
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Exploring the galactic habitable zone
Our planet sits in the habitable zone of our sun, the special place where water can be liquid on the surface of a world. But that's not the only thing special about us: we also sit in the galactic habitable zone, the region ...
Astrobiology
Jan 29, 2024
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Cosmic building blocks of life discovered through the electron microscope
A team of researchers has examined the Winchcombe meteorite and demonstrated the existence in it of nitrogen compounds such as amino acids and heterocyclic hydrocarbons—without applying any chemical treatment and by using ...
Astrobiology
Jan 29, 2024
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Confirmation of ancient lake on Mars offers hope that Perseverance rover's soil and rock samples hold traces of life
If life ever existed on Mars, the Perseverance rover's verification of lake sediments at the base of the Jezero crater reinforces the hope that traces might be found in the crater.
Astrobiology
Jan 26, 2024
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Early life was radically different than today
All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged from a simpler, less efficient, more delicate one. But what was that system, and why ...
Astrobiology
Jan 26, 2024
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Planetary size and associated cooling rate may explain why Mars died while Earth survived
We know of Mars as the red planet, for its surface and atmosphere is caked in endless swirling dust of rusted iron, the rusting action provided by the always-eager oxygen. But this was not always so.
Astrobiology
Jan 24, 2024
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The next generation LIFE telescope could detect some intriguing biosignatures
The Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) project is an ambitious plan to build a space telescope with four independent mirrors. The array would allow the individual mirrors to move closer or farther apart, similar to ...
Astrobiology
Jan 23, 2024
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Life on Earth uses water as a solvent. What are some other options for life as we don't know it?
There is a vast menagerie of potentially habitable worlds in the cosmos, which means the universe could be home to a diversity of life beyond what we can imagine. Creatures built on silicon rather than carbon, or organisms ...
Astrobiology
Jan 23, 2024
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The implications of 'Oumuamua on the panspermia theory
On October 19, 2017, astronomers with the Pan-STARRS survey detected an interstellar object (ISO) passing through our solar system for the first time. The object, known as 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua, stimulated significant scientific ...
Astronomy
Jan 15, 2024
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Water may have flowed intermittently in Martian valleys for hundreds of millions of years
Using impact craters as a dating tool, Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Alexander Morgan has determined maximum timescales for the formation of Martian valley networks shaped by running water.
Astrobiology
Jan 15, 2024
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Venus' atmospheric chemical anomalies may motivate future astrobiology missions
When scientists detected phosphine in Venus' atmosphere in 2020, it triggered renewed, animated discussions about Venus and its potential habitability. It would be weird if the detection didn't generate interest since phosphine ...
Astrobiology
Jan 12, 2024
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Impact Craters: Can they help us find life elsewhere?
When we look at the moon, either through a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or past footage from the Apollo missions, we see a landscape that's riddled with what appear to be massive sinkholes. But these "sinkholes" aren't ...
Astrobiology
Jan 11, 2024
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Old stars may be the best places to search for life
Once upon a cosmic time, scientists assumed that stars apply an eternal magnetic brake, causing an endless slowdown of their rotation. With new observations and sophisticated methods, they have now peeked into a star's magnetic ...
Astronomy
Jan 10, 2024
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Can alien civilizations detect humanity?
One of the fascinating things about being a human in this age is that we can do more than wonder about other life and other civilizations. We can actually look for them, although there are obvious limitations to our search. ...
Astrobiology
Jan 9, 2024
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New research on microbes expands the known limits for life on Earth and beyond
New research led by Stanford University scientists predicts life can persist in extremely salty environments, beyond the limit previously thought possible.
Astrobiology
Jan 9, 2024
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New study suggests some forms of life could exist in Venus's sulfuric acid clouds
A team of chemists and planetary scientists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Nanoplanet Consulting and MIT has found evidence that a form of life that uses sulfuric acid as a liquid medium could exist in some of the ...
COSMIC: Expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute's Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ...
Astronomy
Jan 8, 2024
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Add-on system in Mars water mining operations will screen for introduced and alien life
As noted at NASA's 2019 Carlsbad Conference, we have good reason to think that life could have started on Mars using the same geo-organic chemistry that started life on Earth. If Martian life persists today on Mars, it may ...
Astrobiology
Jan 5, 2024
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More news
Entropy could be key to a planet's habitability
Digging deeper to find life on ocean worlds
Other news
Tracing the evolution of sign languages using computer modeling
Team discovers mechanism that protects tissue after faulty gene expression
Alpine ibex becoming more nocturnal as temperatures rise
Fooled: Herbivorous animals 'led by the nose' to leave plants alone
A physical qubit with built-in error correction
Could life exist in molecular clouds?
How talin protein maintains intercellular connection while transmitting force
Scientists successfully simulate protein complex that initiates fertilization
Physicists develop highly robust time crystal
