Dale Andersen's Field Reports
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 12 December 2018: Finishing Up Science 
"The last week and a half has seen a lot of variability in the weather with katabatics visiting us frequently - this morning at 6am we had gusts hitting 50 knots."
Astrochemistry
Warm Dust Surface Chemistry in Protoplanetary Disks. Formation of Phyllosilicates
The origin of the reservoirs of water on Earth is debated. The Earth's crust may contain at least three times more water than the oceans.
Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments
Underground Life Has A Carbon Mass Hundreds Of Times Larger Than Humans Do
Microorganisms living underneath the surface of the earth have a total carbon mass of 15 to 23 billion tons, hundreds of times more than that of humans, according to findings announced by the Deep Carbon Observatory and coauthored by UT Professor of Microbiology Karen Lloyd.
Astrogeology
OSIRIS-REx Finds Water On Asteroid Bennu
Recently analyzed data from NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid Bennu.
Ceres
Evidence for Carbon-Rich Surface on Ceres
A team led by Southwest Research Institute has concluded that the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is rich in organic matter.
Genomics and Cell Biology
Life Has A New Ingredient
Our prehistoric Earth, bombarded with asteroids and lightening, rife with bubbling geothermal pools, may not seem hospitable today. But somewhere in the chemical chaos of our early planet, life did form.
SETI
The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: No Evidence of Claimed Periodic Spectral Modulations in High Resolution Optical Spectra of Nearby Stars
We report on high-resolution spectra obtained by the Automated Planet Finder and high resolution optical Levy Spectrometer and the search for periodic spectral modulations, such as those reported in Borra (2016).
Space Weather
Termination of Solar Cycles and Correlated Tropospheric Variability
The Sun provides the energy required to sustain life on Earth and drive our planet's atmospheric circulation. However, establishing a solid physical connection between solar and tropospheric variability has posed a considerable challenge across the spectrum of Earth-system science.
Habitable Zones & Global Climate
The Limits of the Primitive Equations of Dynamics for Warm, Slowly Rotating Small Neptunes and Super Earths
We present significant differences in the simulated atmospheric flow for warm, tidally-locked small Neptunes and super Earths (based on a nominal GJ 1214b) when solving the simplified, and commonly used, primitive dynamical equations or the full Navier-Stokes equations.
Extrasolar Planets
Observability of Hydrogen-rich Exospheres in Earth-like Exoplanets
Context. The existence of an extended neutral hydrogen exosphere around small planets can be used as an evidence for the presence of water in their lower atmosphere but, to date, such feature has not been securely detected in rocky exoplanets.
Dale Andersen's Field Reports
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 5 December 2018: The Final Stretch
"The last few days have been very nice with mild temperatures (-7°C to +2°C), sunshine and little wind."
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