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The Emergence Of Life In The Light Of Evolution
[q-bio.PE] The origin of life is often framed primarily as a chemical problem, yet life s defining feature is evolution. Advances in geochemistry, prebiotic chemistry and molecular biology have suggested diverse scenarios for the emergence of genomes, metabolism and cellular compartments on the early Earth, but most of these models ignore the relevance of a…
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ReactionAtlas: Ab Origine Exploration Of Chemical Reaction Networks With Machine Learning
[cs.LG] Mapping a chemical reaction network, the graph of minima and transition states (TS) and…
Mass Constraints For The K2-223 System Planets: An Ultra-short-period sub-Earth, A Short-period Super-Earth, And A Tentative Long-period Giant Planet
[astro-ph.EP] We present mass constraints of two short-period, terrestrial-sized planets transiting K2-223, based on high-precision…
Double Gravity-Assist Rendezvous Trajectory to Halley’s Comet Using Deep-Space Low Thrust
[astro-ph.EP] The perihelion of comet 1P/Halley in 2061 is an excellent chance to revisit this…
Earth As A Potential Source Of Llife For Europa’s Subsurface Ocean
The paper discusses the possibility of dust particles containing living bacteria ejected from Earth reaching Europa and landing on its surface. It is shown that, taking certain factors into account, over a period of 30 − 80 Myr (the estimated age of Europa’s ocean), Jupiter’s moon would have been impacted…
Keep readingDust To Dust: Prospects For Passive Technosignatures As Relics Of ETI
Technological societies are separated in time, not just space — that is the lesson of the Drake equation. Might the best way to seek them be to find technosignatures that persist long after their creators? I present work I and my collaborators have done on the idea of passive technosignatures,…
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Astronomy & Telescopes
![NASA SMD ROSES-25 Amendment 68: New Opportunity: D.8 Habitable Worlds Observatory Precursor Science Investigations [UPDATE 2]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/HWO.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1)
Atmospheres, Climate, Weather
Thermal Anomaly Discovered Below Mars’s South Pole
[Caltech]. Based on gravitational measurements that give clues to the Red Planet’s interior structure, Mars’s interior southern hemisphere is around 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than the northern half of the planet and partially molten. The surprising finding adds additional context to Martian history and the periods of time in which it may have…
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Rethinking The Origin Of Life At Seafloor Hydrothermal Vents
[PNAS] Alkaline vents have dominated a class of hypotheses for the origins of life since their discovery a quarter of century ago, but advances in…
Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Planetary Materials Using Laser Deposited Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles
[x-mol.net] This work demonstrates a surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy (SERS) approach based on laser deposition of Au plasmonic nanoparticles onto several relevant mineral surfaces. A pulsed…
NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Cooperative Agreement Notice (NNH26ZDA016C) Final Text And Due Dates
[NASA] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate (HSMD) have released the final text of the…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
The Ultraviolet Spectrograph on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission (JUICE-UVS)
[astro-ph.EP] A mix of internal and external radiation shielding plates are used, with those on the instrument electronics plus spectrograph sections shown here in gold…
Exoplanets In Star Clusters
[astro-ph.EP] The field of exoplanetary research is rapidly evolving, thanks to TESS and Kepler/K2. With the latest data release, Gaia DR3, Gaia has transformed the…
The Refractory Fraction Of Phosphorus In Planet-forming Discs
[astro-ph.EP] Context. Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for life on Earth and a potential tracer of planet formation history. However, there has been no…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
ExMODE: A Comprehensive Resource For Extremophile Genomic And Functional Exploration
[iMetaOmics] ExMODE (https://db.genomics.cn/exmode/) integrates 3518 samples to build a unified extremophile resource, which hosts 1.35 billion habitat-specific non-redundant genes, 5.25 million representative protein structures, 67,026…
Prebiotic Cationic Amino Acids Support Formation Of An Ancient Protein Fold
[biorxiv.org] The evolutionary basis for the selection of the standard proteinogenic amino acids remains elusive, particularly for the long cationic amino acids, lysine and arginine,…
Microbial Evolution, Biogeochemical Functions, And Environmental Adaptations In A Desert Saline Lake On The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
[biorxiv.org] The Eboliang Hu saline lakes in the hyper-arid Qaidam Basin is a high-altitude, weakly acidic hypersaline system with strong environmental gradients and limited nitrogen…