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5 Questions About Astrobiology’s Future At NASA
Editor’s note: I just sent this to folks at NASA HQ and tweeted it at @Astrobiology With regard to the changes in how @NASAScience_ – NASA Science Mission Directorate proposed to change the way it handles #Astrobiology. SMD reps at the @theNASciences meeting keep saying that NASA SMD will now spread astrobiology across all of…
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NASA Is Forfeiting Its Global Astrobiology Leadership
Keith’s note: NASA presentations at a National Academies of Science on Tuesday left the panel…
Oxidation Of Photochemical Organic Hazes: A Prebiotic Source of Oxygen-Bearing Organics in Titan’s Atmosphere And Early Earth?
[Astrobiology via PubMed]. Photochemical organic hazes such as those found in the atmosphere of Titan,…
Offworld Biotech: Nikon Experimentation Microscope in Orbit (NEMO) (Video)
[NASA]. astronaut and Expedition 75 commander Jessica Meir shows off a tissue chamber that houses…
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
Atmospheres, Climate, Weather
Temporal Variability of Titan’s Middle-Atmospheric Zonal Winds from Southern Fall to Late Winter (2016-2023)
[astro-ph.EP] Previous ALMA observations have revealed unexpectedly strong and rapid variations in Titan’s high-altitude equatorial zonal winds, which present a challenge to our understanding of this moon’s atmospheric dynamics. Here we report further measurements of Titan’s zonal wind field at middle atmospheric altitudes ≈200-490 km, based on ALMA observations of spatially and spectrally resolved CH3CN…
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Tricorder Tech: An Electrical Technique For Identifying Signs Of Life In Space
[The University of Osaka] The truth is out there – but identifying signs of life in space involves an intense search for biosignatures within our…
NASA Scientists Search For Clues About Mars’ Past In Scotland
[NASA] This summer, NASA scientists headed to the Scottish Highlands to follow up on last year’s announcement of potential biosignatures on Mars and prepare for…
Offworld Expedition Training: Astronauts Explore An Ancient Earth Volcano
[ESA]. From its rim, remnants of recent eruptions lie open for this crew of astronauts learning geology for planetary exploration. Participants of PANGAEA’s 10th edition…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
European Rover Trains For Mars In The Desert
[ESA] The exercise was an important rehearsal for what the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover might encounter when it lands on the Red Planet in 2030.…
Protocells Reproduce Morphological And Chemical Signatures Of Early Microfossils
[biorxiv.org] Identification of early microfossils relies on morphological and chemical criteria assumed to be unique to life, but whether abiotic microstructures can satisfy these criteria…
Thermally Irreversible Sulfur Chemisorption On Silicate Grains As A Major Sulfur Reservoir In Molecular Clouds
[astro-ph.GA] Sulfur (S) chemistry in the interstellar medium remains poorly constrained due to the longstanding “missing sulfur” problem, where a significant fraction of cosmic sulfur…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
Molecular Complexity As A Signature Of Life
[PNAS Nexus] The presence of an abundance of complex molecules has been proposed as a universal signature of life. Molecular complexity is often measured by…
Activity And Diversity Of Sulfate- and Methane-based Pathways Of Anaerobic Chitin And N-acetylglucosamine Degradation In Marine Sediments
[American Society of Microbiology] Sulfate reduction is estimated to account for half of the organic carbon respiration in anoxic, organic-rich ocean sediments. Sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRMs)…
Generating Eukaryotic Reference Genome Assemblies: Earth BioGenome Project Quality Standards And Recommendations
[q-bio.GN] Reference genome assemblies are foundational resources across the biological sciences as they begin to expose the fundamental building blocks of each species and the…