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Human-Related Microbes May Survive At The Moon’s South Pole
[NASA] Some of Earth’s microbes likely to hitch a ride to space with human explorers could survive in the shaded nooks and crannies of the Moon’s South Pole region, NASA scientists say. Published on Aug. 19, 2026, in Science Advances, these findings highlight a need to better understand microbial persistence in extreme lunar environments. As…
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Extremophiles: Life Resists Chemistry Not Conditions
[FEMS Microbes] Extremophiles are used to study both the limits of life and its potential…
International Law and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
[Proceedings of the IAU]. The search for extraterrestrial life, especially intelligent life, is among the…
Looking For TRAPPIST-1 External Planets’ Emission In JWST Archival Data
[astro-ph.EP] The TRAPPIST-1 system has been thoroughly observed with JWST. Unfortunately, stellar contamination issues strongly…
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,…
Keep readingExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Astronomy & Telescopes
Atmospheres, Climate, Weather
Metal Deposits Linked To Oceanic Oxygen Loss During Ancient Ice Ages
[Syracuse University] An international team of researchers analyzed manganese and other chemical signatures preserved in more than 27,000 ancient seafloor samples collected from six continents. Across six major glaciations spanning more than two billion years, they found the same pattern: sediments from high latitudes consistently contained more manganese than those from tropical regions. The researchers…
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Offworld Astrogeology Training In Iceland
Iceland’s diverse volcanic terrain is an excellent stand-in for lunar and planetary processes and provides an ideal environment in which to simulate surface science operations.…
Planetary Recon: Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys
[NASA] This proposal explores a new class of reconnaissance spacecraft that map minerals from orbit using Raman spectroscopy during high-speed flybys–without landing, sample return, or…
Preparing ExoMars For Rosalind Franklin Astrobiology Rover Delivery
[ESA] The footage shows the simultaneous deployment of two landing legs from the ExoMars landing platform, in two sequential pairs. The legs travel stowed on…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
Catalytic Formation of H2 On Carbonaceous Dust Grains – Implications For Interstellar Observations
[astro-ph.GA] We use kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to study molecular hydrogen formation on carbonaceous dust grain surfaces, validated against recent laboratory measurements of H2…
The Enceladian Crater Production Function
[astro-ph.EP]. Interpreting Enceladus’s past and present surface history and interior state remains challenging, owing to uncertain prescription of its impact bombardment history and limited interpretation…
Synthesis Of Mineral-organic Hybrid Materials Under Dynamic Prebiotic Conditions
[Nature] The increasing of molecular complexity must be understood as a planetary phenomenon where prebiotic chemistry and geological settings converge. In this scene, HCN chemistry…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
Metagenomics Deciphers Diagenetic Processes Of Ferruginous Mineralization In The Deep Biosphere
[Nature Communications Earth & Environment] Ferruginous conditions in the Precambrian oceans gave rise to ancient iron formations that contain the oldest recognized traces of life…
Zhurong Mars Rover Observations Primary Evaporite In Southern Utopia Planitia
[Nature] The Zhurong rover has identified a layer consisting of platy rocks enriched in hydrous minerals on a ~0.76-Ga surface in southern Utopia Planitia, indicating…
ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover Recon: Geological History Of Oxia Planum
[NASA] This crater contains exposures in the rim that can corroborate prevailing hypotheses for Oxia Planum’s geologic history ahead of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover’s…