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Tricorder Tech: Ground Truth For The DAVINCI Venus Mission
Checking the mineral composition of some weathered rocks with the ASD TerraSpec Halo Mineral Identifier which serves as a tricorder in this activity. These samples become the “ground truth” for the measurements from the VADIX prototype camera system which flew over the crater island site, taking photos and measurements from the air. VADIX stands for…
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Mars Curiosity Rover Finds Evidence Of An Ancient Sandstorm
[NASA] Billions of years ago, an hours-long Martian sandstorm blew so intensely that sand ripples…
Pristine Meteorite Examination Adds To Our Knowledge Of Ancient Asteroids
[NASA] A meteorite recovered immediately upon its fall to Earth on July 16, 2024, is…
NASA Study Finds Near-Earth Asteroid Is Actually Comet
[NASA] The object looks like an asteroid but moves like a comet, so astronomers used…
Tracing The Source Of Carbon Oxides On The Large Moons Of Uranus
[astro-ph.EP] The Uranian moons Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon are enriched in CO2 mixed with…
Detected: Rocky, Habitable-zone Exoplanet With An Atmosphere
[Carnegie Science] A team of scientists led by Harvard University’s Collin Cherubim and including Shreyas…
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
Modeling The Response Of Earth’s Marine Carbon Cycle To Extreme CO2 Injection Events
[physics.ao-ph] We explore how the response of a conceptual model of the marine carbon cycle depends on the way in which carbon is injected from the atmosphere. We find that, for single-injection pulses, the threshold amount required for a large response of the excitable system depends on pulse duration but not on its specific form.…
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NASA Awards STRIDE Contracts For Mars Advanced Surface Mobility Technology
NASA has selected seven companies for contract awards under the Mars Exploration Program’s Science Transport and Robotic Innovation for Deployment and Exploration, or STRIDE, initiative…
Differential Efficiency Of Sampling Devices In The Measurement Of Microbial Diversity Of Yellowstone National Park Hot Springs
[biorxiv.org] Metagenomic characterization of low-biomass Yellowstone National Park (YNP) hot spring waters remains challenging because microbial recovery is influenced by filtration methodology, sample preservation, DNA…
Offworld Away Team Training: Cave Surveys
A phase of cave surveying in which JAXA astronaut Ayu Yoneda photographs cross-sections of the cave using the Electronic FieldBook, with the assistance of ESA…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
Exoplanet Beta Pictoris d Found After More Than 10 Years Of Searching
[ESO] A team of astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is 100 times fainter…
Biosignature Detectability On Transiting Habitable Worlds With ELT/ANDES
[astro-ph.EP] The search for life beyond the Solar System is at a turning point, transitioning from theoretical predictions to observations enabled by next-generation observatories. The…
A System Of At Least Six Exoplanets Revealed In The HIP 41378 System
[Paris Observatory] An international team, including scientists from the Paris Observatory – PSL at the Time-Space Laboratory, has spent ten years studying an exceptional planetary…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
MEDaL-1 Mars Lander Science Definition Team
[ESA] Join the Science Definition Team (SDT) to help define the Exploration Science Payload for a proposed future Mars lander: MEDaL-1. Full announcement The European…
Experimental Astrochemistry And Machine Learning Unravel The Formation Of Oxygen-bearing Organic Molecules In Extraterrestrial Ices
[Nature Communications Chemistry] Oxygen-bearing organic molecules, including aldehydes, alcohols, and peroxides, serve as key precursors to complex organics in extraterrestrial environments. Their non-equilibrium formation mechanisms…
Bacteria Form Herds To Survive Predators, Offering Fresh Insight Into Earth’s Carbon Cycle
[Queen Mary University of London] Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have discovered that tiny photosynthetic bacteria band together into protective “herds” when attacked…