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Impact Crater Hydrothermal Systems Support Rapid Microbial Enrichment and Diverse Metabolic Potential
[Geobiology ] Impact crater hydrothermal systems, formed after asteroid and comet impacts, have been proposed as promising habitats for life on early Earth and as key targets in the search for life on planetary bodies such as Mars, since they provide liquid water and active geochemical turnover. Because no newly formed impact structures exist on…
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Photometric and Spectroscopic Observations of Comet 2P/Encke’s Nucleus in the Mid-Infrared Wavelength Region
[astro-ph.EP] We observed comet 2P/Encke with the Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) on the…
A New Method Maps An Exoplanet’s True Shape
[Cornell] Mathematical models have necessarily reduced distant exoplanets to idealized circles – until now. Leveraging…
Wavefront-Conditioned Photon Measurements for Exoplanet Spectroscopy: Contrast Limits and Conditional Gains
[astro-ph.IM]. A wavefront-sensor (WFS) prediction can select the photon measurement before detection or condition its…
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
Simulations Of The Evolving Ozone Layer: Implications For The Early Earth, Exoplanets, And The Search For Life
[astro-ph.EP] Over 4 billion years, Earth’s atmosphere has been transformed from a composition devoid of molecular oxygen (O2) to one where O2 is now 21% of our modern atmosphere by volume. With high quantities of O2, an ozone (O3) layer can form and partially shield the surface from biologically harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV). The evolution…
Read moreExploration Gear & Tech
Using Nuclear Technology To Change How We Explore Icy Ocean Worlds: Examples From Nuclear Powered Mission Concept Designs
[Frontiers] Icy ocean worlds represent some of the most compelling targets in the search for extraterrestrial life, yet their exploration is constrained by significant logistical…
Perseverance Mars Rover Sets Off-World Record for Total Distance Driven
[NASA]. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has driven farther than any vehicle ever has on the surface of another world. On Oct. 11, the rover’s odometer…
An Interdisciplinary Approach To Sampling Hard Rock Cores Of The Oceanic Crust For Microbiological And Biogeochemical Research
[Scientific Drilling] Studying life in the deep, rocky subseafloor involves many layers of technological and methodological challenges, and each drilling project or expedition must make…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
VUV And mid-UV Photoabsorption Cross Sections Of Thin Films Of Glycine And Alanine: Application To Their Photochemistry In The Solar System
[Photochemistry and Photobiology] Experiments conducted in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since the 1990s have investigated the evolution of organic matter in solid-phase (including amino acids)…
A Review Of The Geochemical Environment at Selk Crater on Titan: Applications to Dragonfly
[Astrobiology (Journal)] This article summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding the destination for NASA’s Dragonfly mission: Titan’s Selk crater. We aim to foster an…
Elastic Properties of Titan Tholins Revealed by Brillouin Spectroscopy
[astro-ph.EP] Titan tholins, complex organic solids synthesized by simulating photochemical processes in Titan’s atmosphere, are widely regarded as analogs to organic surface materials on the…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
Tree of Life Program Targets Publication Of 200 Genome Notes Per Month
Editor’s note: If we aspire to mount expeditions to new worlds and then embrace the task of characterizing and quantifying whatever life forms we find,…
Ultraviolet Reflected-Light Spectroscopy of Modern Earth Analogs with Starshade Observations
[astro-ph.EP] Characterizing rocky, habitable zone planets in reflected light is a key science objective for future direct imaging missions, and the ultraviolet (UV) is uniquely…
A Proposal To Make Mars Sample Return A Collaborative NASA, ESA, And CNSA Effort
[Astrobiology (Journal) via PubMed] Humanity’s self-awareness drives the quest to understand the origins of life. Although Earth history has erased much of our planet’s early…