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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 biological evidence, Mars preserves ancient environments that may hold clues to life’s emergence. Robotic explorations have confirmed that Mars once had liquid water and organic compounds, which suggests it was…
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Planetary Research Program Metrics to Enable a Vital Research Community and Achieve Decadal-Level Science
[National Academies of Sciences] Help us identify ways that the NASA Planetary Research Program can…
NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,220 9 October 2026 (Space Life Science Research Results)
The abstract in PubMed or at the publisher’s site is linked when available and will…
Designing Protein Structures From Natural Language
[cs.LG] A central challenge in de novo protein design is generating proteins with desired structural…
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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Habitable Zones
Astronomy & Telescopes
Atmospheres, Climate, Weather
The Role Of Minerals In Prebiotic Evolution: Implications For Identifying Worlds With The Potential For Life’s Origin
[Fundamental Research] Understanding the origin of life requires explaining how abiotic molecules transitioned into the first living systems within plausible geological settings. Increasing evidence suggests minerals as active participants in prebiotic evolution. By adsorbing and concentrating reactants, catalyzing key reactions, stabilizing intermediates, and providing protective microenvironments, minerals may have helped to overcome thermodynamic and kinetic…
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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…
Assessing the Preservation of Polysaccharides from a Sea-Ice Bacterium Through Analog Icy Moon Plume Ejection
[Astrobiology (Journal)] Detection of complex organics emitted from Saturn’s moon Enceladus has intensified the search for biosignatures accessible to future missions. Extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs) from…
Global Genome Atlas Reveals Hidden Life In Lakes
[University of Zurich] A single drop of lake water teems with life too small to see: microscopic algae and tiny single-celled organisms such as amoebae.…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
Giving NASA’s SciX A Quick Astrobiology Roadtest
Keith’s note: Goodbye ADS – Hello SciX. According to an editorial “Farewell NASA ADS” in Nature magazine, “After more than 33 years, NASA’s Astrophysics Data…
Prebiotic Chemistry In Selk Crater on Titan
[astro-ph.EP] Saturn’s moon Titan is a prime destination for investigating prebiotic chemistry beyond Earth, particularly at impact crater sites where transient liquid water may have…
Where Does Earth’s Nitrogen Go? Two Atoms Offer A Clue
[Science] Nitrogen is one of life’s building blocks, but it’s only helpful in the right amounts. Too much nitrogen in water, for example, can lead…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
Material Cycling Across Earth’s Spheres And Triggers Of Cambrian Explosion: A Tectonic Perspective
[ELSP] A comprehensive model of the Cambrian explosion featuring “multi-factors coupling and multi-sphere driving”. Supercontinent breakup and mantle plume activity served as the initial trigger…
Exotic Methanol Discovered In Planet-Building Zones
[NRAO] An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is…
First Detection Of Variable Water Clouds Outside Of Our Solar System
[University Of Arizona]. A Jupiter-sized world just 7.5 light-years away is cloudy, chemically complex, and, it turns out, more like home than anyone expected. Using…