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Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 14 November 2026: Setting Up Lab and Dive Tents
Dale Andersen: “Good morning, It is a fairly nice day here, with light wind, broken skies, occasional sunshine, and a temperature of -2°C, which is very warm for mid-November at Untersee. Temperatures usually reach near or above 0°C only in late November or early December. We expect the wind to pick up after 3-4 pm,…
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Testing The Hypothesis, ‘Planetary Protection Is Expensive’ From The ESA Perspective
[Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A]. Investments in planetary protection (PP) are to ensure that space…
Tracing Galactic Dust Reddening with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission: SPHEREx Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole
[astro-ph.GA] We investigate the ability of SPHEREx observations of the 3.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon…
Signatures of CH4 and NH3 in the Atmosphere of β Pictoris b
[astro-ph.EP] β Pictoris is a nearby (19.7 pc), young (∼ 24 Myr), bright (V=3.85) planetary…
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
COP31 Ice Planet Update: Earth’s Cryosphere Decline Is Beyond Safe Planetary Limits
[Stockholm Resilience Centre] New research published today at COP31 issues a stark warning about the health of the frozen parts of the planet – ice sheets, mountain glaciers, sea ice, permafrost, and snow cover – known as the cryosphere. The study, published in Science, finds that human-driven climate change is degrading these landscapes beyond safe…
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Mechanisms Of Unique Chaotropic Resistance And Biocalcification In A Halophilic Virgibacillus Isolated From Ephemeral Microbial Mats Of The Calcium-rich Don Juan Pond In Antarctica
[Frontiers of Biology] Introduction: Don Juan Pond (DJP), located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, is one of the most extreme cold aquatic environments…
Mars Seed: A Reference Architecture for Biomanufacturing Habitats from Martian Resources
[astro-ph.IM] Human exploration of Mars will require enormous quantities of materials for the first crewed missions and substantially more for permanent habitation, making flexible and…
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 11 November 2026: Weather Update And Forecast
Dale Andersen: “Somewhat unexpectedly, last night was fairly quiet, with a few hard wind gusts and the start of falling snow. But the Ultima airbase…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
Possible Lake Remnants Inside a Crater at the Edge of Isidis Planitia, Mars
[NASA]. This observation features polygonal cracks that may be the remnants of an ancient lake bed. Our image will also fill in a gap in…
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 10 November 2026: Weather Update Forecast
Dale Andersen: “the winds began to pick up earlier today, and we now have 30 mph winds, using 42 mph (max gust so far has…
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: 9 November 2026: Lake Untersee Basecamp Update
[Dale Andersen]. Keith, The last few days we have worked hard to get our camp set up. We are almost there, with everything but the…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
From Exo-Earth Detection to Atmospheric Characterization: Enabling Phase-Dependent Molecular Detection SNR in EXOSIMS
[astro-ph.EP] Detection and characterization of Earth-like worlds is a primary science goal for the upcoming NASA flagship Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The HWO mission will…
Earth as a Potential Source of Life for Europa’s Subsurface Ocean
[International Journal of Astrobiology] The paper discusses the possibility of dust particles containing living bacteria ejected from Earth reaching Europa and landing on its surface.…
From Anoxic to Oxic Earth: Detectability of Atmospheric Biosignatures Across Stellar Hosts with ELT/ANDES
[astro-ph.EP]. Earth’s atmosphere evolved from an anoxic, methane-bearing Archean state through Proterozoic oxygenation to the O2-rich modern atmosphere. However, most biosignature detectability studies focus on…