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JWST Studies Of Planet-shattering Collisions
[ESA]. In the early history of our Solar System, a Mars-sized object called Theia smashed into the infant Earth, vapourising massive amounts of rock and blasting it into space. Some of that material coalesced into the Moon. Astronomers have now used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to examine a class of young stellar systems…
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Ancient Seas Reveal Times When The Earth Rapidly Shifted Relative To Its Axis
[AAAS] Ancient sea-level changes provide new evidence that during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, Earth underwent…
Catalog Of Mitochondria Across Life’s Family Tree Unearths New Roles For The Cell’s Powerhouse
[Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard] A research consortium has generated the broadest look yet…
How A Desert Alga Helps Us Understand Plants’ Adaptability To Extreme Environmental Conditions
[Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau] A single-celled green alga from the sand dunes of the Negev…
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
The North Pole Of Mars Is Less Dusty Than Scientists Thought
[University of Washington] Although Mars may have once resembled Earth, the rocky red planet now appears far from hospitable. Still, certain details — such as ice-bound water — pique researchers’ curiosity. Much like on Earth, ice contains valuable records of past climate that could say whether Mars hosts, or has ever hosted, life. Aside from…
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NASA Scientists Search For Clues About Mars’ Past In Scotland
[NASA] This summer, NASA scientists headed to the Scottish Highlands to follow up on last year’s announcement of potential biosignatures on Mars and prepare for…
Offworld Expedition Training: Astronauts Explore An Ancient Earth Volcano
[ESA]. From its rim, remnants of recent eruptions lie open for this crew of astronauts learning geology for planetary exploration. Participants of PANGAEA’s 10th edition…
Looking Inside Living Antarctic Cells For The First Time
[British Antarctic Survey] Cambridge engineers have built the first microscope to see inside living cells in sub-zero conditions, revealing secrets of Antarctic fish survival. Editor’s…
Imaging & Spectroscopy
A Temperate Sub-Neptune Transiting The M4 Dwarf TOI-210 Identified By NIRPS And TESS — Uncovering Hidden M-dwarf Planetary Systems In The Near-infrared
[astro-ph.EP] Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes dominate the exoplanet population, yet their compositions, formation mechanisms, and capability of retaining atmospheres remain poorly understood. M-type stars offer a…
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Astrobiology Droid Completes Earth Flyby
[ESA] The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) skimmed the very outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere on 28 September, using the gravity of…
Large Planets Ruled Out After 70 Ophiuchi AB Binary System Search
[University of Michigan] New research led by the University of Michigan is helping set the stage for future observatories to characterize rocky planets outside our…
Biosignatures & Paleobiology
Near-infrared Confocal Imaging Reveals The Spatial Organisation Of Far-red Photosynthesis In Shark Bay Microbial Mats And Halomicronema sp,
[Journal of Microscopy] Far-red light (FRL) cyanobacteria occupy spectrally filtered habitats where visible wavelengths are depleted but far-red radiation persists. Shark Bay (Western Australia) stromatolitic…
How Ocean Chemistry On Earth Helped Life Keep Breathing
[UC Riverside] Scientists have helped solve a longstanding mystery about how Earth remained habitable after oxygen first accumulated in its atmosphere more than 2 billion…
How Enceladus’ Ocean Spray Becomes Chemically Diverse Ice Grains
[Institute of Science Tokyo] Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface. From fractures near its south pole, material from this…