Few places are as hostile to life as Chile’s Atacama Desert. It’s the driest place on Earth, and only the hardiest microbes survive there. Its rocky landscape has lain undisturbed […]
2017
Posted inPress Release, Proxima Centauri
Cosmic Rays Near Proxima Centauri b
Cosmic rays are an important factor of space weather determining radiation conditions near the Earth and it seems to be essential to clarify radiation conditions near extrasolar planets too. Last […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures
Breakthrough Listen Initiative Publishes Initial Results
Breakthrough Listen – the initiative to find signs of intelligent life in the universe – has released its 11 events ranked highest for significance as well as summary data analysis […]
Posted inConferences and Meetings, Press Release, Proxima Centauri
Breakthrough Initiatives Summit on Life in the Universe and Space Exploration
Breakthrough Initiatives today announced its second annual Breakthrough Discuss scientific conference, which will bring together leading astronomers, engineers, astrobiologists and astrophysicists to advance discussion surrounding recent discoveries of potentially habitable […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
Making Terrestrial Planets: High Temperatures, FU Orionis Outbursts, Earth, and Planetary System Architectures
Current protoplanetary dust coagulation theory does not predict dry silicate planetesimals, in tension with the Earth. While remedies to this predicament have been proposed, they have generally failed numerical studies, […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
A Temperate Rocky Super-Earth Transiting a Nearby Cool Star
M dwarf stars, which have masses less than 60 per cent that of the Sun, make up 75 per cent of the population of the stars in the Galaxy [1]. […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
Newly Discovered Exoplanet May be Best Candidate in Search for Signs of Life
An exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth may be the new holder of the title “best place to look for signs of life beyond the Solar […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Observations of TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanetary System Fosters a New Biomarker
The recent discovery of seven potentially habitable Earth-size planets around the ultra-cool star TRAPPIST-1 has further fueled the hunt for extraterrestrial life. Current methods focus on closely monitoring the host […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Updated Masses for the TRAPPIST-1 Planets
The newly detected TRAPPIST-1 system, with seven low-mass, roughly Earth-sized planets transiting a nearby ultra-cool dwarf, is one of the most important exoplanet discoveries to date. The short baseline of […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
GCM Simulations of Unstable Climates in the Habitable Zone
It has recently been proposed that Earth-like planets in the outer regions of the habitable zone experience unstable climates, repeatedly cycling between glaciated and deglaciated climatic states (Menou 2015). While […]