Water and hydroxyl, once thought to be found only in the primitive airless bodies that formed beyond roughly 2.5-3 AU, have recently been detected on the Moon and Vesta, which […]
2017
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
Initial Reconaissance of a Transiting Rocky Planet in a Nearby M-Dwarf's Habitable Zone
We have just discovered a transiting terrestrial planet in a small nearby star’s habitable zone. Due to the proximity of the host star and the size of the transit depth, […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Press Release
Active Cryovolcanism on Europa?
Evidence for plumes of water on Europa has previously been found using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using two different observing techniques. Roth et al. (2014) found line emission from […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
Earth-Sized 'Tatooine' Planets Could Be Habitable
With two suns in its sky, Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine in “Star Wars” looks like a parched, sandy desert world. In real life, thanks to observatories such as NASA’s […]
Posted inEnceladus, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds
Hydrothermal Activity in The Seas of Enceladus: Implications For Habitable Zones
On Thursday NASA will announce evidence that hydrothermal activity on the floor of an ice-covered ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus is most likely creating methane from carbon dioxide. The process […]
Posted inPress Release, SETI & Technosignatures
A Search for Laser Emission with Megawatt Thresholds from 5600 FGKM Stars
We searched high resolution spectra of 5600 nearby stars for emission lines that are both inconsistent with a natural origin and unresolved spatially, as would be expected from extraterrestrial optical […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, Venus
Kepler-1649b: An Exo-Venus in the Solar Neighborhood
The Kepler mission has revealed that Earth-sized planets are common, and dozens have been discovered to orbit in or near their host star’s habitable zone. A major focus in astronomy […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Limits on the Stability of TRAPPIST-1
TRAPPIST-1 is a late M-dwarf orbited by seven Earth-sized planets with orbital period ratios near a chain of mean motion resonances. Due to uncertain system parameters, most orbital configurations drawn […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Evolution of Long Term Variability in Solar Analogs
Earth is the only planet known to harbor life, therefore we may speculate on how the nature of the Sun-Earth interaction is relevant to life on Earth, and how the […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Atmosphere Around Low-mass Super-Earth Detected
Astronomers have detected an atmosphere around the super-Earth GJ 1132b. This marks the first detection of an atmosphere around a low-mass Super-Earth, in terms of radius and mass the most […]