Want to go ice fishing on Jupiter’s moon Europa? There’s no promising you’ll catch anything, but a new set of robotic prototypes could help. Since 2015, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory […]
2017
Posted inPanspermia, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Fast Litho-panspermia in the Habitable Zone of the TRAPPIST-1 System
With several short-period, Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone, the TRAPPIST-1 system potentially allows litho-panspermia to take place on very short timescales. We investigate the efficiency and speed of inter-planetary […]
Posted inPress Release, Titan
Aerosols Optical Properties in Titan's Detached Haze Layer Before the Equinox
UV observations with Cassini ISS Narrow Angle Camera of Titan’s detached haze is an excellent tool to probe its aerosols content without being affected by the gas or the multiple […]
Posted inPress Release, Venus
Venus: Key to Understanding the Evolution of Terrestrial Planets
Why are the terrestrial planets so different? Venus should be the most Earth-like of all our planetary neighbours. Its size, bulk composition and distance from the Sun are very similar […]
Posted inMars, Press Release
Terrestrial Planet Formation: Dynamical Shake-up and the Low Mass of Mars
We consider a dynamical shake-up model to explain the low mass of Mars and the lack of planets in the asteroid belt. In our scenario, a secular resonance with Jupiter […]
Posted inEuropa, Press Release
On the in-situ Detectability of Europa's Water Vapour Plumes from a Flyby Mission
We investigate the feasibility of detecting water molecules (H2O) and water ions (H20+) from the Europa plumes from a flyby mission. A Monte Carlo particle tracing method is used to […]
Posted inMars, Press Release
Balloon Experiment Reveals Earth Microbes' Likely Fate on Mars
Understanding the limits on what microbial life can endure is important for preventing contamination of the Red Planet with terrestrial microbes when our human and robotic explorers arrive. It’s also […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Frequent Flaring in the TRAPPIST-1 system – Unsuited For Life?
We analyze short cadence K2 light curve of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Fourier analysis of the data suggests Prot=3.295±0.003 days. The light curve shows several flares, of which we analyzed 42 […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Inventing Tools for Detecting Life Elsewhere with Future Telescopes
Recently, astronomers announced the discovery that a star called TRAPPIST-1 is orbited by seven Earth-size planets. Three of the planets reside in the “habitable zone,” the region around a star […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Water Transport to Circumprimary Habitable Zones From Icy Planetesimal Disks in Binary Star Systems
So far, more than 130 extrasolar planets have been found in multiple stellar systems. Dynamical simulations show that the outcome of the planetary formation process can lead to different planetary […]