Earth’s breathable atmosphere is key for life, and a new study suggests that the first burst of oxygen was added by a spate of volcanic eruptions brought about by tectonics. […]
2019
Posted inAstrochemistry, Press Release
New Insights On Prebiotic Chemistry From Plasma Kinetics
The famous Miller-Urey experiment, which provides essential information on the prebiotic synthesis of the molecules of life, still has many obscure points. In this paper, we want to suggest a […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Novel Method Proposed To Find Atmospheres On Rocky Worlds
When NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launches in 2021, one of its most anticipated contributions to astronomy will be the study of exoplanets — planets orbiting distant stars. Among the […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Detection Of Na, K And H2O In The Hazy Atmosphere Of WASP-6b
We present new observations of the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-6b both from the ground with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS2) from 0.45-0.83 […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Machine Learning Inference Of The Interior Structure of Low-mass Exoplanets
We explore the application of machine learning based on mixture density neural networks (MDNs) to the interior characterization of low-mass exoplanets up to 25 Earth masses constrained by mass, radius, […]
Posted inPress Release, Venus
Revisiting The Cosmic-ray Induced Venusian Radiation Dose In The Context Of Habitability
The Atmospheric Radiation Interaction Simulator (AtRIS) was used to model the altitude-dependent Venusian absorbed dose and the Venusian dose equivalent. For the first time, we modeled the dose rates for […]
Posted inDale Andersen's Field Reports, Status Report
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 29 November 2019: Diving For Science
We have been keeping very busy these last couple of weeks, trying to take advantage of the nice weather (mostly calm and with clear skies more often than not). Today […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release, Space Stations
Genomic and Phenotypic Characterization of Burkholderia Isolates from the Potable Water System of the International Space Station
The opportunistic pathogens Burkholderia cepacia and Burkholderia contaminans, both genomovars of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC), are frequently cultured from the potable water system (PWS) of the International Space Station […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
A Model For The Emergence of RNA From A Prebiotically Plausible Mixture of Ribonucleotides, Arabinonucleotides and 2'-deoxynucleotides
The abiotic synthesis of ribonucleotides is thought to have been an essential step towards the emergence of the RNA world. However, it is likely that the prebiotic synthesis of ribonucleotides […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Animal Embryos Evolved Before Animals
Animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, before diversifying into 30 or 40 distinct anatomical designs. When and how animal ancestors made the transition from single-celled microbes to complex multicellular organisms has […]