[Astronomy & Astrophysics] Context. Pre-stellar cores are the sites of the earliest stages of star formation. Dust continuum observations are often used to identify and characterise their properties yet only […]
Keith Cowing
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
![Rest-frame equivalent widths of C iii] 𝜆𝜆1907, 1909 (left) and C iv 𝜆𝜆1548, 1550 (right) against the direct 𝑇e-based ([O III]𝜆4363) metallicity. Curves are the star-forming photoionisation grids of Nakajima et al. (2018) at a burst age of 1 Myr and log(𝑛H/cm−3 ) = 3. Solid curves represent the POPSTAR single-star models (Mollá et al. 2009), and dashed curves indicate the BPASS binary models (Eldridge et al. 2017), coloured by ionisation parameter as shown in the colour-bar. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Precise.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Precise C-N-O Abundances of Individual Galaxies In The First Billion Years From Ultra-Deep, Rest-UV-to-Optical JWST Spectroscopy
[astro-ph.GA] We present ultra-deep JWST/NIRSpec 𝑅 ∼ 1000 spectroscopy of nine star-forming galaxies at 𝑧 = 6.0 − 8.3 in the GOODSN field, drawn from the Origins of Metal Enrichment […]
Posted inMicrobiology & Virology
Bacteriophage Qβ: Six Decades at the Frontier of Molecular and Viral Evolution Genome, Particle And Mutational Landscape Of Bacteriophage Qβ
[q-bio.PE] Bacteriophage Qβ, first isolated in 1961, has served for more than six decades as a model system for molecular and viral evolution.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Secondary Ion-Ice Chemistry in UV-Irradiated Oxygen Ice: New Astrochemical Models Including Bulk Ionic Species
[ACS Earth Space Chemistry] Although energetic and nonenergetic processing of interstellar dust grain surfaces and ice is thought to be one of the dominant mechanisms for the extraterrestrial synthesis of […]
Posted inMicrobiology & Virology
Controlled Near-space Exposure Induces Community Restructuring In An Ocean Water Microbiome
[biorxiv.org] Marine microbiomes may experience extreme environmental stress during atmospheric transport, yet how near-space conditions reshape natural microbial communities remains poorly understood.
Posted inImpact events
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 […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather
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 episodes of rapid “true polar wander” (TPW).
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
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 at the proteins that make up mitochondria, capturing the organelle’s diversity across multiple branches on […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments
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 Desert has, within just a few years, become a key model organism in modern photosynthesis […]
Posted inEnceladus
Life On Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Would Be Possible
[University of Regensburg] From a human perspective, Enceladus is anything but a comfortable place to live: Icy cold, hardly any oxygen, and – below its icy crust – a global […]