[astro-ph.GA] The detection of magnesium sulphide (MgS) and sodium sulphide (NaS) towards the Galactic Center molecular cloud G+0.693 constitutes the first detection of metal sulphides in the interstellar medium (ISM).
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) 🖖🏻
Posted inIo
Lava World Recon: Juno Measures Subsurface Temperature Of Io
[SwRI] NASA’s Juno mission has made the first direct measurements of the temperature below the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io, which reveal significant heating in the upper few feet of […]
Posted inMars
Mars Curiosity Blog Sols 4961-4967: Approaching a Break in the Rock Record?
[NASA JPL] Earth planning date: Friday, July 24, 2026
![Top: Hexagonal segmented primary mirror designs with no central obscuration with different number of rings and varying segment sizes (flat-to-flat (m) 1-Hex: 2.64, 2-Hex: 1.45, 3-Hex: 1.19, 4-Hex: 0.85, 5-Hex: 0.66), all designs have an inscribed diameter of ∼6 m. Middle: Binary apodizer masks optimized for their respective aperture design. Bottom: Respective coronagraphic PSFs with an annular dark hole ranging from 3.4λ/D - 12λ/D, and a spatial average contrast floor of ∼4 × 10−11 inside the dark hole. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Segmentlevel.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
Segment-level Thermal Sensitivity Analysis For Exo-Earth Coronagraphy With Segmented Space Telescopes
[astro-ph.IM] Direct imaging and characterization of Earth-like planets require ultra-stable wavefronts to achieve a starlight suppression level of 100 parts per trillion (ppt) in the coronagraphic dark region of the […]
![Ciara Sypherd, Ph.D. candidate in bioengineering (Pil Rosted Christensen) [Harvard]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Decoding-Animal.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
Decoding Animal Communication With AI
[Harvard] Fresh off degrees in astrobiology and aerospace engineering at Arizona State University, Ciara Sypherd took on a one-year research position at the University of Copenhagen to study how neural […]
Posted inAstropharmacy / Biotechnology
Pigmented Fungi Derived From Hot And Cold deserts Ecosystems: Taxonomy, Genomic And Biotechnological Approach
[World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology] Safer and more efficient products and processes are current global demands that drive the field of bioprospective research. Microbial sources are the main natural […]
Posted inImaging & Spectroscopy
Proba-3 Views Its Coronagraph – And Our Home World
[ESA]. At first glance, this is just another image of Earth. But look closely, and you will be able to make out Proba-3’s Coronagraph spacecraft hiding in plain sight, covering […]
![Retrieved emission spectra (blue regions) plotted with the true planet’s flux from our forward model (red) for each redox state considered (IW-6 to IW+6). The retrieved spectra denser region represents the 1𝜎 confidence level, intermediate region 2𝜎, thin region the 3𝜎 level. The observational noise from LIFEsim is shown as a gray envelope. The retrieved spectra capture most spectral features in observed planets, especially in the more pronounced oxidised cases (bottom row). -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Characterizing-the.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Characterizing The Oxidation State Of Rocky Exoplanets With The Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE)
[astro-ph.EP] The oxidation state of rocky exoplanets is expected to play a fundamental role in shaping the chemical composition of their secondary atmospheres by influencing the chemical composition of volcanically […]
![Schematic diagram of our spectral line stacking and matched filtering procedures. First, (a) shows relevant spectral regions of the (synthetic) observational data (black) and an initial spectral simulation (red). Each spectral window is then weighted based on the signal-to-noise ratio of each region to create a velocity stack of all relevant molecular rotational transitions (b). Finally, the stacked simulation is used as a matched filter and is cross-correlated with the stacked data to visualize the statistical significance of a given detection (c). -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Exploring-the-Limits.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Exploring the Limits of Spectral Line Stacking in Spectral Line Data and Application Toward the Detection of Bulk 13C Enrichment of Aromatics in TMC-1
[astro-ph.GA] The formation history of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the interstellar medium remains a topic of active debate, with proposed mechanisms ranging from high-temperature stellar ejecta processes to low-temperature […]
![Stellar influence on planetary habitability. Figure credit: solar images from NASA/ESA and KPNO/NSO/AURA/NSF, background pictures generated through OpenAI’s image-generation system (i.e., Adobe Firefly and ChatGPT Images 2.0). Illustration: K. Herbst - [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/StellarActivity.jpg?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inHabitable Zones
Stellar Activity, Exoplanet, Habitability, Planetary Atmospheres
[astro-ph.EP] This chapter will review the deep connection of planetary habitability and stellar irradiation. We present the long-term stellar evolution as one of the drivers of atmospheric escape and climate […]