NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found the building blocks for Earth-sized planets in an unlikely place: the atmospheres of a pair of burned-out stars called white dwarfs.
Astronomy & Telescopes
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
A Search For Rocky Planets Transiting Brown Dwarfs
Exoplanetary science has reached a historic moment. The James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of probing the atmospheres of rocky planets, and perhaps even search for biologically produced gases. […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
Where to Find Habitable "Earths" in Circumbinary Systems
Hitherto, six P-type planets are found around five binary systems, i.e. Kepler-16 b, 34 b, 35 b, 38 b, 47 b, c, which are all Neptune or Jupiter-like planets. The […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Citizen Science / Open Science, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Traffic Jam of Moons in Habitable Zones
Volunteers from the Planethunters.org website, part of the Oxford University-led Zooniverse project, have discovered 15 new planet candidates orbiting in the habitable zones of other stars.
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release
NASA Research Shows DNA Building Blocks Can Be Made in Space
NASA-funded researchers have found more evidence meteorites can carry DNA components created in space.
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Policy, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Status Report
Report: Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 (2011)
In recent years, planetary science has seen a tremendous growth in new knowledge. Deposits of water ice exist at the Moon’s poles.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Missions & Hardware, NASA Astrobiology Program, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Status Report
Planetary Science Decadal Survey Newsletter #7
Dear Colleague: This is the seventh newsletter to the community regarding the planetary science decadal survey.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Interstellar, Origin & Evolution of Life, People Of Astrobiology, Press Release
Scientists find clues that the path leading to the origin of life begins in deep space
Duplicating the harsh conditions of cold interstellar space in the laboratory, scientists from The Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA’s Ames Research Center and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release
Researchers Discover Extraterrestrial Gases in Buckyballs
Extraterrestrial gases, including helium, are trapped in “buckyball” molecules in a layer of sedimentary clay found in many places on Earth, according to a paper to be published March 28, […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Astronomy & Telescopes, Intelligence & Language, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues, Status Report
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) 1997
Over the past two decades there has developed an increasingly serious debate about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life. More recently, there have been significant deliberations about ways in which […]