[Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy] Raman spectroscopy has been explored for planetary exploration, particularly through the SHERLOC instrument for Mars habitability and astromaterial search tasks.
Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry
Posted inAstrochemistry
Glycine In The Interstellar Medium Revisited: Resolving Conformational Complexity Kinetically
[astro-ph.GA] Numerous attempts to detect glycine, a simple amino acid and a key building block of proteins in all life on Earth, in the interstellar medium have so far been […]
Posted inBiophysics
Balance Between Order and Disorder: Quantum-Epigenetic Pathways for the Emergence and Continuous Evolution of Life
[Acta Biotheoretica] The scientific restlessness surrounding the question of what life is (expressed in the provocations of Feynman and Schrödinger) guides this review article by integrating physics, chemistry, and biology […]
![Binding energies of CO, CO2 and NH3 on pristine and cavity-containing ice clusters consisting of 100 and 97 H2O molecules, respectively. The error bars represent the spread in adsorption energies across the three clusters. Dispersion energy as fraction of the total binding energy per species, site and functional. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/How-Small.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
How Small is Large Enough? Determining Minimal Cluster Sizes for Molecule Adsorption on Interstellar Amorphous Ice
[astro-ph.GA] Binding energies of molecules on ice mantles are important to understand the evolution of molecular complexity in molecular clouds.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Chemists Uncover How Unthinkable Reactions Occur In Unimaginable Conditions
[Florida International University] Before there was Earth, there was chemistry. In the unimaginable cold, dark clouds where stars and planets are born, carbon molecules assemble into more complex forms — […]
![Temporal evolution of selected species and D/H ratios during the cloud (top panels) and core stages (lower panels). Panels (a) and (e) show the abundances of selected species during the cloud and core stages, respectively. Solid, dashed, and dotted lines denote models with Z = 1, 0.5, and 0.2, respectively. The remaining panels show the temporal evolution of the D/H ratios and the H2 OPR for Z = 1 (b, f), Z = 0.5 (c, g), and Z = 0.2 (d, h). In all panels, time is normalized by τfreeze for the corresponding density and metallicity. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/High-water.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
High Water D/H Ratio of the Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is Consistent With a Low-metallicity Origin
[astro-ph.EP] Recent JWST observations have revealed unusually high 12C/13C ratios in carbon-bearing molecules of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, consistent with formation in a lower-metallicity environment than the present-day local interstellar […]
![Low-angle backscatter electron (LABE) imaging (Supplement 9) of sample OREX-220001-1 consisting of particles obtained from inside the SRC but exterior to the sample canister — including fragments of Bennu, SRC char, and metal. FG, fine-grained. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/OSIRIS-REx.png?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Posted inSample Return
OSIRIS-REx Returned a Pristine Sample of Asteroid Bennu: Takeaways from the Mission’s Contamination Control and Knowledge Program
[astro-ph.EP] NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission had the objective of delivering a pristine sample from asteroid (101955) Bennu to Earth for scientific analysis–where “pristine” signifies the absence of foreign materials that could […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
The Galactic Centre G+0.633-0.0604 Molecular Cloud: A New Astrochemical Gold Mine
[Astronomy and Astrophysics] Context. In the central molecular zone (CMZ) environment, shocks play a key role in both triggering star formation and providing chemical enrichment. The Sgr B2 complex is […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
The History Of Enzyme Evolution Embedded In Metabolism
[PNAS]. Whereas phylogenetic reconstructions are a primary record of protein evolution, it is unknown whether the deep history of enzymes is encoded at higher levels of biological organization.
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Structure Of An RNA polymerase Ribozyme Replication Complex
[biorxiv.org] Life began with the emergence of a molecule that could replicate its own genetic material, a task plausibly mediated by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme.