Gaia - Planetary Perspectives Archives - Page 13 of 36

This image acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission – by its Ocean and Land Colour Instrument – shows high concentrations of chlorophyll in yellow-green along the coastline of South Australia, near Adelaide. Chlorophyll-a is a key indicator of the presence of algae in the ocean. Larger image

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Orbital Biosignature Recon: Algae Bloom Chlorophyll Near South Australia

by Keith CowingSeptember 4, 2025September 4, 2025

Editor’s note: with the future advent of powerful telescopes that may be able to resolve habitable worlds in images composed of a few pixels, large biological phenomena such as algal […]

Air sampling during a dust storm. Credit: Naama Lang-Yona

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Microgravity, Press Release, Science Fiction

Desert Storm Dust Transport Of Bacteria (Implications For Arrakis and Mars)

by Keith CowingAugust 23, 2025August 23, 2025

How do living bacteria survive on the surface of dust particles carried by desert storms from the Sahara and Egypt to Israel?

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an X1.5 solar flare peaking at 7:44 am EDT on May 11, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares created from a mixture of SDO’s AIA 193, 171 and 131 channels. -- larger image NASA

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics

As Earth’s Atmosphere Changes, So Will Its Response To Geomagnetic Storms

by Keith CowingAugust 17, 2025

Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change the way geomagnetic storms impact Earth, with potential implications for thousands of orbiting satellites, according to new research led […]

Snapshots of a cross-sectional slice of a head-on collision between a non-rotating Venus and a 0.1 M⊕ impactor at 10 km s−1 . shown at multiple time steps. Initial energy deposition at the impact site generates pressure waves that converge at the antipode, causing significant heating and deformation. The outcome of this collisions is a merger. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Status Report, Venus

The Possibility Of A Giant Impact On Venus

by Keith CowingAugust 8, 2025August 8, 2025

Giant impacts were common in the early evolution of the Solar System, and it is possible that Venus also experienced an impact. A giant impact on Venus could have affected […]

(A) Sampling information and morphological characteristics of 11 deep-sea species. These samples were captured from depths ranging between 1,218 and 7,730 m, spanning locations from the Mariana Trench to the Middle Indian Ocean by the manned submersible “Shenhai Yongshi (Deep-Sea Warrior)” and the manned submersible “Fendouzhe (Striver)” as well as the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) “TIAN YA (Skyline)” during our expeditions aboard the mothership TAN SUO YI HAO (exploration I) and TAN SUO ER HAO (exploration II).

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Revealing The Evolutionary Marvels In Earth’s Deepest Oceans

by Keith CowingAugust 5, 2025August 5, 2025

The deep sea, covering approximately 65% of Earth’s surface, has long been considered a biological desert. In this extreme environment—particularly in the hadal zone at depths greater than 6,000 meters—organisms […]

Conceptual diagram of the theory of multi-spheric interaction-driven hydrocarbon formation and enrichment. Credit ©Science China Press

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Press Release

Biogeochemistry: How Our Planet Forms Hydrocarbons Deep Inside

by Keith CowingJuly 23, 2025July 23, 2025

The multi-spheric structure of the Earth forms its skeleton, and the geological molten fluids constitute its blood. Its essence is the cross-spheric migration and redistribution of volatiles (e.g., carbon, hydrogen, […]

Transit spectra of the best fit non-equilibrium 1D model at resolution 200 (black solid line). This is the approximate best fit on the simulated grid of metallicity, C/O and Kzz. Values are respectively 280.7, 90.0 and 106 cm2 .s−1 . It is compare to K2-18 b observation (Madhusudhan et al. 2023) low resolution representation with an offset of -41ppm between NIRISS and NIRSpec data. The contributions of considered molecules are represented with shaded colors. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Unraveling The Non-equilibrium Chemistry Of The Temperate Sub-Neptune K2-18 b

by Keith CowingJuly 22, 2025July 22, 2025

The search for habitable, Earth-like exoplanets faces major observational challenges due to their small size and faint signals.

Graphical Abstract -- Bar-Ilan University

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

RNA Viruses May Differentially Shape Carbon Recycling In The Ocean

by Keith CowingJuly 17, 2025July 17, 2025

A new study by researchers at Bar-Ilan University has uncovered that certain ocean viruses—specifically RNA viruses—may disrupt how carbon and nutrients are recycled in the ocean, potentially altering the global […]

Marine invertebrate extinction rate (grey circles) and the large igneous provinces which correlate with major extinction events (labelled, after Clapham and Renne78). -- Nature Communications

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Fossilized Oysters Hold The Key To Mass Extinction

by Keith CowingJuly 15, 2025July 14, 2025

In the first and only reconstruction of ocean pH ever carried out, new research from the University of St Andrews and the University of Birmingham has discovered that a rapid […]