There is a massive, mineral-rich region in the Pacific Ocean—about twice the size of India—called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), which has already been divided up and assigned to companies for […]
Gaia – Planetary Perspectives
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Driving Action On The Climate Crisis Through Astronomers For Planet Earth And Beyond
While an astronomer’s job is typically to look out from Earth, the seriousness of the climate crisis has meant a shift in many astronomers’ focus.
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Swan Hellenic And SETI Institute Announce Partnership To Explore Space At Sea
Iconic cultural expedition cruise pioneer teams up with the SETI Institute to take its cruise guests’ explorations further and deeper, including into deep space.
Posted inGaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Staying Habitable: How An Intelligent Species Should Treat Their Planetary Ocean
Humanity’s relationship with the Ocean needs to be transformed to effectively address the multitude of governance crises facing the Ocean, including overfishing, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction.
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Gaia - Planetary Perspectives
Gaia As Solaris: An Alternative Default Evolutionary Trajectory
Now that we know that Earth-like planets are ubiquitous in the universe, as well as that most of them are much older than the Earth, it is justified to ask […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Slowdown In Earth's Rotation Could Have Affected The Oxygen Content Of Its Atmosphere
Virtually all oxygen on Earth was and is produced by photosynthesis, which was invented by tiny organisms, the cyanobacteria, when our planet was still a rather uninhabitable place.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data
We present occurrence rates for rocky planets in the habitable zones (HZ) of main-sequence dwarf stars based on the Kepler DR25 planet candidate catalog and Gaia-based stellar properties.
Posted inGaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones
Typical Climate Perturbations Unlikely to Disrupt Gaia Hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis postulates that life regulates its environment to be favorable for its own survival. Most planets experience numerous perturbations throughout their lifetimes such as asteroid impacts, volcanism, and […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Microbiology & Virology, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Press Release
Amoebae Diversified At Least 750 Million Years Ago, Far Earlier Than Expected
Brazilian researchers have reconstructed the evolutionary history of amoebae and demonstrated that at the end of the Precambrian period, at least 750 million years ago, life on Earth was much […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Moon, Press Release
Phase of the Moon affects Amount of Rainfall
When the moon is high in the sky, it creates bulges in the planet’s atmosphere that creates imperceptible changes in the amount of rain that falls below.