Gaia - Planetary Perspectives Archives - Page 5 of 36

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Comets and Asteroids, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

The Zhamanshin Impact Event: Potential Implications for Environmental Responses and Biological Linkages on Earth and Beyond

by Keith CowingApril 7, 2026April 7, 2026

At least one large-body (diameter > 1.1 km) hypervelocity cratering event occurred during ~ 0.8-0.90 Ma (Zhamanshin, Kazakhstan) in the Middle Pleistocene Transition period.

Height scales of atmospheres of Solar System’s terrestrial planets. The solid lines show the temperature profiles against altitude, while the background colour reflects the atmospheric pressure. Horizontal dashed lines denote the average positions of atmospheric boundaries: tropopause (“t”), stratopause (“s”), and mesopause (“m”). Vertical cyan lines depict the extension of ionospheres (“i”) under typical conditions. The “⊙” symbol denotes the 100 mbar level. -- Space Science Reviews via PubMed

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Upper Atmosphere Dynamics and Drivers of Volatiles Loss from Terrestrial-Type (Exo)Planets

by Keith CowingApril 6, 2026April 6, 2026

Volatile loss from exoplanetary atmospheres and its possible implications for the longevity of habitable surface conditions is a topic of vigorous debate currently.

Artist’s impression showing possible choices for the scale of human involvement in the future of Mars.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Mars, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Research Roadmap For Assessing The Feasibility Of Warming Mars

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2026April 3, 2026

This roadmap outlines research pathways to determine whether Mars could be warmed with non-biological methods. It does not presuppose that warming Mars is desirable; its purpose is to identify what […]

A schematic diagram of the hycean Lotka-Volterra model we implement in this work. The schematic shows how various parameters in our model are connected in a vertical, one-dimensional water column.

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Proxima Centauri, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ecological Modelling Of Hycean Worlds

by Keith CowingMarch 25, 2026

New observations are opening the possibility of characterising habitable environments in exoplanetary systems, with the recent example of the candidate hycean world K2-18 b.

Paleopoles based on averages of sample Virtual Geomagnetic Poles (VGPs) rather than site VGPs.

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

Study Shows Movement Of Tectonic Plates 3.5 Billion Years Ago

by Keith CowingMarch 24, 2026March 24, 2026

The history of the Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates.

A diagram depicting habitable zone boundaries across star type with rocky exoplanets from Bohl et al. (2026). The boundaries of the habitable zone shift based on star colour, since different wavelengths of light will heat a planet's atmosphere differently. Credit Gillis Lowry / Pablo Carlos Budassi Licence type Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Gaia Mission, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, People Of Astrobiology, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Where To Find Other Earths? New List Narrows Down The Targets

by Keith CowingMarch 20, 2026March 20, 2026

New Cornell research – co-authored by an undergraduate and two recent alumni – will help exoplanet scientists pinpoint the most likely places to look for life in the universe out […]

Strength of key long-term feedbacks governing Earth’s climate system (D. S. Abbot 2016; D. D. B. Koll & T. W. Cronin 2018; C. W. Arnscheidt & D. H. Rothman 2020; P. Forster et al. 2021). Each bar represents the feedback parameter in W m−2 K−1, estimated from Earth system model assessments and paleoclimate constraints. The upper axis shows the approximate feedback strength associated with a 50 K climate perturbation, representative of transitions between major states (e.g., snowball to temperate). Feedbacks are sorted by magnitude. Negative values (blue) represent stabilizing feedback that dampens temperature changes, while positive values (orange) indicate destabilizing feedback that amplifies them. Outgoing longwave radiation and the carbonate–silicate cycle are among the strongest stabilizing processes, while the ice–albedo feedback exerts a strong destabilizing influence. Models incorporating the three dominant types of feedback explain the general behavior of Earth’s long-term mean climate. -- The Planetary Science Journal

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Not Earth-like Yet Temperate? More Generic Climate Feedback Configurations Still Allow Temperate Climates in Habitable Zone Exo-Earth Candidates

by Keith CowingMarch 20, 2026March 20, 2026

Earth’s climate is influenced by over a dozen types of feedback, but only three dominate its long-term climate behavior. Models of the exoplanet habitable zone (HZ) assume that this is […]

The researchers focused on exceptionally well-preserved sedimentary rocks deposited on ancient seafloors in what is now southern Sweden. Credit Unil

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Refining The Clock Of Earth’s Early Complex Animal Life

by Keith CowingMarch 18, 2026March 18, 2026

How can we measure time more than 500 million years into the past? A study recently published in Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Lausanne presents a new […]

Life-friendly moon -- A realistic depiction of a free-floating gas giant planet and its Earth-like moon © Dahlbüdding/DALL-E

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

Conditions Suitable For Life On Distant Moons

by Keith CowingMarch 16, 2026March 16, 2026

Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could exist far from any sun. A research team from the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS […]

Graphical abstract -- University of Waterloo

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Do Extreme Environments Shape Microbial Genomes?

by Keith CowingMarch 14, 2026March 14, 2026

Evolutionary biologists have long known that DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all organisms, contains a record of ancestry. Indeed, […]