If you’ve ever seen a Starfleet away team beaming down to a new planet, you know that the first thing they do is whip out their tricorder and scan everything. […]
Imaging & Spectroscopy
Posted inExploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Polar / Alpine Expeditions
Everest Update: The Highest GigaPan Panoramas Ever Taken On Earth’s Surface
On 20 May 2009 astronaut Scott Parazynski became the first person to have both travelled in space and to stand atop the summit of Mt. Everest. From that vantage point […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
ENDURANCE Robot Dives Into Ice-covered Lake Bonney In Antarctica
The robot that scientists deployed last year into ice-covered Lake Bonney in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys isn’t small.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Dale Andersen's Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors
In Situ Measurements of Atmospheric Methane at Lake Untersee, Antarctica
Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas in the Earth’s atmosphere, accounting for approximately 20% of the observed greenhouse effect. With an atmospheric lifetime of about ten years, methane levels […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Fossils & Paleontology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors
Kevin Hand’s Antarctic Journal 1 March 2005
Ok, well, this is it folks, one last email and then I’m on a plane back to LA. I’ve been in New Zealand for a bit and I’ve finally had […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors
Kevin Hand’s Antarctic Journal 8 February 2005
Hello again from Antarctica, Ok, well, I’m back at McMurdo Station. All went very well in the field – our instruments worked great, we collected lots of data, and had […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
What Is Life – and How Do We Search for It in Other Worlds?
I need a “tricorder”—the convenient, hand-held device featured on Star Trek that can detect life forms even from orbit. Unfortunately, we don’t have a clue how a tricorder might work, since life […]
![An artist’s depiction of our world when the Earthshine measurements were taken, enhanced to show the “red edge” from vegetation. A distant astronomer on another planet would see the spectral signatures of our oxygen atmosphere, water, and chlorophyll from land plants. [enlarge] Credit: John Walker’s “Earth Viewer,” Christine Lafon, (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics).](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2002/10/Astronomers-Find-Life-on-Earth.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Astronomers Find Life On Earth
Now that the discovery of extrasolar planets, or planets around distant stars, has become relatively routine, scientists are now tackling the next step: finding life-bearing worlds. To do this, observers […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Microbiology & Virology, Panspermia
4 Years Later … The Case For Life On Mars Withstands Criticism, Gains Support
The editors of Precambrian Research and the team that startled the scientific world in August 1996 with evidence they had found in a Martian meteorite indicating that life once existed […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Meteorites & Asteroids, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
New Report Offers Evidence of Primitive Life on Mars
A new scientific report offers compelling evidence that primitive life existed on Mars. Tiny magnetite crystals, identical to those used by aqueous bacteria on Earth as compasses to find food […]