For years, scientists have assumed that there are oceans of water beneath the ice covers on the moons Enceladus and Europa. Even in outer space, the presence of water can […]
![Fraction of different types of planets formed around stars in a grid with varying [Fe/H] and M∗. In order to form giant planets and super-Earths we require either a high metallicity or a high stellar mass. Further, water-rich planets are more common around stars with higher metallicities and stellar mass as these stars can sustain a high enough pebble flux outside the water ice line to form water-rich planets there. Earth-mass planets dominate for all metallicities and stellar masses as they do not require a high pebble flux in order to form. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/planetformation.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
As stellar compositions evolve over time in the Milky Way, so will the resulting planet populations. In order to place planet formation in the context of Galactic chemical evolution, we […]
A weak absorption feature at 2.07 μm on Europa’s trailing hemisphere has been suggested to arise from radiolytic processing of an endogenic salt, possibly sourced from the interior ocean.
Understanding the set of conditions that allow rocky planets to have liquid water on their surface — in the form of lakes, seas or oceans — is a major scientific […]
Life on Earth relies on mechanisms to store heritable information and translate this information into cellular machinery required for biological activity. In all known life, storage, regulation, and translation are […]
Context. The long-term evolution of an atmosphere and the remote detectability of its chemical constituents are susceptible to how the atmospheric gas responds to stellar irradiation. The response remains poorly […]
A new ecosystem has been discovered in volcanic cavities beneath hydrothermal vents at a well-studied undersea volcano on the East Pacific Rise off Central America.
Earth-like planets orbiting M-dwarf stars, M-Earths, are currently the best targets to search for signatures of life. Life as we know it requires water. The habitability of M-Earths is jeopardized […]
Editor’s note: When we send robotic submersibles and rovers to other worlds to search for life in remote and hostile environments, we’re going to our droids to be as smart […]
High up in the Himalayas, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Niigata University, Japan, have discovered droplets of water trapped in mineral deposits that were likely left […]
