Editor’s note: When we start to mount Astrobiology missions to explore ocean worlds we’ll need ways for our robotic submersibles to observe and interact with whatever life forms they may […]
Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Orbital Biosignature Assays: FLEX Photosynthesis Satellite Fueled
[ESA] Europe’s newest eye on the health of Earth’s vegetation has taken another crucial step towards orbit – the European Space Agency’s FLEX satellite has been fueled at Europe’s Spaceport […]
Posted inIcy Worlds
The Role of Disruptive Impacts on Ocean Generation and Longevity in Icy Moons
[Nature Astronomy] Among icy moons of the outer Solar System, subsurface water oceans and large collisions both seem to be common, but the impact of the latter on the presence […]
![(Top) Measured OC albedo values from Goldstone (from Table 4) and (bottom) measured OC albedo values from the GBT (from Table 5). The horizontal dashed lines indicate the weighted means of the albedos, which is 0.90 for Goldstone and 0.80 for GBT. The error bars on our albedo values are taken to be the total uncertainty calculated in Section 4. The color bar on the right shows the dates of our observations in YYMMDD. The x-axis is the subradar point west longitude. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Radar-observations.png?resize=1200%2C751&ssl=1)
Posted inEuropa
Radar Observations Of Europa in 2011-2024: New Insights Into Radar Scattering Properties
[astro-ph.EP] Three of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites – Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – are of particular scientific interest due to their icy shells and suspected subsurface oceans. However, the radar properties […]
![This illustration contrasts Earth's oceans during ancient glaciations (left) with deglacial conditions (right). Syracuse University researchers found that oceans lost oxygen not just during warm periods, but repeatedly during Earth's deepest ice ages, a pattern preserved in manganese deposits within ancient seafloor rock. (Courtesy: Xubin Wang, generated with AI)-- [Syracuse University]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Metal-deposits.jpg?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology
Metal Deposits Linked To Oceanic Oxygen Loss During Ancient Ice Ages
[Syracuse University] An international team of researchers analyzed manganese and other chemical signatures preserved in more than 27,000 ancient seafloor samples collected from six continents. Across six major glaciations spanning […]
Posted inVenus
The Lost Oceans Of Venus
[Earth and Planetary Science Letters] Whether Venus once had oceans and, if so, when it lost them are critical issues in the understanding of habitability on exoplanets, as well as […]
Posted inAnalog Studies
Astrobiology In A Mesophilic Tropical Country: A Database And A Review Of Analog Environments In Brazil
[Life Sciences in Space Research] Astrobiological analog environments comprise Earth-based environments that share similarities with a target setting (another planetary body or Precambrian Earth conditions) and whose defining features influence […]
Posted inMissions & Hardware
Planetary Recon: Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys
[NASA] This proposal explores a new class of reconnaissance spacecraft that map minerals from orbit using Raman spectroscopy during high-speed flybys–without landing, sample return, or extended dwell. Editor’s note: for […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Orbital Biosignature Assay: Pyramid Lake in Bloom
[NASA] The OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on the Landsat 9 satellite acquired this natural-color image of the bloom in October 2024. One day earlier, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe noted […]
![(a) Schematic of Europan ice-ocean system [related image in 11]. (b) Map of sea surface temperature (◦C) showing the transition between the temperature-stratified North Atlantic Ocean and the salt-stratified Arctic Ocean; (c) Potential temperature (left) and salinity (right) profiles with depth from location near the North Pole. Different water-mass characteristics are labeled. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/What-can.png?resize=1200%2C582&ssl=1)
Posted inWater/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
What Can Planetary Ice Shells Teach Us about Ocean Mixing and Life, and Why Salt Matters
[astro-ph.EP] Past and present climates, both on Earth and in planetary systems, maintain ice covers with underlying oceans. This can range from sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to global […]