Panspermia Archives

Example of alt-azimuth grid overlay on the Heredia dashboard camera video. Perspective lines on the road define the position of the horizon, and the orientation of a lamp post in different video frames (white lines left, slightly bend halfway up) and features on buildings (right) defines the rotation to normal. The flare elevation (assuming an altitude of 25.1 km) defines the scale. In this case, the camera's central azimuth changed over time and the meteor path in the central frame shown was adjusted using the meteor wake as guidance. -- astro-ph.EP

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Status Report

Orbit, Meteoroid Size, And Cosmic Ray Exposure History Of The Aguas Zarcas CM2 Breccia

by Keith CowingApril 2, 2025April 2, 2025

The Aguas Zarcas (Costa Rica) CM2 carbonaceous chondrite fell during night time in April 2019. Security and dashboard camera video of the meteor were analyzed to provide a trajectory, lightcurve, […]

The Expose-R2 facility on the International Space Station. As part of ESA’s Expose-R2 project, 46 species of bacteria, fungi and arthropods are inside those containers as they spend 18 months bolted to the outside of the International Space Station. The vacuum of space is sucking out the water, oxygen and other gases in the samples. Their temperature can drop to –12°C as the Station passes through Earth’s shadow, rising to 40°C at other times, and undergoing a similar process to the freeze-drying used to preserve foods. The Expose experiments are exploring the limits of terrestrial life, whether the organisms can survive in space and how the full blast of solar radiation is affecting accompanying chemicals. -- ESA (larger image)

Analog Studies, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Microgravity, Missions & Hardware, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Space Stations, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors

ISS Astrobiology Research: Photochemical Evolution of Alanine in Association with the Martian Soil Analog Montmorillonite

by Keith CowingMarch 30, 2025March 30, 2025

The Photochemistry on the Space Station (PSS) experiment was part of the European Space Agency’s EXPOSE-R2 mission and was conducted on the International Space Station from 2014 to 2016. The […]

The radiants in RA and Dec of the 472 fastest (vhel ≧ 44 km s−1 ) events along with the radiants of some known meteor showers and some relevant fiducial directions such as the Galactic Center. For the showers, the 10 most active annual IAU meteors showers that are seen by GMN (that is, that contain significant mm sized particles) and that have in-atmosphere speeds below 50 km/s. Directional values: the position of the Galactic Center (Reid & Brunthaler 2004); the Solar apex with respect to the Local Standard of Rest (LSR) (Jaschek & Valbousquet 1992); the Solar apex with respect to the Galactic frame (Solar Galactic Apex); and the interstellar dust (ISD) influx direction into the Solar System as reported by spacecraft Cassini, Ulysses, and Galileo, due to the motion of the Solar System through the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) (Sterken et al. 2012). No strong signature of the Galaxy or of meteor showers is seen. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

An Upper Limit on the Interstellar Meteoroid Flux at Video Sizes from the Global Meteor Network

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Material arriving at our solar system from the Galaxy may be detected at Earth in the form of meteors ablating in our atmosphere. Here we report on a search for […]

The “HCN machine”: Geological, atmospheric, meteoritic, and chemical processes synthesizing the building blocks of life on the Hadean Earth (artist’s impression, own creation, © Klaus Paschek).

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Deep Mantle-Atmosphere Coupling And Carbonaceous Bombardment: Options For Biomolecule Formation On Aan Oxidized Early Earth

by Keith CowingMarch 21, 2025March 21, 2025

Understanding what environmental conditions prevailed on early Earth during the Hadean eon, and how this set the stage for the origins of life, remains a challenge.

2-dimensional illustrations for the on-sky locations (α, δ) for the first, discovery, and last images of the LSST discoveries with 13 ≤ H ≤ 14 for qs = 2.8 for all years (top row), odd rolling years (middle row) and even rolling years (bottom row). This excludes Year 2 of the simulation, which only deploys a rolling cadence over half of the survey footprint. The white star indicates the Solar Apex and the thin white line indicates the galactic plane. A sample of the observations for 10 ISOs is shown in the last column: the first, discovery, and last observations are connected by straight lines of random colour and the last observation is marked by a white dot to indicate the direction of motion. — astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Interstellar, Panspermia, Status Report

The Visibility of the Ōtautahi-Oxford Interstellar Object Population Model in LSST

by Keith CowingFebruary 25, 2025February 25, 2025

With a new probabilistic technique for sampling interstellar object (ISO) orbits with high efficiency, we assess the observability of ISOs under a realistic cadence for the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory’s […]

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Interstellar, Panspermia, Status Report

Configuration of Single Giant Planet Systems Generating `Oumuamua-Like Interstellar Asteroids

by Keith CowingFebruary 6, 2025July 12, 2025

The first discovered interstellar small object, `Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1), presents unique physical properties of extremely elongated geometric shape and dual characteristics of an asteroid and a comet.

α Cen’s orbit about the Galactic Centre viewed on the xy and yz planes (top row), as well as the orbits of the ejecta from α Cen viewed in a comoving frame (bottom row). Our Sun (Sol) is marked by a black hexagon and its orbital path indicated by a grey solid line (top row only). α Cen’s location and path are shown by a yellow star and blue solid line (top row only). In the bottom row, the comoving frame follows α Cen around its orbit while maintaining its orientation with the y-axis pointing towards the Galactic Centre (blue arrow) and α Cen’s velocity pointing in the -x direction (black arrow). This still frame is taken at t ≈ 3, 000 yr (that is, +3,000 years from the current epoch) after ∼ 100 Myr of integration. The colours of the ejecta represent the 3rd dimension of position, except that any particle that will at any point come within 100, 000 au of Sol are plotted in red. The full animation is available in the HTML version of this publication which shows the time evolution from t ≈ −100 Myr to t ≈ 10 Myr. The duration of the animation is 11 s. https://youtu.be/YABoYgNKr-I -- astro-ph.EP

Alpha Centauri, Comets and Asteroids, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Panspermia, Press Release

A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri

by Keith CowingFebruary 6, 2025February 6, 2025

Interstellar material has been discovered in our Solar System, yet its origins and details of its transport are unknown. Here we present α Centauri as a case study of the […]

Astronaut Suni Williams conducts an EVA on 30 January 2025.-- NASA TV

Away Teams & Field Reports, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Microgravity, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Radiation, Space Life Science, Space Stations, Status Report

Astronauts Swab The Space Station’s Exterior For Microbes (Update)

by Keith CowingJanuary 30, 2025January 30, 2025

UPDATE: Astronaut Suni Williams conducted this EVA on 30 January 2025. Earlier post: Astronauts are scheduled to venture outside the International Space Station to collect microbiological samples during crew spacewalks […]

The phylogenetic placement of novel bacterial taxa identified in this study. Phylogenetic trees (A-J) were constructed using a set of available marker sequences. The central tree of life indicates the position of novel species in the bacterial tree of life. Novel species and the outgroups are highlighted in red and blue, respectively, and their corresponding NCBI accessions are provided. biorxiv.org

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Missions & Hardware, Panspermia, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Status Report

Unveiling Hidden Microbial Diversity in Mars 2020 Mission Assembly Cleanrooms with Molecular Insights into the Persistent and Perseverance of Novel Species Defying Metagenome Sequencing

by Keith CowingJanuary 29, 2025January 29, 2025

Due to strict cleaning procedures and nutrient-scarce conditions, aerospace industrial cleanrooms – which are essential for assembling space mission components – contain low microbial burdens but are tough to eradicate.

Mars Sample Tube Awaiting A Ride To Earth -- NASA

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Panspermia, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Status Report

Mars Sample Return: From Collection To Curation Of Samples From A Habitable World

by Keith CowingJanuary 26, 2025January 26, 2025

NASA’s Mars 2020 mission has initiated collection of samples from Mars’ Jezero Crater, which has a wide range of ancient rocks and rock types from lavas to lacustrine sedimentary rocks. […]

Panspermia

Orbit, Meteoroid Size, And Cosmic Ray Exposure History Of The Aguas Zarcas CM2 Breccia

ISS Astrobiology Research: Photochemical Evolution of Alanine in Association with the Martian Soil Analog Montmorillonite

An Upper Limit on the Interstellar Meteoroid Flux at Video Sizes from the Global Meteor Network

Deep Mantle-Atmosphere Coupling And Carbonaceous Bombardment: Options For Biomolecule Formation On Aan Oxidized Early Earth

The Visibility of the Ōtautahi-Oxford Interstellar Object Population Model in LSST

Configuration of Single Giant Planet Systems Generating `Oumuamua-Like Interstellar Asteroids

A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri

Astronauts Swab The Space Station’s Exterior For Microbes (Update)

Unveiling Hidden Microbial Diversity in Mars 2020 Mission Assembly Cleanrooms with Molecular Insights into the Persistent and Perseverance of Novel Species Defying Metagenome Sequencing

Mars Sample Return: From Collection To Curation Of Samples From A Habitable World

ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) I: Overview

RNA And Proteins Joined Up At The Origins Of Life: Persistence Is The Point

Selection For Growth Drives The Emergence Of Genetic Heredity In Protocells

NASA SMD ROSES-25 Amendment 65: New Opportunity: C.4 Planetary Science Enabling Facilities

TESS Photometry and Radial Velocity Analysis of the sub-Neptune Exoplanet π Mensae c and the Wider π Mensae Planetary System