The crew of Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) discovered four underwater mountains — the tallest of which is over 1.5 miles high — on a January transit from […]
ROVs/Submersibles/Diving
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Iron-sulfur Minerals Bear Witness To The Earliest Life On Earth
A team of researchers at the Universities of Tübingen and Göttingen has found that certain minerals with characteristic shapes could indicate the activity of bacteria in hydrothermal vents – or […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Tricorders & Sensors
Expedition To The Atacama Trench: Thinking Ahead To Enceladus and Europa
The Atacama in northern Chile is the oldest and driest desert on Earth. While tectonic activity reconfigured the shape and arrangement of land masses over the last 150 million years, […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors
Tricorder Tech: A.I. / Machine Learning: Adaptive Sampling With PIXL On Mars Perseverance
Editor’s note: From the paper’s Introduction: “At the time of this writing, PIXL’s adaptive sampling capability has been operating on Mars for over 951 sols (martian days), with over 52 […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Offworld Away Team Analog: New Opportunities and Untapped Scientific Potential in Earth’s Abyssal Ocean
The abyssal ocean covers more than half of the Earth’s surface, yet remains understudied and underappreciated. In this Perspectives article, we mark the occasion of the Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin’s […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
New Technologies Revise Our Understanding Of Oxygen Minimum Zones
A new technology detects trace amounts of oxygen in an environment where previously these life-supporting molecules were below the limit of detection.
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Seafloor Life Devastated Near Explosive Volcanic Eruption In Pacific
A University of Rhode Island oceanographer leading her first research cruise in the southern Pacific uncovered a surprise when her vessel looked below the waters in the Polynesian nation of […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
A Fresh Take On The Search for Extraterrestrial Life
In the search for extraterrestrial life, we Earthlings naturally look for signs of water or the green, lush lifeforms that cover our planet. But the Universe is not just our […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Water World Dynamics: Earth’s Ocean Currents Act As An Expressway To Deeper Depths For Microorganisms
Editor’s note: as we begin to explore ocean worlds – which may be inhabited – we’ll need to understand how currents and other activities within these seas – seas that […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
A Global Atlas Of Subsurface Microbiomes Reveals Phylogenetic Novelty, Large Scale Biodiversity Gradients, And A Marine-terrestrial Divide
Subsurface environments constitute one of Earth’s largest habitats for microbial life, yet differences between surface and subsurface microbiomes and between marine and terrestrial microbiomes remain unclear.