NASA Team – NASA aims to expand science across every world we visit, and human exploration of Mars in particular offers an enormous opportunity in the near future. Accordingly, our […]
Sample Return
Posted inMeteorites & Asteroids
A Glimpse of the Solar System’s Origins: Striking Details on the Molecules Inside a Meteorite
[Brookhaven National Laboratory] Researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory have teamed up to get a fresh look at the complex makeup of meteorites and […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments
Whole-Genome Metagenomics Insights Revealed a Uranium Bio-remediating Cross-Domain Microbiome in the Dhala Impact Structure, India
[biorxiv.org] Meteorite impact structures on earth represent unique terrestrial analogues of extreme planetary environments where fractured lithologies, hydrothermal alteration, elevated concentrations of radionuclides, and prolonged water-rock interactions create ecological niches […]
Posted inEnceladus
Enceladus Offers Clues In The Search For Extraterrestrial Life
[Free University Berlin] With a global ocean of liquid water below a thick crust of ice, Saturn’s moon Enceladus is one of the most promising places to search for life […]
Posted inCryobiology
Antarctica’s Only Two Flowering Plants Reveal Opposing Strategies For Surviving Long-term Warming
[Instituto de Ecologia y Biodiversidad] A team of Chilean and Spanish researchers has published in the scientific journal Physiologia Plantarum the results of one of the longest-running in situ warming […]
Posted inMoon
South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return And eXploration (SPARX) Science Definition Team Report
[astro-ph.IM] Sample return from South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) on the Moon has been recognized as the highest priority lunar science mission for well over two decades, appearing as a recommended […]
Posted inMicrobiology & Virology
Dispersal Pathways And Infection Strategies Within The Global Halophilic Virome
[ISME Communications] Microbial biogeography has recently attracted significant attention for its potential to provide novel ecological and evolutionary insights, with environmental connectivity emerging as a key factor in the global […]
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Mystery Surrounding The Formation Of Asteroid Bennu Solved
[ETH Zurich] The asteroid Bennu orbits the Sun once every 1.2 years and approaches Earth every six years, passing within around 300,000 kilometres. NASA took advantage of this to collect […]
Posted inTricorders & Sensors
Tricorder Tech: What A Spacefaring Arctic Microbe Reveals About Life in Alien Oceans
[ISS National Laboratory] It lives in places where life should not exist. In the brine channels that thread through Arctic sea ice, it survives temperatures that would freeze most bacteria […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments
Hot Spring Organism Breaks Record For Heat Tolerance Of Complex Life
[Cell Press] A tiny, single-celled organism can thrive at temperatures that would kill all other known complex life.