Monterey Bay Aquarium biologists worked alongside MBARI's skilled submersible pilots to gently collect animals for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's groundbreaking deep-sea exhibition, Into the Deep/En lo Profundo. Image: George Matsumoto ©2026 MBARI

Analog Studies, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ocean Planet Recon: MBARI and Monterey Bay Aquarium Complete Expedition to Guide Seamount

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2026June 2, 2026

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 […]

Image shows microscopic marine plankton, which are larger in size and went extinct. Credit Brian Huber Smithsonian

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Impact events, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Pioneering Research Sheds New Light On What Shaped Extinction Pattern Of Prehistoric Marine Life – And Size Clearly Mattered

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2026June 2, 2026

Scientists have shown conclusively for the first time that tiny marine organisms in polar oceans survived the mass extinction event that wiped out prehistoric dinosaurs because they needed less energy […]

Astrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Education and Outreach, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

NWA Citizen Science Call 2026 (Astrobiology, Origin of life, Biosignatures)

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2026June 2, 2026

Dear all, We would like to draw your attention to the NWA Citizen Science Call 2026. This call offers citizen collectives the opportunity to investigate a societal question together with […]

Top: coma maps of H2O, CO2, and CH4, computed as the molecular column density from a pixel-by-pixel retrieval analysis for Observations 6, 15, and 6, respectively. The sunward and target velocity directions are denoted by the white arrows. The target centroids, computed as the photocenter in the median-stacked images (Figure 1), are marked with the black points. For H2O and CO2, the white contours correspond to emission levels of 50% and 20% relative to the maximum value and illustrate the slight antisunward extension of the respective comae. The contours are omitted in the CH4 panel, due to the poorer signal-to-noise ratio of the data. Bottom: corresponding median-stacked images across the continuum wavelengths within each fluorescence region. The H2O coma map shows a significant enhancement in the emission level at large nucleocentric distances relative to the dust continuum, indicating extended H2O production within the coma. -- The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Webb Detects Methane on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2026June 2, 2026

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has collected its first mid-infrared chemical fingerprint of an interstellar object during a recent revisit to comet 3I/ATLAS. The team’s results published recently in The […]

The changing mantle FeO and SiO2 of 8 Earth analogues as they grow through the simulation. The black dashed line and the grey band show the BSE concentrations of FeO and SiO2 (Palme and O’Neill, 2003) and the uncertainties on these values. The left-hand figure contains an insert that allows for a clearer view of the point at which the embryo masses reach 1 Earth Mass. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release

Oxidation Constraints On Terrestrial Planet Formation From A Ring

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2026June 2, 2026

The present-day solar system comprises meteorites with varying oxidation levels, derived from different parent bodies.

An artist rendering of the Curiosity rover with its scientific instruments labeled. Scientists used the Chemistry and Minerology (CheMin) instrument to perform X-ray diffraction analysis on samples of powdered rock. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Tricorders & Sensors

NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate

by Keith CowingJune 1, 2026June 1, 2026

While NASA imagery has shown evidence of ancient rivers and lakes on Mars that transitioned to dry dunes, uncertainty remains over the timing of the environmental changes that may have […]

Depiction of Magnicornaspis garwoodi gen. et sp. nov. USNM PAL 801575. A Complete specimen. Boxes with solid lines show close ups C and D. Boxes with dotted lines show areas that were imaged using SEM and EDS maps in Figs. 3 and 4. B Line drawing of specimen. C Close up of cephalon showing hypertrophied spine. D Close up of pygidium, showing terminal spine. E Reconstruction of Magnicornaspis garwoodi gen. et sp. nov. (A, C, D) under flash photography. Abbreviations: On: optical notch. T: thoracic tergite. Numbers (1–7) indicate thoracic tergite numbers -- BMC Biology

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Forgotten Fossil Helps Rewrite Part Of Animal Evolution

by Keith CowingJune 1, 2026June 1, 2026

New research helps to fill in questions about the so-called “Furongian gap” from about 497 million to 485 million years ago, when palaeontologists previously thought there were far fewer fossils […]

Panels show: A, B MAG magnetic field amplitude and vector;

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Mars, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics

A Surprising Phenomenon Found In NASA Data From Mars

by Keith CowingJune 1, 2026June 1, 2026

Data beamed back from Mars by the NASA spacecraft MAVEN provides the first evidence that a phenomenon protecting planets from solar winds can occur in the atmospheres of worlds that […]

This plot shows currently known exoplanets, with different categories highlighted. Roman will help fill in the bottom-right of the plot by finding small worlds in large orbits. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

NASA’s Roman Mission Preps to Unveil New Populations of Faraway Worlds

by Keith CowingMay 29, 2026May 29, 2026

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is poised to make a major leap in the hunt for worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. Scientists expect the mission to […]

Adsorption of crystals of a biological chiral molecule onto a gold-coated cobalt surface. Larger crystals of one specific form of the molecule (left) tend to accumulate on this surface to a greater degree than those of its mirror-image form (right). In the left image, the crystals reach heights of about 1.2 nm, whereas in the right image they do not exceed 0.8 nm. The physical advantage of one form over the other in accumulating on the magnetic surface suggests that, in a competitive setting, it would become the dominant (“winning”) form. -- Weizmann Institute of Science

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

A Glimpse At The Origins Of Life Through A Deceptive Mirror

by Keith CowingMay 29, 2026May 29, 2026

Imagine looking at yourself in the mirror, only to find that your reflection is governed by different laws than you are: Identical movements produce different outcomes, and what seems like […]

Press Release

Ocean Planet Recon: MBARI and Monterey Bay Aquarium Complete Expedition to Guide Seamount

Pioneering Research Sheds New Light On What Shaped Extinction Pattern Of Prehistoric Marine Life – And Size Clearly Mattered

NWA Citizen Science Call 2026 (Astrobiology, Origin of life, Biosignatures)

Webb Detects Methane on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Oxidation Constraints On Terrestrial Planet Formation From A Ring

NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate

Forgotten Fossil Helps Rewrite Part Of Animal Evolution

A Surprising Phenomenon Found In NASA Data From Mars

NASA’s Roman Mission Preps to Unveil New Populations of Faraway Worlds

A Glimpse At The Origins Of Life Through A Deceptive Mirror

NASA ExoExplorers Program: Call For ExoGuide Nominations

Wavelength Requirements for Life Detection via Reflected Light Spectroscopy of Rocky Exoplanets

JWST Cycle 6 Call for Proposals Policy Update [China]

Transit Searches for Habitable-Zone Exoplanets with Artificial Intelligence

Leveraging Impact Parameter to Mitigate the Transit Light Source Effect: Early Insights from TRAPPIST-1

Rocky Worlds DDT Workshop

Voyager 1 Reaches One Light Day From Earth

Hayabusa Symposium 2026

HWO2026 (Habitable Worlds Observatory)

2nd European Interstellar Symposium