Earth was not always the blue-green world we know today: the early Earth’s oxygen levels were about a million times lower than we now experience. There were no forests and […]
However, traditional atmospheric retrieval frameworks are too computationally intensive to explore the high-dimensional parameter spaces such missions will generate.
Understanding where and in what quantities essential elements for life have existed on Earth’s surface helps explain the origin and evolution of life. Phosphorus (P) is one such element, forming […]
Molybdenum (Mo) is an essential nutrient for most living organisms, serving as a cofactor in a diverse array of molybdoenzymes that catalyze key reactions in several elemental cycles.
This chapter explores the key carbon compounds that shaped the Archean biogeochemical cycle, delineating their substantial impact on Earth’s primordial atmospheric and biospheric evolution.
The upcoming extremely large telescopes will provide the first opportunity to search for signs of habitability and life on non-transiting terrestrial exoplanets using high-contrast, high-resolution instrumentation.
It is widely believed that Earth’s atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers, […]
Archean atmospheric evolution is the transition from an abiological atmosphere, to an atmosphere for which the composition and therefore climate is highly altered by life. We review the key processes […]
Telescope missions are currently being designed which will make direct imaging of habitable exoplanets possible in the near future, and studies are needed to quantify the detectability of biosignature features […]
By Emma Caton — In the depths of remote Antarctic lakes, communities of microorganisms are thriving where few life forms can survive.
