[SwRI] A Southwest Research Institute-led study used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third object from beyond our solar system […]
astrogeology
2026 LPL Evening Lecture Series: Dr. Dante Lauretta: Bennu’s Ancient Waters: Asteroid Samples and the Chemical Origins of Life
Nov. 4, 2026, 7 – 8 p.m. Where Kuiper Space Sciences, Room 308 and Zoom Dr. Dante Lauretta Regents Professor, Department of Planetary Sciences Director, Arizona Astrobiology Center University of […]
![Elevation map (km) and 10 m-wind vectors at midday (left) and sunflower wind chart over one Titan Day at the red dot location (right).-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Mesoscale.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inTitan
Mesoscale Modelling Of Titan’s Shangri-La region: The Impact Of Surface Properties On Winds
[astro-ph.EP] The knowledge of Titan’s near-surface atmosphere is sparse. The Huygens descent probe measured winds, and the multiple dune field observations and possible dust storms suggest active near-surface dynamics.
![Global map of Enceladus with color and contours indicating the estimated heat flux (in mWm−2 ) calculated from maps of shell thickness [Hemingway and Mittal, 2019]. Our results (Table 1) are plotted as lines using the same color scale as the background. Green labeled boxes show other estimates [Giese et al., 2008; Bland et al., 2012, 2007; Leonard et al., 2021] of paleo-heat fluxes using similar methods.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Paleoheat.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inEnceladus
Paleo-heat Flux Estimates Across Enceladus Derived From Flexural Response Of The Ice Shell
[astro-ph.EP] Saturn’s moon Enceladus has active plumes suggestive of locally high heat fluxes at present, and the present-day heating is reasonably well characterized. However, the moon’s thermal history is not […]
![Illustration of the spatial distribution and proposed origin of the molecular species discussed in this work, including the tentative FeS emission. Left: H2O v2 = 1 and NaCl emission maps toward Orion SrcI reported by A. Ginsburg et al. (2018). Right: schematic view of the proposed distinction between species associated with the outflow and those tracing the disk midplane, based on the results presented here (Table 1) and those of A. Ginsburg et al. (2018, 2019). -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Tentative-Detection.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Tentative Detection of FeS toward Orion SrcI
[astro-ph.GA] Iron sulfide (FeS) is a key refractory compound in astrophysical environments. It is commonly found in meteorites and evidence of FeS has only been reported in solid form in […]
Posted inIcy Worlds
Isobaric Crystallization of Aqueous Magnesium Chloride Solutions at Icy Moon Conditions
[ACS] Subsurface oceans inside icy moons are expected to contain dissolved salts whose crystallization controls the mineralogy of their hydrospheres and potentially their surfaces.
Posted inInterstellar
Assessment Of The Mass Loss And Radius Change Of 3I/ATLAS Based On Observed Production Rates
[astro-ph.EP] Formed from the debris of planet formation, interstellar comets provide invaluable insights into the chemical compositions of planetary systems outside of our Solar System.
![Image credit: Izraelevitz et al. 2024 - -[astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/The-science.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inVenus
The Science Case For An In-situ Measurement Platform In The Venus Clouds
[astro-ph.IM] The next step for Venus exploration after the remote sensing missions of the early 2030s will be in-situ aerial platforms, the Venus equivalent of rovers for Mars.
Posted inBiophysics
Water As We’ve Never Known It: Testing Water Beyond Earth-like Conditions
[UNLV] Water isn’t always as it seems. Under extreme conditions, such as those found on other planets, it has been discovered to change its atomic structure, giving it the means […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Identifying Deformed Exoplanets With JWST And Ariel: A Target Selection Metric For Phase Curve Observations
[astro-ph.EP] The shape of an exoplanet encodes fundamental information about its internal structure. For close-in giant planets, strong stellar tidal forces induce measurable deformations that can be probed through high-precision […]