[astro-ph.EP] Volatile depletion in rocky planets relative to their host stars is commonplace in both the Solar System and exoplanetary systems, yet the connections between planet formation and composition remain […]
astrogeology
![Occam’s razor-based deconvolution result of the subset of signals associated with CnHmN parent and fragment species detected by the DFMS on 3 August 2015. The measured signals (measured) are given in arbitrary units (a. u.) with 30 % error margins. The different contributions of the chosen candidate molecules are colour-coded according to their molecular structure – in shades of red and purple for chain-based molecules and in shades of green and blue for cyclic molecules. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Nitrogen.png?resize=1200%2C707&ssl=1)
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Nitrogen- And Nitrogen-oxygen-bearing Organic Molecules In Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: An Untargeted Investigation
[astro-ph.EP] Comets provide a unique window into the history of the Solar System as they carry some of the best-preserved material and make it available to in situ exploration.
Posted inUncategorized
Thickly Frosted Polar Gullies On Mars
[NASA/JPL/UA]. Carbon dioxide frost from the past winter still thickly blankets this terrain imaged in early Martian spring. Dark blob-like surface markings show the initial hints at the coming defrosting […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
JWST Reveals A Race Against Time For Forming Planets
[SETI Institute] Planets form from disks of gas and dust around young stars, but the gas needed for growth does not last forever. New observations from NASA’s James Webb Space […]
Posted inTricorders & Sensors
New UC Riverside Lab Focuses on Cutting Edge Astrobiology Tools
[UC Riverside] The Planetary Geochemistry and Astrobiology Laboratory is led by Assistant Professor Fabian Klenner, a new faculty member in UCR’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. His research focuses […]
![Example of the stacking procedure for the Maidanak data obtained on 2025 August 15, based on ten 60 s exposures in each of the B, V , and R filters. Left: Comet-centered stack, showing the coma morphology without trailing of the comet signal. The pink circle indicates an aperture radius of 10 000 km. Right: Sidereal stack used for photometric calibration, in which the comet appears trailed.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-Inbound.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inComets and Asteroids
The Inbound Gas and Dust Evolution of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS from Optical Spectroscopy and Multi-band Photometry
[astro-ph.EP] Interstellar objects (ISOs) provide direct constraints on the composition and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems. As the third confirmed ISO, comet 3I/ATLAS offers a rare opportunity to study pristine […]
![Mechanisms that contribute to dust growth just beyond the snow line. Many-seed icy aggregates grow in the outer disk’s regions due to the high sticking efficiency of water ice and disintegrate as they cross the water snow line (green-to-blue interface) into silicate monomers and water vapor. Both diffuse back across the snow line due to turbulence, facilitating further accumulation of icy water and the growth of icy aggregates just behind the snow line, effects found in our numerical model as well (see Figs. 7 and E.2).-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hydrodynamics.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrogeology
Hydrodynamics Modeling Of The Water Snow Line In Young Protoplanetary Disks With Dust-size-dependent Opacities
[astro-ph.EP] Aims. We investigated the properties of the water snow line during the early stages of disk evolution, paying particular attention to the effects of gravitational instability and dust growth […]
Posted inMars
Meteorite Helps Bridge The Data Gap In the Geologic History Of Mars
[Boston College] Scientists have determined a newly discovered meteorite from Mars is 1.27-billion years old and derived from a previously unsampled, pristine source on the Red Planet, the team reported […]
![(Top) Measured OC albedo values from Goldstone (from Table 4) and (bottom) measured OC albedo values from the GBT (from Table 5). The horizontal dashed lines indicate the weighted means of the albedos, which is 0.90 for Goldstone and 0.80 for GBT. The error bars on our albedo values are taken to be the total uncertainty calculated in Section 4. The color bar on the right shows the dates of our observations in YYMMDD. The x-axis is the subradar point west longitude. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Radar-observations.png?resize=1200%2C751&ssl=1)
Posted inEuropa
Radar Observations Of Europa in 2011-2024: New Insights Into Radar Scattering Properties
[astro-ph.EP] Three of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites – Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – are of particular scientific interest due to their icy shells and suspected subsurface oceans. However, the radar properties […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
Catalytic Formation of H2 On Carbonaceous Dust Grains – Implications For Interstellar Observations
[astro-ph.GA] We use kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to study molecular hydrogen formation on carbonaceous dust grain surfaces, validated against recent laboratory measurements of H2 formation on coronene films at […]