When we think of life on Earth, we might think of individual examples ranging from animals to bacteria. When astrobiologists study life, however, they have to consider not only individual […]
ASU
Posted inExtinction events, Press Release
Clues To Recovery From Mass Extinction
About 252 million years ago, more than 90 percent of all animal life on Earth went extinct. This event, called the “Permian-Triassic mass extinction,” represents the greatest catastrophe in the […]
Posted inCourses, Press Release
ASU Online Science Course On Habitable Worlds
Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration recently released new research on its flagship Smart Course, Habitable Worlds, published in the peer-reviewed journal, Astrobiology. The study found that […]
Posted inPress Release, TRAPPIST-1
TRAPPIST-1 Planets Provide Clues To The Nature Of Habitable Worlds
TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool red dwarf star that is slightly larger, but much more massive, than the planet Jupiter, located about 40 light-years from the sun in the constellation Aquarius. […]
Posted inMars, Press Release
Study Shows How Water Could Have Flowed on 'Cold and Icy' Ancient Mars
For scientists trying to understand what ancient Mars might have been like, the red planet sends some mixed signals. Water-carved valleys and lakebeds leave little doubt that water once flowed […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release
Origin Of Photosynthesis In A Sun-loving Bacteria
Every day, enough sunlight hits the Earth to power the planet many times over — if only we could more efficiently capture all the energy. With today’s solar panels limited […]
Posted inEuropa, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Taking the Pulse of an Ocean World
Jupiter’s moon Europa is definitely an odd place. Discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, it was first seen in detail only in the late 1970s, after spacecraft visited the Jovian […]
Posted inMars, Press Release
Hot Spring in Chile May Show Where to Look for Life Traces on Mars
Two geo-scientists at Arizona State University have made a discovery among hot springs in Chile that may spur scientists to revisit a location on Mars explored several years ago by […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, tau Ceti
Tau Ceti: The Next Earth? Probably Not
As the search continues for Earth-size planets orbiting at just the right distance from their star, a region termed the habitable zone, the number of potentially life-supporting planets grows. In […]