After NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drilled a sample from this rock on April 25, 2026, it withdrew its robotic arm and pulled the entire rock off the surface with it.
Atacama
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Unexpected Discovery Of A Planet Forming Around A Young Star
An international team of astronomers, co-led by researchers at University of Galway, has made the unexpected discovery of a new planet.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report
The Limit of Life at Extremely Low Water Activity: Lithium-concentration Ponds in a Solar Saltern (Salar de Atacama, Chile)
Extremely hyper-saline ponds from an industrial lithium-concentration process in solar salterns in the Atacama Desert were studied to determine the limits of life at very low water activity.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
An Immense Astrobiology Tool: Last Segment Blank Of The Extremely Large Telescope Mirror Delivered
Editor’s note: according to the ESO website: “The ELT will revolutionise the study of planets outside our Solar System. It will allow us to obtain direct images of some of […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Tricorders & Sensors
Expedition To The Atacama Trench: Thinking Ahead To Enceladus and Europa
The Atacama in northern Chile is the oldest and driest desert on Earth. While tectonic activity reconfigured the shape and arrangement of land masses over the last 150 million years, […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mars, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report
The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) Project
With advances in commercial space launch capabilities and reduced costs to orbit, humans may arrive on Mars within a decade.
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
Protein Fragments ID Two New Extremophile Microbes — And May Help Find Alien Life
Perfectly adapted microorganisms live in extreme environments from deep-sea trenches to mountaintops. Learning more about how these extremophiles survive in hostile conditions could inform scientists about life on Earth and […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Status Report
Chemical Differentiation around Five Massive Protostars Revealed by ALMA -Carbon-Chain Species, Oxygen-/Nitrogen-Bearing Complex Organic Molecules
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 3 data toward five massive young stellar objects (MYSOs), and investigate relationships between unsaturated carbon-chain species and saturated complex organic molecules (COMs). An […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
An Atacama Desert Microbial Community As A Model For Astrobiology
The grit crust is a recently discovered, novel type of biocrust made of prokaryotic cyanobacteria, eukaryotic green algae, fungi, lichens and other microbes that grow around and within granitoid stone […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
Adaptations Of Endolithic Communities To Abrupt Environmental Changes In A Hyper-arid Desert
The adaptation mechanisms of microbial communities to natural perturbations remain relatively unexplored, particularly in extreme environments. The extremophilic communities of halite (NaCl) nodules from the hyper-arid core of the Atacama […]