cryosphere Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Astrobiology

A composite view of Europa’s spider-like Manannán Crater (right), taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in May 1998. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Europa, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Europa’s Spider-like Features And The Potential For Life

by Keith CowingDecember 5, 2025December 5, 2025

From Europa to other icy moons, scientists are studying how surface features form and what they might reveal about the potential for life.

SEM images of A. agilis Ant-EH-1 grown at (A) 25 °C; (B) 5 °C; (C) −5 °C. -- Frontiers via PubMed

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Sample Return, Status Report

Subzero Cell Division, Respiration, And Genomic Traits Of Cryophilic Arthrobacter agilis Ant-EH-1 Isolated From Cold-arid Antarctic Mineral Soils

by Keith CowingNovember 29, 2025November 29, 2025

Arthrobacter are commonly isolated from cold soil environments globally, including those that regularly reach sub-freezing temperatures, suggesting that Arthrobacter have significant potential for growth and activity under temperature and stress […]

University of Colorado at Boulder

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

Ice Planet Research: Antarctic Glacier Retreated Faster Than Any Other In Modern Earth History

by Keith CowingNovember 4, 2025November 6, 2025

A glacier on Antarctica’s Eastern Peninsula experienced the fastest retreat recorded in modern history—in just two months, nearly 50 percent of the glacier disintegrated.

Allan Hills, 2022-2023. Photo by Julia Marks Peterson, COLDEX.

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Press Release

Six-million-year-old Ice Discovered In Antarctica Offers Unprecedented Window Into A Warmer Earth

by Keith CowingOctober 30, 2025

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered the oldest directly dated ice and air on the planet in the Allan Hills region of East Antarctica.

Ice sheet topography computed by GRISLI (step RGRGRG). For this particular simulation, the ice sheet reaches the ocean and could potentially produce icebergs. The altitude here includes the isostasy that can reach up to 800 m. The ice accumulation and ice sheet flow smooth out the surface but the largest peaks are still present in the topography. -- JGR Planets

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ancient Mars Climate With a Polar Ocean and Ice Sheet Dynamics

by Keith CowingOctober 14, 2025October 14, 2025

In this article, we study the conditions required to maintain a stable ocean on Mars 3 Ga using a new suite of simulations.

Left panel: simulated, noise-free spectra of water ice (dashed dark-blue curve) and selected trace species of interest. Middle panel: simulated spectra of non-water-ice species mixed with water ice, at an abundance fraction of 5%. The dashed dark-blue curve is a pure water-ice spectrum for reference. Right panel: zoom-in of the (a) 3.2–3.6 μm and (b) 3.8–5.0 μm regions of four spectra from the middle panel. While organics are spectrally rich in the 3–5 μm wavelength range, on Europa we expect them to be present in trace amounts in a background of water ice, which leads to weak absorption signatures (on the order of a few percent in strength) on top of a mostly water-ice-rich continuum. Other heavily hydrated, non-ice materials may also be plausible background components, and exploring their effects on detectability is an interesting direction for future work. The key physical parameters used in these simulations are as follows: incidence angle = emergence angle = 45◦ ; phase angle = 90◦ ; average grain size = 50 μm. Re>ectance is expressed in units of radiance factor. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

An Assessment of Organics Detection and Characterization On The Surface Of Europa With Infrared Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingJune 3, 2025June 3, 2025

Organics, if they do exist on Europa, may only be present in trace amounts on the surface. NASA’s upcoming mission Europa Clipper is going to provide global, high quality data […]

Members of the Müller Ice Cap expedition team pose with the final 76 centimeter-long segment of their ice core after drilling to a depth of 613 metres last week on Axel Heiberg Island in Nunavut. Alison Criscitiello

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Ice Planet Exploration: Deepest Canadian Ice Core Has Reached Bedrock

by Keith CowingMay 20, 2025

An ambitious Canadian Flagship project has successfully reached its goal drilling a 613 m deep ice core from top to bedrock though the Müller ice cap on Axel Heiberg Island, […]

Northern Hemisphere Ice - Credit Niccolò Maffezzoli - https://nmaffe.github.io/iceboost_webapp/

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

Ice Planet Assay: Machine Learning Model Calculates The Volume Of All Earth’s Glaciers

by Keith CowingMay 16, 2025May 16, 2025

A team of researchers led by Niccolò Maffezzoli, “Marie Curie” fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the University of California, Irvine, and an associate member of the Institute […]

State of the Cryosphere Report 2024

Apps - Games, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet Update: State of the Cryosphere Report 2024 – Lost Ice, Global Damage

by Keith CowingMay 15, 2025May 15, 2025

In the State of the Cryosphere 2024 – Lost Ice, Global Damage report, over 50 leading cryosphere scientists warn of vastly higher impacts and costs to the global economy given […]

These infrared-light images of Titan were taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope on 11 July 2023. They show methane clouds appearing at different altitudes in Titan’s northern hemisphere. On the left side is a representative-colour image (1.4 microns is coloured blue, 1.5 microns is green, and 2.0 microns is red: filters F140M, F150W, and F200W, respectively). In the middle is a single-wavelength image taken by Webb at 2.12 microns. This wavelength is predominantly emitted from Titan’s lower troposphere. The rightmost image shows emission at 1.64 microns, which favours higher altitudes, in Titan’s upper troposphere and stratosphere (an atmospheric layer above the troposphere). Larger image

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Saturn, Titan

Webb Telescope Studies The Weather On Titan – A Prime Astrobiology Target

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2025May 14, 2025

A science team has combined data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck II telescope to see evidence of cloud convection on Saturn’s moon Titan in the […]