Earth Archives

Blank-subtracted GC/MS/MS chromatograms for extracted samples of the high methane organic haze particles, the low methane organic haze particles, and the one- and seven-day heated high methane organic haze particles. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Titan

Organic Hazes As A Source Of Life’s Building Blocks To Warm Little Ponds On The Hadean Earth

by Keith CowingJanuary 14, 2024January 14, 2024

Over 4 billion years ago, Earth is thought to have been a hazy world akin to Saturn’s moon Titan. The organic hazes in the atmosphere at this time could contain […]

Comparative gene expression during cloudy and clear conditions: (A) RNA-to-DNA concentration ratio for clouds and clear atmospheric conditions; dots indicate individual samples, and boxplots display medians, 25th and 75th percentiles, and whiskers 1.5 interquartile ranges; ** indicates highly significant difference, highlighting the relatively higher total RNA concentration in clouds (Mann-Whitney test, p-value=0.004); (B) Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) polygons based on the 21,046 functional gene entries in MGs and MTs, illustrating the distinction between MGs and MTs, and the differences between MTs during cloudy and clear conditions; (C) volcano plot representing differential gene expression between atmospheric conditions, with genes significantly overexpressed in and outside clouds in blue and red, respectively; grey dots represent genes whose expression level is not affected; dashed lines represent significance thresholds; DEA coefficient: Differential Expression Analysis (DEA) coefficient, from the MTXmodel R package (78); this illustrates that overexpression of distinct genes depends on the atmospheric condition; (D) numbers of overrepresented Gene Ontology terms (GOs) derived from gene annotations during cloudy and clear conditions, in blue and red, respectively, referring to their classification as Biological Processes (BP), Cellular Components (CC) and Molecular Functions (MF). A number of biological functions are overexpressed in clouds compared with clear conditions. -- biorxiv.org

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report, Venus

Clouds, Oases For Airborne Microbes – Differential Metagenomics/ Metatranscriptomics Analyses Of Cloudy And Clear Atmospheric Situations

by Keith CowingJanuary 10, 2024January 10, 2024

Editor’s note: with recent speculation about the potential habitability of the clouds of Venus and the long-hypothesized notion of airborne life forms on Saturn and Jupiter these studies from Earth […]

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release

Meteorite Analysis Shows That Earth’s Building Blocks Contained Water

by Keith CowingJanuary 9, 2024January 9, 2024

When our Sun was a young star, 4.56 billion years ago, what is now our solar system was just a disk of rocky dust and gas. Over tens of millions […]

Images of microfossil specimens of Navifusa majensis. (Demoulin et al., Nature, 2024) [L] one of the microfossils with stacks of thylakoids highlighted using yellow bars [R] magnification of the end of the cell.

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Status Report

Fossil Cells Provide Evidence Of Early Oxygenic Photosynthesis On Earth

by Keith CowingJanuary 4, 2024January 4, 2024

Today oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and their plastid relatives within eukaryotes. Although its origin before the Great Oxidation Event is still debated 1,2,3,4, the accumulation of O2 profoundly […]

Archean plate tectonics would operate subsequent to the regime of stagnant lid tectonics, involving not only bottom-up processes such as mantle plumes and heat pipes but also top-down processes such as lithospheric foundering and subduction. These vertical processes were not unique to the Archean but persisted into the Phanerozoic. CREDIT ©Science China Press

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Press Release

Plate Tectonics In The Archean: Observation Versus Interpretation

by Keith CowingJanuary 4, 2024January 4, 2024

The plate tectonics theory established in the 20th century has been successful in interpreting many geological phenomena, processes and events that have occurred in the Phanerozoic. However, the theory has […]

Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Imaging & Spectroscopy

An Animal That Challenges Humanity For Sheer Diversity And Global Impact

by Keith CowingJanuary 2, 2024January 2, 2024

There are 22,000+ ant species on Earth. Their population is measured in the quadrillions. Their collective biomass is equal 20+% of humanity’s i.e. 12 megatons). The diversity in form and […]

NASA’s EMIT produced its first global maps of hematite, goethite, and kaolinite in Earth’s dry regions using data from the year ending November 2023. The mission collected billions of measurements of the three minerals and seven others that may affect climate when lofted into the air as dust storms. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full Image Details

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Space Stations, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Planetary Survey From Orbit: Earth’s Surface Minerals In Arid Regions

by Keith CowingJanuary 2, 2024January 2, 2024

Editor’s note: We’re now able to detect planets orbiting other stars. We can determine the size and basic composition of these worlds but only in a general sense. As newer […]

atmospheric abundances for Venus, Earth and Mars.

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Carbon-lite Atmosphere Could Be A Sign Of Water And Life On Other Terrestrial Planets

by Keith CowingDecember 29, 2023December 29, 2023

Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers’ best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, […]

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Atmospheres As A Window To Rocky Exoplanet Surfaces

by Keith CowingDecember 19, 2023December 19, 2023

As the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres proceeds, providing insights into atmospheric chemistry and composition, a key question is how much deeper into the planet we might be able to see […]

Runaway greenhouse effect can transform a temperate habitable planet with surface liquid water ocean into a hot steam dominated planet hostile to any life. © Thibaut Roger / UNIGE

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Press Release, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Exoplanet Climate: It Takes Nothing To Switch From Habitable To Hell

by Keith CowingDecember 18, 2023December 18, 2023

The Earth is a wonderful blue and green dot covered with oceans and life, while Venus is a yellowish sterile sphere that is not only inhospitable but also sterile. However, […]