Within the payloads of JUICE and Europa Clipper, there are instruments suitable for the search of specific biosignatures that can diagnose life tracks in two ways.
We present the results of experiments probing the retention of CO2 in crystalline water ice, frozen sodium chloride (NaCl) brines, and flash-frozen carbonated water using diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy.
Competing processes shape Europa’s surface: geological activity replenishes material through resurfacing, while bombardment by charged particles alters surface chemical composition. Each process leaves distinct spectral signatures.
A quantitative overview of Earth’s biomass has long been lacking, despite its importance for understanding the biosphere. The first global estimate—approximately 550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C)—reveals stark disparities across […]
Under its thick ice layer, Europa contains a shielded liquid water ocean where habitable conditions may exist. To effectively assess the habitability of this environment and the implications on putative […]
Psychrophilic and psychrotolerant microorganisms have the unique ability to grow below 0°C, which makes them ideal candidates for studying how life could survive on the icy moons of the solar […]
Southwest Research Institute was part of an international team that demonstrated how complex organic molecules (COMs), key chemical precursors to life, could have been incorporated into Jupiter’s Galilean moons during […]
Royal Society Publishing has recently published an OPEN ACCESS theme issue of Philosophical Transactions A: Planetary Protection for sustainable space exploration compiled and edited by Karen Olsson-Francis, Athena Coustenis, Peter […]
Saturn’s moon Titan exhibits remarkable parallels to the Earth in many geophysical and geological processes not found elsewhere in the solar system at the present day.
Complex organic molecules are key markers of molecular diversity, and their formation conditions in protoplanetary disks remain an active area of research. These molecules have been detected on a variety […]
