Scientists got a surprise when NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover began examining rocks on the floor of Jezero Crater in spring of 2021: Because the crater held a lake billions of […]
geology
Posted inHabitable Zones
Impact Induced Atmosphere-Mantle Exchange Sets The Volatile Elemental Ratios On Primitive Earths
Conventional planet formation theory suggests that chondritic materials have delivered crucial atmospheric and hydrospheric elements such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and hydrogen (H) onto primitive Earth. However, recent measurements […]
Posted inMicrobiology & Virology
830 Million Year Old Microorganisms In Primary Fluid Inclusions In Halit
Primary fluid inclusions in bedded halite from the 830-m.y.-old Browne Formation ofcentral Australia contain organic solids and liquids, as documented with transmitted light and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) petrography. These objects are […]
Posted inAstrogeology
Passive Magmatism On Earth And Earth-like Planets
In this article researchers from the Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA […]
Posted inAstrogeology
Geophysical Evolution During Rocky Planet Formation
Progressive astronomical characterization of planet-forming disks and rocky exoplanets highlight the need for increasing interdisciplinary efforts to understand the birth and life cycle of terrestrial worlds in a unified picture. […]
Posted inAstrogeology
Traces Of Life In Earth's Deep Mantle
It is easy to see that the processes in the Earth’s interior influence what happens on the surface. For example, volcanoes unearth magmatic rocks and emit gases into the atmosphere, […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology
Ultrahigh-Pressure Magnesium Hydrosilicates As Reservoirs Of Water In The Early Earth
The origin of water on the Earth is a long-standing mystery, requiring a comprehensive search for hydrous compounds, stable at conditions of the deep Earth and made of Earth-abundant elements. […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
The Atmospheres Of Rocky Exoplanets II. Influence Of Surface Composition On The Diversity Of Cloud Condensates
Clouds are an integral part of planetary atmospheres, with most planets hosting clouds. The understanding of not only the formation, but also the composition of clouds is crucial to the […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
Microbes May Have Lived Underground For More Than 1 Billion Years
A study using the thermal history and biosignatures of the upper few kilometers of some of the oldest rocks on Earth place constraints on the evolutionary history of microbes in […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology
Retention Of Water In Terrestrial Magma Oceans And Carbon-rich Early Atmospheres
Massive steam and CO2 atmospheres have been proposed for magma ocean outgassing of Earth and terrestrial planets. Yet formation of such atmospheres depends on volatile exchange with the molten interior, […]