Mercury’s polar cold traps host water ice deposits that are likely populated with impact-delivered water via Mercury’s exosphere.
habitability
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Characterizing Transiting Exoplanet Atmospheres in the 2030s with the Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope inaugurated the era of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. While the James Webb Space Telescope has largely taken up the mantle of infrared atmospheric characterization, Hubble’s unique short-wavelength […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Predictive Rankings of the Probability for Temperate Terrestrial Worlds for the HWO ExEP Mission Star List
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is NASA’s flagship mission design from the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020, meant to observe temperate terrestrial planets via direct imaging and use […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Assessing the Earliest Evidence for Life in the Geologic and Genomic Records
Both the geologic and genomic records provide information on the earliest history of terrestrial life.
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Probing The Habitability Of Potential Sulfuric Acid Rich Subsurface Lakes In Europa’s Ice Shell Via Saci/STIV Integrated Models
Experimentally modeling the habitability of extreme ocean world conditions, such as those on Jupiter’s moon: Europa, would benefit from integrated microbe-virus model studies to provide both a microbial model and […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Education and Outreach, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
NWA Citizen Science Call 2026 (Astrobiology, Origin of life, Biosignatures)
Dear all, We would like to draw your attention to the NWA Citizen Science Call 2026. This call offers citizen collectives the opportunity to investigate a societal question together with […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report
Exploring Space Weather From Young Solar-like Stars as Windows to Exoplanetary Habitability
Young solar-like stars are efficient generators of magnetic activity, superflares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and stellar energetic particles. These phenomena drive the early evolution of stars and shape the habitability […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
From Hubble to HWO: Bridging the Frontier of White Dwarf Exoplanet Science
White dwarf stars, the endpoint of stellar evolution for 97% of stars in our Milky Way, offer a unique and powerful window into the bulk elemental composition of rocky exoplanetary […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Status Report
The Role Of The Hubble Space Telescope In Advancing Our Understanding Of Atmospheric Escape In Exoplanets
An important evolutionary pathway for planetary atmospheres is escape to space, which has been studied on Earth and Mars for several decades and more recently in exoplanets.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Mars, A Post-Habitable Planet?
Mars provides a critical analog to once habitable exoplanets that have since lost their surface liquid water.