Habitable Zone Archives - Page 28 of 66 - Astrobiology

NASA Exoplanet Science Institute

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Keck Strategic Mission Support Programs (KSMS) and Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) Technology Maturation Program Deferred to 2026B

by Keith CowingAugust 25, 2025August 25, 2025

To the NASA Keck Observer Community: Due to several issues, including the six-week closure of the Keck II telescope and instrument calibration problems with the Keck Planet Finder, it has […]

(left) Electromagnetic model showing the suppression of AKR and Earth transmitters on the far side of the Moon (Bassett et al. 2020). (Right) Eight candidate sites on the farside identified in Krolikowski & Elvis 2024 for a lunar radio array considering available area and surface smoothness. Further work is necessary to downselect to a single site, potentially through contributions of human exploration to site surveys. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Moon, Status Report

Identifying Habitable Exoplanets With Radio Telescopes On The Lunar Farside

by Keith CowingAugust 21, 2025August 21, 2025

The search for habitable conditions beyond Earth is a top priority in astrophysics.

LEFT: Predicted 22Ne mass fraction as a function of metallicity for the WD remnants of stars in the Hypatia Catalog (Hinkel et al. 2014). The colors represent [N/H] for the same stars. MIDDLE and RIGHT: C and N abundances of the same stars from the Hypatia Catalog. The color bars represent the predicted neon mass fraction, X(22Ne), in their remnants. Two chemically peculiar low-metallicity objects, BD+80 245 and HD 19445, are labeled and marked as stars. -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

The Fraction Of Distilled White Dwarfs With Long-Lived Habitable Zones

by Keith CowingAugust 19, 2025

After carbon and oxygen, 22Ne is the most abundant element in white dwarf interiors. As C/O white dwarfs (WDs) crystallize, they are predicted to go through a distillation process in […]

This artist’s concept depicts planet TRAPPIST-1 d passing in front of its turbulent star, with other members of the closely packed system shown in the background. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Webb Narrows Atmospheric Possibilities For Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d

by Keith CowingAugust 13, 2025August 13, 2025

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our solar system because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around […]

Joint posterior constraints on the surface partial pressure of key atmospheric absorbers for atmospheric scenarios similar to solar system terrestrials, with N2 as the background gas. The color shadings correspond to the posterior probability mass, and the contours highlight the 68% and 95% confidence regions from the joint retrieval in each case. The absorber in the N2-background atmosphere is labeled in the top right corner of each panel. The dashed-dotted, dashed, and solid sienna lines correspond to an atmospheric surface pressure of 0.1, 1, and 10 bar. We illustrate where typical models of Archean Earth (AE), Modern Earth (ME), and compositions for Titan (T), early Mars (eMa), Mars (Ma), and Venus (V; Encrenaz & Coustenis 2018) approximately lie relative to our constraints for TRAPPIST-1 d. Star markers correspond to specific cloudy cases, where the planet is modeled as either cloudy or cloud-free (for Titan, Modern Earth, and Venus). For the N2-H2O case, we show as a black dotted line the limit of pressures that would be cut off by refraction in a 11 bar atmosphere (10 bar H2O+1 bar N2). For thinner atmospheres, the impact of refraction on atmosphere detectability is even weaker. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Strict Limits On Potential Secondary Atmospheres On The Temperate Rocky Exo-Earth TRAPPIST-1 d

by Keith CowingAugust 13, 2025August 13, 2025

The nearby TRAPPIST-1 system, with its seven small rocky planets orbiting a late-type M8 star, offers an unprecedented opportunity to search for secondary atmospheres on temperate terrestrial worlds.

Satellite image of the Bagno dell’Acqua Lake (Pantelleria Island, Italy) reporting the location of the thermal spring (HP) where the samples for abiotic polymerization were incubated and the site (C1) of the microbialite sampling location. The total area of the lake is ~0.2 km2. Satellite image taken from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (accessed on 11 March 2025). Coordinates: HP: 36°81′39″ N, 11°98′82″ E. C1: 36°81′57.3″ N, 11°98′90″ E. -- International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Google Earth link)

Analog Studies, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Sample Return, Status Report

The “Bagno dell’Acqua” Lake as a Novel Mars-like Analogue: Prebiotic Syntheses of PNA and RNA Building Blocks and Oligomers

by Keith CowingAugust 12, 2025August 12, 2025

The ongoing exploration of planets such as Mars is producing a wealth of data to define habitable environments beyond the Earth.

Earth-mass planet orbiting a sun-like star -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Earth-mass Planets With He Atmospheres In The Habitable Zone Of Sun-like Stars

by Keith CowingAugust 11, 2025August 11, 2025

The discovery of many low-mass exoplanets, including several planets within the habitable zone of their host stars, has led to the question of which kind of atmosphere surrounds them.

JWST’s view of the α Cen AB system. Shown above is a background-subtracted Stage 2b F1550C image of the α Cen AB system from August 2024. The image is oriented North up and East left. The white stars denote the approximate positions of α Cen B, saturated near the top of the image, and α Cen A in the lower part of the image hidden behind the F1550C mask. The right colorbar (logarithmically scaled) is associated with this image. At the edge of the detector, to the West of α Cen A, is a known background source KS5 (Kervella et al. 2016). To the East of α Cen A is known background source KS2 (Kervella et al. 2016), shown as an inset, as it is only detected after performing PSF subtraction (no colorbar shown for the inset, scaled linearly between −5 and 50 MJy/sr). An ≈2. ′′75 radius region around α Cen A is shaded and mapped to three PSF-subtracted images, one for each observation epoch. Candidate S1 is seen only in August 2024. The bottom colorbar (linearly scaled) is associated with the three PSF-subtracted images. For reference, 1 MJy/sr ≈ 4.6 × 10−6 Jy/AiryCore, where AiryCore is defined as the area of a circular aperture of diameter 1 FWHM (≈ 0. ′′5). -- astro-ph.EP

Alpha Centauri, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Worlds Next Door: A Candidate Giant Planet Imaged in the Habitable Zone of α Cen A. I. Observations, Orbital and Physical Properties, and Exozodi Upper Limits

by Keith CowingAugust 7, 2025August 7, 2025

We report on coronagraphic observations of the nearest solar-type star, α Cen A, using the MIRI instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Joint PCA-KLIP subtraction of distinct subsets of the α Cen AB science integrations from the August 2024 observations. -- astro-ph.SR

Alpha Centauri, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Worlds Next Door: A Candidate Giant Planet Imaged in the Habitable Zone of α Cen A. II. Binary II. Binary Star Modeling, Planet and Exozodi Search, and Sensitivity Analysis

by Keith CowingAugust 7, 2025September 18, 2025

JWST observed our closest solar twin, α Cen A, with the MIRI coronagraph in F1550C (15.5 μm) at three distinct epochs between August 2024 and April 2025.

(A) Map of the study area on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada. The north arrow is valid for every panel. (B) Geological map of the region modified from Harrison and Jackson (2010) with the sampling sites (yellow dots) selected for the study grouped by sector. CR: Colour ridge, WG: White glacier, GH: Gypsum Hill. The ArcticDEM was used to highlight the topography of the area. (C) Sampling sites (yellow dots) with ESRI imagery used as a basemap. The scale is the same as in panel b. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.) -- Science Direct

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Sample Return, Status Report

Mineralogy, Geochemistry And Morphology Of Arctic Gossans On Axel Heiberg Island, NU, Canada: Spectroscopic Investigation And Implications For Mars

by Keith CowingAugust 2, 2025August 2, 2025

Gossans are formed through the oxidation of sulfide ore deposits by fluids, such as meteoric water or hydrothermal solutions, leading to locally acidic conditions.