intestellar Archives - Astrobiology

This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) features the central region of the Chamaeleon I dark molecular cloud, which resides 630 light years away. The cold, wispy cloud material (blue, center) is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of the young, outflowing protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 (orange, upper left). The light from numerous background stars, seen as orange dots behind the cloud, can be used to detect ices in the cloud, which absorb the starlight passing through them. -- NASA larger image

Experimental Astrochemistry And Machine Learning Unravel The Formation Of Oxygen-bearing Organic Molecules In Extraterrestrial Ices

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2026July 16, 2026

[Nature Communications Chemistry] Oxygen-bearing organic molecules, including aldehydes, alcohols, and peroxides, serve as key precursors to complex organics in extraterrestrial environments. Their non-equilibrium formation mechanisms critically constrain the molecular complexity […]

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) captured by the Subaru Telescope on December 13, 2025 (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time). This image was created by combining three different wavelengths: V-band (550 nanometers, depicted in blue), R-band (660 nanometers, depicted in green), and I-band (805 nanometers, depicted in red). (Credit: NAOJ)

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Subaru Telescope Captures Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Composition Change

by Keith CowingApril 16, 2026April 16, 2026

The Subaru Telescope observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on January 7, 2026 (UT), after it made its closest approach to the Sun. By observing colors in the coma around the […]

This image, taken on Oct. 5, 2025 by the MAVEN spacecraft, shows the coma of gas and dust surrounding comet 3I/ATLAS. Combining data from NASA’s MAVEN, James Webb Space Telescope, and SPHEREx missions helped reveal the comet’s production rates of volatile molecules including water. NASA/Goddard/LASP/CU Boulder

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

How Open NASA Data on Comet 3I/ATLAS Will Power Tomorrow’s Discoveries

by Keith CowingMarch 25, 2026March 25, 2026

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will soon leave our solar system, never to return, but the observations of the comet will live on in NASA’s public data archives. More than a […]

Disk physical structure from our three parametric models (Models 1 to 3 from top to bottom, see Tables 1 and 2). The 2D gas temperature (left) and total H density (right) are shown as colors, with iso-curves in white. The dashed red line corresponds to AV = 1 mag (as measured from the top). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Ortho-Para Chemistry of H2CO in the Protoplanetary Disk TW Hya

by Keith CowingMarch 17, 2026March 17, 2026

The spatial distribution of the chemical reservoirs in protoplanetary disks is key to elucidate the composition of planets, especially habitable ones. However, the partitioning of the main elements among the […]

Schematic of some of the key processes throughout planet formation that influence carbon supply and retention. (a) Key ice/grain sublimation fronts in the disk noted (CO2 between water–CO and that of Silicates at inner disk edge not shown). Planets forming in these locations will receive different compositions at birth (Öberg et al. 2011). Dust that grows beyond the “soot” line (Lodders 2004, Kress et al. 2010, Li et al. 2021) will be rich in refractory carbon content and at greater distances molecular ices. (blow-out:) The drift of carbon-rich pebbles from the outer disk is a key process in carbon supply. Drift itself is influenced by pressure bumps that can lead to a pile-up of pebbles that can be potential sites for planetesimal and planet formation (shown on left side of disk). (b) Solids accrete ice mantles, sublimate key components at sublimation fronts and can collide leading to both growth and fragmentation. (c) Rocky planets and cores of gas-rich planets grow and gain carbon through accretion of pebbles (top) and/or planetesimals (bottom). Impacts of larger planetesimals can also strip atmospheric gas and also supply material. (d) heavy element differentiation can take carbon to the core, and the resulting magma ocean/atmosphere equilibrium can influence atmospheric composition with lighter gases escaping depending on the planet mass. Figure credit to N. Fuller and Sayo Studio. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Carbon From Interstellar Clouds To Habitable Worlds

by Keith CowingFebruary 12, 2026February 12, 2026

Carbon is an essential element for a habitable world. Inner (r < 3 au) disk planetary carbon compositions are strongly influenced by supply and survival of carbonaceous solids. Here we […]

This illustration shows a rogue planet traveling through space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

A Free-floating-Planet Microlensing Event Caused By A Saturn-mass Object

by Keith CowingJanuary 6, 2026January 6, 2026

A population of free-floating planets is known from gravitational microlensing surveys. None have a directly measured mass, owing to a degeneracy with the distance, but the population statistics indicate that […]

Structures and relative energy levels of cis-HNSO (left, as the ground state), trans-HNSO (right, at 3.7 kcal/mol), and the transition state (middle, at 14.5 kcal/mol); energy values were derived by Kumar and Francisco (2017). Red atom corresponds to oxygen, yellow to sulfur, blue to nitrogen, and grey to hydrogen. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Laboratory Detection and Rotational Spectroscopy of trans-HNSO: Implications for Astronomical Observations

by Keith CowingDecember 26, 2025December 26, 2025

Sulfur-bearing molecules are central to interstellar chemistry, yet their observed abundances in the gas phase remain far below cosmic expectations in dense interstellar regions. Mixed N-S-O species such as thionylimide […]

Visual representation of the structure of low-density amorphous ice. Many tiny crystallites (white) are concealed in the amorp

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Panspermia, Press Release

Astrochemistry: Space Ice Is Less Like Water Than We Thought

by Keith CowingJuly 7, 2025July 7, 2025

“Space ice” contains tiny crystals and is not, as previously assumed, a completely disordered material like liquid water, according to a new study by scientists at UCL (University College London) […]

Distribution of sources in our sample in equatorial coordinates. Sources with data available for all four GBT receivers used are plotted in blue, sources observed in three bands are in yellow, sources observed in two bands are in green, and sources observed in only one band are in red. -- astro-ph.IM

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

A Novel Technosignature Search In The Breakthrough Listen Green Bank Telescope Archive

by Keith CowingAugust 7, 2024August 7, 2025

The Breakthrough Listen program is, to date, the most extensive search for technological life beyond Earth.