microscopy Archives

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, People Of Astrobiology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

ESA Away Team Training With Tricorders

by Keith CowingNovember 19, 2024July 30, 2025

Rosemary Coogan (ESA), Arnaud Prost (ESA astronaut reserve) and Norishige Kanai (JAXA), trainees of ESA PANGAEA course, investigate some deposits, using the microscope associated with the Electronic FieldBook.

Image courtesy of University of Oxford. NASA ID: jsc2024e071691 jsc2024e071691 (11/5/2024) --- Date Created: 2024-11-05 larger image

Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microgravity, Space Life Science, Space Stations, Status Report

Offworld Life Science: Immunofluorescence Staining Of A Synovial Organoid

by Keith CowingNovember 7, 2024November 7, 2024

Immunofluorescence staining of a synovial organoid shows CD68+ macrophages (immune cells) in yellow, CD31+ endothelial cells (blood vessels) in red, PDPN+ fibroblasts in green, and nuclei in blue is seen.

Thin wafer of water ice grown on the International Space Station Source: @Astro_pettit on Instagram

Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microgravity, People Of Astrobiology, Space Stations, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Offworld Science: Studying The Main Component Of Our Water World In Microgravity

by Keith CowingOctober 27, 2024October 27, 2024

Astronaut Don Pettit: Science and Art, or Art and Science; related subjects where it really doesn’t matter which comes first. So I have access to a freezer kept at -95 […]

Characterization of a section from the fracture surface to the rock interior. A Photo of the section with a yellow arrow pointing to the fracture surface. B Microscopic image of a region of the section highlighted in a yellow rectangle in A. C Fluorescence microscopy image of the region highlighted by orange rectangle in B. Intensity maps of the section at 1000 cm−1 (D), 1530 cm−1 (E), and 1640 cm−1 (F) obtained by optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy. The intensity maps were obtained from the area highlighted with a yellow square in B. G RGB color synthesis of the three intensity maps. A yellow rectangle in G indicates an area where the intensity maps for RGB color synthesis are obtained in Fig. 5A -- Springer Nature

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Sample Return, Status Report

Subsurface Microbial Colonization at Mineral-Filled Veins in 2-Billion-Year-Old Mafic Rock from the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa

by Keith CowingOctober 27, 2024October 27, 2024

Recent advances in subsurface microbiology have demonstrated the habitability of multi-million-year-old igneous rocks, despite the scarce energy supply from rock-water interactions.

a–c Raman measurement of the HV wall near a fluid channel. a Overlay of the Raman map with the corresponding SEM image. The Raman map is a superimposed image of three specific peaks. The Raman map shows that the brucite and Mg-carbonate crystals are discretely located in the wall, while carbonate ions were present in all regions, indicating the adsorption of carbonate ions by the brucite. b Raman spectra of surface crystals (blue) and HV wall (red) at the positions shown in (a, c). c Map of three specific Raman peaks, red: 442.6 cm−1 (brucite lattice vibration, A1g, width 47.5 cm−1), blue: 1109.7 cm−1 (carbonate, width 73.4 cm−1), and green: 3420.7 cm−1 (interlayered water, width 98.8 cm−1). The corresponding peaks are shown in the spectra in (b). -- Nature Communications

Analog Studies, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving

Nanostructures In The Deep Ocean Floor Hint At Life’s Origin

by Keith CowingSeptember 27, 2024September 27, 2024

Researchers led by Ryuhei Nakamura at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan and The Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) of Tokyo Institute of Technology have discovered inorganic […]

Optical microscopy images of six filamentous microfossils. -- Scientific Reports

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Unveiling Ancient Life: New Method Sheds Light On Early Cellular And Metabolic Evolution

by Keith CowingSeptember 25, 2024September 25, 2024

Fossils don’t always come in large, dinosaur-sized packages. Microfossils refer to a type of fossil that is so small, it can only be perceived with a microscope. These microfossils can […]

A reconstruction of the internal anatomy of Y. yuanshi. (Emma J. Long)

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

520-million-year-old worm Fossil Solves Mystery Of How Modern Insects, Spiders and Crabs Evolved

by Keith CowingAugust 9, 2024August 9, 2024

A new study led by researchers at Durham University have uncovered an incredibly rare and detailed fossil, named Youti yuanshi, that gives a peek inside one of the earliest ancestors […]

Sample LLB0 (Feb 2017). Iberulite with potential biological features on its surface. a) Iberulite of 110 μm diameter and pseudo-spherical morphology. The surface appearance is compacted by an external rind where fine clay particles are predominant. The vortex (marked with V) can be observed. -- Science Direct

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report

Microbial Composition Of Saharan Dust Plumes Deposited As Red Rain In Granada, Southern Spain

by Keith CowingJuly 18, 2024July 7, 2024

During dust storms, also biological material is transported from arid areas such as the Sahara Desert. In the present work, rain samples containing significant amounts of mineral dust have been […]

Comparison of methods. Comparison of methods. Left: Machine learning approach. Right: Pipeline of standard image processing methods. More fossils are separated with the machine learning approach. -- Science Direct

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech: A Novel AI Algorithm For Analyzing Microfossils

by Keith CowingJuly 17, 2024July 7, 2024

Editor’s note: the two large rovers NASA has in operation on Mars utilize AI – or Machine Learning – both on Earth and in some cases inside a rover itself […]

Trichogramma cacoeciae wasps imaged in vivo with the BM system. (A) Volume rendering of tomographic data of a first Trichogramma individual inside its parasitized moth egg (Sitotroga cerealella). The egg shell (yellow) was sliced virtually to visualize the wasp (gray) inside the egg. (B)–(D) Phase reconstructed radiograms of a second individual emerging from its host egg (full series in Visualization 2). (E), (F) Flexible movement of mandibles, observed in a third individual (full series in Visualization 3). The arrows indicate that the wasp moves its mandibles independently from each other. - Optica

Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech: X-ray Method Enables Micron-resolution Imaging Of Living Organisms Over Long Time Periods

by Keith CowingJuly 9, 2024July 6, 2024

Editor’s note: as we send increasingly sophisticated astrobiology probes – to more places – often at much greater distances – they will need to be able to do more and […]

microscopy

ESA Away Team Training With Tricorders

Offworld Life Science: Immunofluorescence Staining Of A Synovial Organoid

Offworld Science: Studying The Main Component Of Our Water World In Microgravity

Subsurface Microbial Colonization at Mineral-Filled Veins in 2-Billion-Year-Old Mafic Rock from the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa

Nanostructures In The Deep Ocean Floor Hint At Life’s Origin

Unveiling Ancient Life: New Method Sheds Light On Early Cellular And Metabolic Evolution

520-million-year-old worm Fossil Solves Mystery Of How Modern Insects, Spiders and Crabs Evolved

Microbial Composition Of Saharan Dust Plumes Deposited As Red Rain In Granada, Southern Spain

Tricorder Tech: A Novel AI Algorithm For Analyzing Microfossils

Tricorder Tech: X-ray Method Enables Micron-resolution Imaging Of Living Organisms Over Long Time Periods

NASA Establishes Mars Forward Operational Risk and Contamination Evaluation (M-FORCE) Tiger Team to Shape Mars Planetary Protection Protocols

Opportunity to Contribute to NASA DARES Community White Paper on Phototrophic Biosignatures

The Search For Life Elsewhere: Avoiding Hype and Fostering Public Understanding

Panchromatic Spectra of Nearby Low-mass and Sun-like Stars with Directly Imageable Habitable Zones

Alfred: A Flexible, User-Friendly Python Package for Exoplanet Confirmation