Editor’s note: with recent speculation about the potential habitability of other worlds and understanding the processes whereby other biospheres arise and evolve, thought needs to be given to developing sensor […]
Ocean world
Did Impacts From Meteors Help Start Life On Earth?
Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University […]
Ammonia As A Parameter Shaping Habitability On Icy Moons
The search for life now extends beyond the traditional habitable zone to include the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. These moons feature ice-covered surfaces overlying substantial oceans formed primarily […]
Science Goals and Objectives for the Dragonfly Titan Rotorcraft Relocatable Lander
NASA’s Dragonfly mission will send a rotorcraft lander to the surface of Titan in the mid-2030s. Dragonfly’s science themes include investigation of Titan’s prebiotic chemistry, habitability, and potential chemical biosignatures […]
In Situ Analytical Chemistry Laboratory for the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor
In this paper, we report a fully automated, end-to-end (sample-in/data-out) capillary electrophoresis system.
New Evidence For An Ancient Ocean On Mars
Caltech researchers have identified geological features on Mars that could point to the existence of a long-dried ocean that once covered a third of the Red Planet’s surface.
Thermophysical Properties of Europa’s Surface Constrained by Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer Temperature Measurements
Thermal measurements constrain the physical properties of icy satellite surfaces, including grain size, porosity, and regolith structure. On Europa, analyses of the Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) dataset revealed thermal inertia heterogeneities, […]
The Goldilocks Problem For Detecting Water In Terrestrial Planets: Constraining Water Abundances In The mid-IR With LIFE
We investigate how well the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) mission concept can detect habitable conditions on exoplanets through the presence of atmospheric water vapor as a proxy for surface […]
Super-Earth Masses And Stellar Abundances From NIRPS Reveal Tentative Evidence For Water-rich Formation Around M Dwarfs
Tracing the compositional link between terrestrial super-Earths and their host stars provides clues to their dominant formation pathway. By constraining the stellar abundances of refractory elements, we can predict the […]
Subsurface Ocean Salinity And Dissipation Rate Inferred From Enceladus Ice Shell Morphology
The habitability of Enceladus’ subsurface ocean and the detectability of potential biosignatures depend on efficient ocean circulation and suitable ocean conditions.
