Modeling the detection of life has never been more opportune. With next generation space telescopes, like the currently developing Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) concept, we will begin to characterize rocky […]
This chapter reviews proposed exoplanet biosignatures, including their biological origins, observable features, atmospheric sinks, and potentially confounding abiotic sources.
With more than 5,500 detected exoplanets, the search for life is entering a new era. Using life on Earth as our guide, we look beyond green landscapes to expand our […]
In order to assess observational evidence for potential atmospheric biosignatures on exoplanets, it will be essential to test whether spectral fingerprints from multiple gases can be explained by abiotic or […]
In the search for life across the cosmos, the familiar green hue we most associate with life on Earth may not be the best indicator. An Earth-like planet orbiting another […]
Secrets of photosynthesis have been discovered at atomic level, shedding important new light on this plant super-power that greened the earth more than a billion years ago.
Prochlorococcus are the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organisms on Earth, contributing up to 50% of the chlorophyll in the oligotrophic oceans.
Researchers at the University of Liège (ULiège) have identified microstructures in fossil cells that are 1.75 billion years old.
![Images of microfossil specimens of Navifusa majensis. (Demoulin et al., Nature, 2024) [L] one of the microfossils with stacks of thylakoids highlighted using yellow bars [R] magnification of the end of the cell.](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/FossilCellsProvide.png?resize=1200%2C838&ssl=1)
Today oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and their plastid relatives within eukaryotes. Although its origin before the Great Oxidation Event is still debated 1,2,3,4, the accumulation of O2 profoundly […]
A collaborative study led by Dr. Christopher Gisriel at Yale University and Dr. Tanai Cardona at Queen Mary University of London, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, offers new insight […]
