Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Predictive Rankings of the Probability for Temperate Terrestrial Worlds for the HWO ExEP Mission Star List

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is NASA’s flagship mission design from the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020, meant to observe temperate terrestrial planets via direct imaging and use […]

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How The Rise Of Continents May Have Set The Stage For Life On Earth

Earth’s earliest continents may have set the chemical stage for life by regulating boron levels in ancient oceans, a new study in Terra Nova suggests.

Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

JWST Studies The Surface Composition Of Super-Earth LHS 3844 b

Using MIRI (Mid Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of researchers led by former MPIA (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany) PhD student […]

Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Toward Inferring the Surface Fluxes of Biosignature Gases on Rocky Exoplanets from Telescope Spectra

The James Webb Space Telescope and the future Habitable Worlds Observatory aim to discover exoplanet atmospheric spectra that detect life. Currently, most existing spectral “retrieval” algorithms focus on inferring the […]

Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Uniform Reinterpretation of Rocky Exoplanet Secondary Eclipse Observations and the Impact of Stellar and Orbital Uncertainties

Secondary eclipse observations are a powerful way to investigate whether or not a rocky exoplanet hosts an atmosphere, as an atmospheric presence would transport heat to the nightside and render […]

Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Planets Need More Water To Support Life Than Scientists Previously Thought

Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from University of Washington. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet […]

Gift this article