[astro-ph.IM] Sample return from South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) on the Moon has been recognized as the highest priority lunar science mission for well over two decades, appearing as a recommended […]
Sample Return
Posted inMicrobiology & Virology
Dispersal Pathways And Infection Strategies Within The Global Halophilic Virome
[ISME Communications] Microbial biogeography has recently attracted significant attention for its potential to provide novel ecological and evolutionary insights, with environmental connectivity emerging as a key factor in the global […]
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Mystery Surrounding The Formation Of Asteroid Bennu Solved
[ETH Zurich] The asteroid Bennu orbits the Sun once every 1.2 years and approaches Earth every six years, passing within around 300,000 kilometres. NASA took advantage of this to collect […]
Posted inTricorders & Sensors
Tricorder Tech: What A Spacefaring Arctic Microbe Reveals About Life in Alien Oceans
[ISS National Laboratory] It lives in places where life should not exist. In the brine channels that thread through Arctic sea ice, it survives temperatures that would freeze most bacteria […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments
Hot Spring Organism Breaks Record For Heat Tolerance Of Complex Life
[Cell Press] A tiny, single-celled organism can thrive at temperatures that would kill all other known complex life.
Posted inMars
Deep Learning of SHERLOC Raman Spectra For Facilitating Mars Astromaterial Identification
[Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy] Raman spectroscopy has been explored for planetary exploration, particularly through the SHERLOC instrument for Mars habitability and astromaterial search tasks.
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
An Integrated Culturomic And Genomic Database And Analysis Platform For Methanogenic Archaea
[Database] Methanogenic archaea research is challenged by limited strain resources, fragmented genomic data, inconsistent genome quality, substantial uncultured lineages, and difficulties in laboratory culturing, hindering advances in biogas production, climate […]
![Low-angle backscatter electron (LABE) imaging (Supplement 9) of sample OREX-220001-1 consisting of particles obtained from inside the SRC but exterior to the sample canister — including fragments of Bennu, SRC char, and metal. FG, fine-grained. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/OSIRIS-REx.png?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Posted inSample Return
OSIRIS-REx Returned a Pristine Sample of Asteroid Bennu: Takeaways from the Mission’s Contamination Control and Knowledge Program
[astro-ph.EP] NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission had the objective of delivering a pristine sample from asteroid (101955) Bennu to Earth for scientific analysis–where “pristine” signifies the absence of foreign materials that could […]
Posted inSample Return
Closed-loop In Situ Isolation Of Deep-sea Extremophiles Through Sensor-driven Microenvironment Preservation
[Nature Sensors] Deep sea microorganisms remain largely inaccessible because existing sampling and cultivation methods fail to preserve native high-pressure microenvironments from seafloor to laboratory.
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
A Dual-mineral Protection Mechanism For Organic Matter Preservation And Its Implications For Mars Habitability And Biosignature Detection
[Communications Earth & Environment] Understanding organic matter preservation in extreme environments is crucial for detecting potential biosignatures on Mars.