Water Archives

Caption: At left: Steel is seen to corrode into siderite (FeCO3) when immersed in subcritical liquid carbon dioxide (LCO2). At right: Samples of albite (a plagioclase feldspar) and a sandstone core are observed to form red rhodochrosite (MnCO3) when exposed to supercritical CO2 in the presence of a water solution with potassium chloride and manganese chloride, with particularly strong reaction near the interface of the two solutions. In both experiments, water saturation is provided by floating LCO2 on the water. Under the lower pressure conditions characteristic of early Mars, the water would float on the LCO2. Credits: Photos courtesy of Todd Schaef/PNNL (left) and Earl Mattson/Mattson Hydrology (right).

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Liquid On Mars Was Not Necessarily All Water

by Keith CowingDecember 7, 2024December 7, 2024

Dry river channels and lake beds on Mars point to the long-ago presence of a liquid on the planet’s surface, and the minerals observed from orbit and from landers seem […]

Left: Color composite image of 114–426 using the F115W and F140M (both blue), F162M (green), F182M (yellowgreen), and F277W (red) bands. Each of the four SW channel images (F115W, F140M, F162M, F182M) were interpolated onto a 3×3 pixel sub-grid (i.e. roughly 10 mas/pixel) to allow precise alignment, and the LW channel image (F277W) was resampled to match. Right: An image of 114–426 in the F187N band, again interpolated onto a 3 ×3 pixel sub-grid, showing the silhouette disk in maximum contrast against the Pa-α line. Each panel is 3."5 × 3."5 with north up and east left. The intensity of each image was scaled logarithmically to compress the dynamic range and enhance fainter details. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Water Ice in the Edge-On Orion Silhouette Disk 114–426 from JWST NIRCam Images

by Keith CowingDecember 7, 2024December 7, 2024

We examine images of the protoplanetary disk 114–426 with JWST/NIRCam in 12 bands. This large disk is oriented edge-on with a dark midplane flanked by lobes of scattered light.

Underwater survey of the bottom of Enigma Lake made at depth 22.5 m -- Nature

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice-covered Lake Enigma In Antarctica Supports Unique Microbial Communities

by Keith CowingDecember 4, 2024December 4, 2024

Northern Foothills of Victoria Land, Antarctica contains numerous hydrological formations, ranging from small surface streams and ponds fed by glacial or snow meltwater to permafrost lakes containing briny pockets.

Alma observation predictions to target water in HD 69830 showing the integrated flux in Jy.km.s−1 for the o-H2O 1029 − 936 transition at 321.22 GHz as a function of the temperature and the quantity of water. The black dashed line indicates the critical mass level when water starts self-shielding. The level at 0.012 Jy.km.s−1 is for a signalto-noise ratio of 5 represented by the solid white line labelled 5σ. This line is rather sensitive to low amounts of water and may allow for the detection of the first water gas disk in the near future. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Status Report

An Impact-free Mechanism To Deliver Water To Terrestrial Planets And Exoplanets

by Keith CowingDecember 3, 2024December 3, 2024

To date, the most widespread scenario is that the Earth originated without water and was brought to the planet mainly due to impacts by wet asteroids coming from further out […]

Our target sample, showing the distribution of fit planet size, temperature, and stellar Teff . Red points are our primary sample, white points are known companions to our targets, dashed lines connect planets orbiting the same target star, and light gray points are other known exoplanets. The histogram at right shows how our planet sizes (red) compare to the intrinsic occurrence of sub-Neptunes (gray, Fulton & Petigura 2018). Noted that these best-fit radii differ from the TESS-reported radii plotted in Fig. 2c. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

OrCAS: Origins, Compositions, and Atmospheres of Sub-neptunes. I. Survey Definition

by Keith CowingNovember 29, 2024November 29, 2024

Sub-Neptunes – volatile-rich exoplanets smaller than Neptune – are intrinsically the most common type of planet known.

The Lafayette Meteorite -- Purdue University

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Mars, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release

Meteorite Contains Evidence Of Liquid Water On Mars 742 Million Years Ago

by Keith CowingNovember 24, 2024November 24, 2024

An asteroid struck Mars 11 million years ago and sent pieces of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these chunks of Mars eventually crashed into the Earth somewhere […]

Spectral flux contributions over the range [1, 25] µm for a surface temperature of (Top) 250 K and (Bottom) 650 K. The white lines delineate the areas where the CFF per spectral band is higher than unity. The spectral range of LIFE and the vertical extent of the cloud are overplotted. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

The Impact Of Water Clouds On The Prospective Emission Spectrum Of Teegarden’s Star b As Observed By LIFE

by Keith CowingNovember 16, 2024November 16, 2024

Non-transiting terrestrial planets will be accessible by upcoming observatories of which LIFE is an example.

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 […]

The dashed curves represent results from our solar radiation model, and the solid-coloured curves represent measurements made in Greenland. Many existing ice models14,44,45,46,47 either assume that no solar radiation penetrates below the top few millimeters, or use a single broadband extinction value indicated by the horizontal black line, which can lead to errors in the energy absorbed at depth up to a few orders of magnitude. -- Nature

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Press Release

Could Life Exist Below Mars Ice? NASA Study Proposes Possibilities

by Keith CowingOctober 17, 2024

Researchers think meltwater beneath Martian ice could support microbial life. While actual evidence for life on Mars has never been found, a new NASA study proposes microbes could find a […]

The MIRI/MRS (this work), NIRspec/PRISM and NIRSpec/G395M Luhman et al. (2024) spectrum of WISE 0855 from 0.8 to 22 µm. Panel a) shows the NIRspec/PRISM data in red and panel from 0.8 to 2.2µm b) the NIRspec/G395M in green and MIRI/MRS data in blue from 2.2 to 22 µm. Insets c) and d) show the overlap between the three data sets from 3.5 to 5.4 µm and the ammonia feature from 8.0 to 13.0 µm, respectively. The most dominant absorbing species are presented above the spectrum in various colors. For better visualization he data was binned to a resolution of R = 1000 for MIRI/MRS and NIRSpec/G395M and R = 100 for NIRSpec/PRISM. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Water Depletion and 15NH3 in the Atmosphere of the Coldest Brown Dwarf Observed With JWST/MIRI

by Keith CowingOctober 17, 2024October 17, 2024

With a temperature of ∼285 K WISE0855 is the coldest brown dwarf observed so far. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) we obtained observations that allow us to characterize […]

Water

Liquid On Mars Was Not Necessarily All Water

Water Ice in the Edge-On Orion Silhouette Disk 114–426 from JWST NIRCam Images

Ice-covered Lake Enigma In Antarctica Supports Unique Microbial Communities

An Impact-free Mechanism To Deliver Water To Terrestrial Planets And Exoplanets

OrCAS: Origins, Compositions, and Atmospheres of Sub-neptunes. I. Survey Definition

Meteorite Contains Evidence Of Liquid Water On Mars 742 Million Years Ago

The Impact Of Water Clouds On The Prospective Emission Spectrum Of Teegarden’s Star b As Observed By LIFE

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

Could Life Exist Below Mars Ice? NASA Study Proposes Possibilities

Water Depletion and 15NH3 in the Atmosphere of the Coldest Brown Dwarf Observed With JWST/MIRI

Astrochemistry: Hubble and JWST Observe Star Formation in The Carina Nebula

Mapping the Historical Roots of Astrobiology: A Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS) Analysis

The Agentic Observer Hackathon: Autonomous Decision-making in Simulated Astronomical Surveys

Tracking The Evolution of sub-Neptunes. I. Gyrochronology of Planet Hosting Stars

Tracking the Evolution of Sub-Neptunes. II. The Radius Valley on Gyrochronological Ages