News tagged with terrestrial life

Earth siblings can be different: Chemical clues on the formation of planetary systems

An international team of researchers, with the participation of IAC astronomers, has discovered that the chemical structure of Earth-like planets can be very different from the bulk composition of the Earth. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Life possible on 'large parts' of Mars: study

Australian scientists who modelled conditions on Mars to examine how much of the red planet was habitable said that "large regions" could sustain life.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 41

Researchers pinpoint date and rate of Earth's most extreme extinction

It's well known that Earth's most severe mass extinction occurred about 250 million years ago. What's not well known is the specific time when the extinctions occurred. A team of researchers from North America ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Meteorite holds clues to organic chemistry of the early Earth: study

(PhysOrg.com) -- Carbonaceous chondrites are a type of organic-rich meteorite that contain samples of the materials that took part in the creation of our planets nearly 4.6 billion years ago, including materials ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 09, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Musical chairs around the periodic table

Life on Earth is composed of a handful of essential elements from the periodic table. Recently, one group of researchers claimed that this ingredient list should be expanded, having found a bacteria that presumably ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 17, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Report casts world's rivers in 'crisis state'

(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's rivers, the single largest renewable water resource for humans and a crucible of aquatic biodiversity, are in a crisis of ominous proportions, according to a new global analysis.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 29, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (12) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Probing Question: What is a Near Earth?

In the 1997 movie "Contact" (based on the novel by Carl Sagan), actress Jodie Foster plays an astrophysicist devoted to SETI -- the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Despite doubting colleagues, she ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 27, 2010 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (10) | comments 2

Uninhabited water: Where no microbe has gone before

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's 'follow the water' strategy to find life on other planets might need rethinking, according to Australian National University research describing the amount of water on Earth that doesn't ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 13, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Earth microbes may contaminate the search for life on Mars

Bacteria common to spacecraft may be able to survive the harsh environs of Mars long enough to inadvertently contaminate Mars with terrestrial life according to research published in the April 2010 issue of ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 27, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (8) | comments 21 | with audio podcast

Professor: We have a 'moral obligation' to seed universe with life

(PhysOrg.com) -- Eventually, the day will come when life on Earth ends. Whether that’s tomorrow or five billion years from now, whether by nuclear war, climate change, or the Sun burning up its fuel, the last ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 09, 2010 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (49) | comments 114 | with audio podcast report

Law of probabilities backs hopes for E.T., conference hears

The law of probabilities backs theories that we are not alone in the Universe, although an encounter with an advanced civilisation may shock our species, scientists at a conference said here on Monday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 25, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (17) | comments 34

Seeking Life's Shadow

They haven't yet figured out how to draw blood from stones, but a group of French researchers is offering new insight that could change how scientists search for signs of life in Martian rocks.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Why leave it to nature? Chemistry professor wants to understand, simplify, photosynthesis

(PhysOrg.com) -- Amid calls for transformative change in the world’s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies -- photosynthesis ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (12) | comments 2