We know little about Earth's surface temperatures for the first 4 billion years or so of its history. This presents a limitation into research of life's origins on Earth and also how it might arise on distant worlds as well.
Earth Sciences
Jun 1, 2017
2
174
Methanol, a key building block for the complex organic compounds that comprise life, has been detected for the first time in the protoplanetary disk of a young, distant star. This finding could help scientists better understand ...
Astronomy
May 25, 2017
1
501
In October 1997, the Cassini spacecraft blasted off to explore Saturn and drop a probe onto its eponymously named moon, Titan. Then, something unusual happened. What was meant to be a four-year mission was extended almost ...
Space Exploration
May 10, 2017
0
17
It was a good week for astrobiology. Within days of NASA's announcement that the necessary ingredients for life exist in the plumes erupting from the southern pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus, scientists gathered at Stanford ...
Astronomy
May 1, 2017
10
317
The hot springs of Yellowstone National Park may be extreme environments, but they are host to a diversity of microbes that could shed light on the evolution of life on Earth and, perhaps, what lurks on distant planets.
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 17, 2017
0
269
If chemical energy is life's coin and water is life's marketplace, there may be a swift economy alive and well beneath the icy shell of Saturn's brightest moon. Such was the announcement during NASA's April 13th press conference: ...
Space Exploration
Apr 17, 2017
0
14
High energy, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun is a known to hazard to life, yet the energy provided by our star has played an important role as the essential driver of life on Earth.
Biochemistry
Mar 31, 2017
0
39
It is thought that animal life first arose during the Ediacaran Period, between 635 and 541 million years ago, but these organisms bore little resemblance to the animals we know today. That's led some scientists to believe ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2017
0
50
Pluto has long been viewed as a distant, cold and mostly dead world, but the first spacecraft to pass by it last year revealed many surprises about this distant dwarf planet.
Space Exploration
Feb 23, 2017
0
228
Microbes that rank among the simplest and most ancient organisms on Earth could survive the extremely thin air of Mars, a new study finds.
Space Exploration
Jan 16, 2017
1
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