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In 2020, NASA and European-Russian missions will look for evidence of past life on Mars. But while volcanic, igneous rock predominates on the Red Planet, virtually the entire Earth fossil record comes from sedimentary rocks.
Space Exploration
May 17, 2019
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In the beginning, more than 13 billion years ago, the Universe was an undifferentiated soup of three simple, single-atom elements.
Astronomy
Apr 17, 2019
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Since its discovery in 2016, planetary scientists have been excited about TRAPPIST-1, a system where seven Earth-sized rocky planets orbit a cool star. Three of the planets are in the habitable zone, the region of space where ...
Astronomy
Apr 17, 2019
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Earth is a very special planet. It is the only celestial body in the solar system on which we know life exists. Could there be life on other planets or moons? Mars is always the first mentioned in this context; it has many ...
Astrobiology
Mar 28, 2019
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A new study reveals asteroid impacts on ancient Mars could have produced key ingredients for life if the Martian atmosphere was rich in hydrogen. An early hydrogen-rich atmosphere on Mars could also explain how the planet ...
Space Exploration
Mar 26, 2019
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The first data received from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft orbiting the asteroid Ryugu is helping space scientists explore conditions in the early solar system. The space probe gathered vast amounts of images and other data providing ...
Space Exploration
Mar 19, 2019
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Imagine astronauts on Mars, tasked with picking rock samples that will be used by scientists to search for signs of life. But they can only transport a limited number back to Earth. What should they look for? Are some types ...
Space Exploration
Mar 11, 2019
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A new study describes the Science Operations component and new results from NASA's Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains (BASALT). The goal of BASALT was to provide evidence-based recommendations for future ...
Astrobiology
Mar 06, 2019
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An international team of researchers, which includes scientists from McMaster's School of Geography & Earth Sciences, NASA, and others, is tackling one of the biggest problems of space travel to Mars: what happens when we ...
Astrobiology
Mar 06, 2019
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Since the Kepler Space Telescope was launched into space, the number of known planets beyond the solar system (exoplanets) has grown exponentially. At present, 3,917 planets have been confirmed in 2,918 star systems, while ...
Astrobiology
Mar 04, 2019
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Mars Express has revealed the first geological evidence of a system of ancient interconnected lakes that once lay deep beneath the Red Planet's surface, five of which may contain minerals crucial to life.
Space Exploration
Mar 01, 2019
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A robotic rover deployed in the most Mars-like environment on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile, has successfully recovered subsurface soil samples during a trial mission to find signs of life. The samples contained unusual ...
Astrobiology
Feb 28, 2019
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Scientists have reproduced in the lab how the ingredients for life could have formed deep in the ocean 4 billion years ago. The results of the new study offer clues to how life started on Earth and where else in the cosmos ...
Astrobiology
Feb 26, 2019
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In a research breakthrough funded by NASA, scientists have synthesized a molecular system that, like DNA, can store and transmit information. This unprecedented feat suggests there could be an alternative to DNA-based life, ...
Astrobiology
Feb 21, 2019
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Dutch scientists have developed an instrument capable of detecting the presence of living plants kilometres away. In future, the technique could be used in the search for extraterrestrial life. The biologist Lucas Patty will ...
Astrobiology
Feb 19, 2019
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Just like the mythical creation stories that depict the formation of the world as the story of order from chaos, the early Earth was home to a chaotic clutter of organic molecules from which, somehow, more complex biological ...
Astrobiology
Feb 06, 2019
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Is there life beyond Earth?
Astrobiology
Dec 21, 2018
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Everything around you – your desk, your laptop, your coffee cup – in fact, even you – is made of stardust, the stuff forged in the fiery furnaces of stars that died before our sun was born. Probing the space surrounding ...
Astronomy
Dec 21, 2018
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About 2.6 million years ago, an oddly bright light arrived in the prehistoric sky and lingered there for weeks or months. It was a supernova some 150 light years away from Earth. Within a few hundred years, long after the ...
Astronomy
Dec 11, 2018
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An international team of astronomers using a combination of ground and space-based telescopes have reported more than 100 extrasolar planets in only three months. These planets are quite diverse and are expected to play a ...
Astronomy
Dec 04, 2018
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