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Astrobiology news
New Mars life detection method strengthens sample return safety protocols
Within the next decade, space agencies plan to bring samples of rock from Mars to Earth for study. Of concern is the possibility these samples contain life, which could have unforeseen consequences. Therefore, researchers ...
Astrobiology
10 hours ago
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Unburied treasure: Rover researchers find unexpected minerals on Mars that hint at possibility of ancient life
Sometimes scientists must dig and work and sweat to make scientific discoveries. And sometimes a robot rolls over a rock that turns out to be a revelation.
Astrobiology
Mar 5, 2025
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Can surface fractures on Earth, Mars, and Europa predict habitability on other planets?
When a mudflat crumbles on Earth, or an ice sheet splinters on one of Jupiter's moons (Europa), or an ancient lakebed breaks on Mars, do these fractures follow a hidden geometric script? Could similar patterns on another ...
Astrobiology
Mar 5, 2025
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Water might be older than we first thought, forming a key constituent of the first galaxies
Water may have first formed 100–200 million years after the Big Bang, according to a modeling paper published in Nature Astronomy. The authors suggest that the formation of water may have occurred in the universe earlier ...
Astronomy
Mar 3, 2025
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Webb exposes complex atmosphere of starless super-Jupiter
An international team of researchers has discovered that previously observed variations in brightness of a free-floating planetary-mass object known as SIMP 0136 must be the result of a complex combination of atmospheric ...
Astrobiology
Mar 3, 2025
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Mars time machine: Researchers create virtual model to decode red planet's climate evolution
Researchers are creating advanced simulations that will provide a deeper understanding of Mars's climatic history and help to determine whether it was once able to sustain life.
Astrobiology
Feb 28, 2025
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How did life develop on early Earth? New source of nitrogen discovered
Living organisms need nitrogen as a central building block for protein formation, for example. However, although our atmosphere contains plenty of nitrogen, neither humans nor the vast majority of plants can absorb it directly ...
Astrobiology
Feb 27, 2025
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Geysers on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus may form from a 'mushy zone'
Searching for life on other celestial bodies, or at the very least the necessary components to support it, has been fascinating scientists and enthusiasts for centuries. While planets are the obvious choice, their moons can ...
Mission concept proposes sampling Enceladus's subsurface ocean
How can we explore Saturn's moon, Enceladus, to include its surface and subsurface ocean, with the goal of potentially discovering life as we know it? This is what a recent study presented at the American Geophysical Union ...
Astrobiology
Feb 25, 2025
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Laser-powered device tested on Earth could help detect microbial fossils on Mars
The first life on Earth formed four billion years ago, as microbes living in pools and seas: what if the same thing happened on Mars? If it did, how would we prove it? Scientists hoping to identify fossil evidence of ancient ...
Astrobiology
Feb 25, 2025
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Ancient beaches testify to long-ago ocean on Mars
A Chinese rover that landed on Mars in 2021 detected evidence of underground beach deposits in an area thought to have once been the site of an ancient sea, providing further evidence that the planet long ago had a large ...
Astrobiology
Feb 24, 2025
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If you're going to call aliens, use this number
Let's dive into one of those cosmic curiosities that's bound to blow your mind: how we might chat with aliens. And no, I'm not talking about elaborate coded messages or flashy signals. We're talking about something incredibly ...
Astronomy
Feb 24, 2025
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Sulfur may be a new tool for finding alien life
Astronomers have identified sulfur as a potentially crucial indicator in narrowing the search for life on other planets. While sulfur itself is not necessarily an indication of habitability, significant concentrations of ...
Astrobiology
Feb 19, 2025
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Life on Mars? It probably looks like something you'd find in your stomach
We often forget how wonderful it is that life exists, and what a special and unique phenomenon it is. As far as we know, ours is the only planet capable of supporting life, and it seems to have arisen in the form of something ...
Astrobiology
Feb 19, 2025
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Cosmic radiation from supernova altered virus evolution in Africa, study suggests
Isolated by mountains along the East African Rift is Lake Tanganyika. More than 400 miles long, it is the continent's deepest lake and accounts for 16% of the world's available freshwater. Between 2 and 3 million years ago, ...
Astrobiology
Feb 19, 2025
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Jupiter's moon Callisto is very likely an ocean world
More pocked with craters than any other object in our solar system, Jupiter's outermost and second-biggest Galilean moon, Callisto, appears geologically unremarkable. In the 1990s, however, NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured ...
Astrobiology
Feb 18, 2025
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A new theory explains how water first arrived on Earth
When Earth first formed, it was too hot to retain ice. This means all the water on our planet must have originated from extraterrestrial sources. Studies of ancient terrestrial rocks suggest liquid water existed on Earth ...
Astrobiology
Feb 17, 2025
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Evolving intelligent life took billions of years—but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted
A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare.
Astrobiology
Feb 17, 2025
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Does planetary evolution favor human-like life? Study ups odds we're not alone
Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed on Earth.
Astrobiology
Feb 14, 2025
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Asteroid Ryugu samples suggest presence of salty water in outer solar system
Asteroids that orbit close to the Earth inevitably cause us some anxiety due to the even remote possibility of a collision. But their proximity also offers ample opportunities to learn more about the universe. Ryugu, a 900-meter ...
Astrobiology
Feb 14, 2025
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More news
Is methane the key to finding life on other worlds?
How a twin Earth could detect Earth
How well could Earth life survive on exoplanets?
Other news
Private lunar lander touches down on the moon, but its status is unknown
Bacterial 'jumping genes' can target and control chromosome ends
Could ocean worlds support life?
Dormancy: Life's first survival strategy?
European rocket successfully carries out first commercial mission
Salt-based catalysts enable selective production of mirror-image molecules
