We're inching closer and closer to reliably detecting biosignatures on distant planets. Much of the focus is on determining which chemicals indicate life's presence.
Astrobiology
Nov 17, 2023
3
59
After seven years in space and over 4 billion miles traveled, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission successfully collected and delivered the first U.S. sample from a near-Earth asteroid. Yet, after all this time and travel, the spacecraft ...
Space Exploration
Nov 1, 2023
0
215
How did life come about? The answer to this question goes to the very heart of our existence on planet Earth.
Astrobiology
Mar 25, 2023
0
48
On February 28, 2021, for the first time in 30 years, a meteorite fell in the U.K. and was later recovered by scientists. Today, there's an international effort to study this space rock and learn more about its place in the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 13, 2023
0
15
Today Venus has a dry, oxygen-poor atmosphere. But recent studies have proposed that the early planet may have had liquid water and reflective clouds that could have sustained habitable conditions. Researchers at the University ...
Around 4.4 billion years ago, the early solar system resembled a game of space rock dodgeball, as massive asteroids and comets, and, later, smaller rocks and galactic debris pummeled the moon and other infant terrestrial ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 7, 2022
0
902
Early risers are in for a celestial treat this weekend when four planets in our solar system align in the sky, culminating in a "romantic" display between Venus and Jupiter.
Astronomy
Apr 29, 2022
0
242
Michigan State University's Seth Jacobson and colleagues in China and France have unveiled a new theory that could help solve a galactic mystery of how our solar system evolved. Specifically, how did the gas giants—Jupiter, ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 27, 2022
0
2070
Researchers at Australia's Curtin University have discovered evidence of a massive impact on the Martian surface about 4.45 billion years ago. This may not seem like a surprising revelation—after all, we know that there ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 2, 2022
2
50
Ever since scientists started looking at meteorites with microscopes, they've been puzzled—and fascinated—by what's inside. Most meteorites are made of tiny beads of glass that date back to the earliest days of the solar ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 2, 2021
0
1547
