Life on Earth depends on six critical elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur. These elements are referred to as CHNOPS, and along with several trace micronutrients and liquid water, they're ...
Astrobiology
Apr 9, 2024
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40
We know that there are thousands of exoplanets out there, with many millions more waiting to be discovered. But the vast majority of exoplanets are simply uninhabitable. For the few that may be habitable, we can only determine ...
Astrobiology
Mar 12, 2024
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41
Discovering exoplanets is almost routine now. We've found over 5,500 exoplanets, and the next step is to study their atmospheres and look for biosignatures. The James Webb Space Telescope is leading the way in that effort. ...
Astrobiology
Feb 27, 2024
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10
Proxima Centauri b is the closest exoplanet to Earth. It is an Earth-mass world right in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star just 4 light-years from Earth. It receives about 65% of the energy Earth gets from the sun, and ...
Astronomy
Jan 24, 2024
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The Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) project is an ambitious plan to build a space telescope with four independent mirrors. The array would allow the individual mirrors to move closer or farther apart, similar to ...
Astrobiology
Jan 23, 2024
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9
Red dwarf exoplanet habitability is a hot topic in space science. These small dim stars host lots of exoplanets, including small rocky ones the size of Earth. But the little stars emit extremely powerful flares that can damage ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 8, 2024
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52
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered most of the confirmed exoplanets that we know of. But its successor, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), is catching up. New research announces the validation of eight more ...
Astronomy
Nov 6, 2023
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8
In searching for life in the universe, a field known as astrobiology, scientists rely on Earth as a template for biological and evolutionary processes. This includes searching for Earth analogs, rocky planets that orbit within ...
Astrobiology
Oct 19, 2023
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15
Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have detected evidence for quartz nanocrystals in the high-altitude clouds of WASP-17 b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet 1,300 light-years from Earth.
Astronomy
Oct 16, 2023
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206
Astronomers are working hard to understand biosignatures and how they indicate life's presence on an exoplanet. But each planet we encounter is a unique puzzle. When it comes to planetary atmospheres, carbon is a big piece ...
Astrobiology
Sep 29, 2023
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