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
0
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
0
32
Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown that an exoplanet around a star in the constellation Leo has some of the chemical markers that, on Earth, are associated with living organisms. But these are vague ...
Astrobiology
Sep 16, 2023
5
153
Carbon-bearing molecules have been discovered in the atmosphere of the habitable zone exoplanet K2-18 b by an international team of astronomers using data from the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. These results are consistent ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2023
2
77
If we're going to look for life on other worlds, why not start with the one planet we know has life? Earth's atmosphere is rich with oxygen and molecules such as methane, which strongly suggest the presence of life. It also ...
Astrobiology
Sep 4, 2023
2
244
Chromium hydride (CrH), a molecule that's relatively rare and particularly sensitive to temperature, is useful as a "thermometer for stars," according to astronomer Laura Flagg, because it's abundant only in a narrow range ...
Astronomy
Aug 28, 2023
1
109
A team of astrophysicists from the University of Bordeaux and Observatoire Astronomique de l'Université de Genève is suggesting that some exoplanets may not have been too hot during their formative years to harbor life ...
Astronomers from the University of Chicago and elsewhere report the detection of an outflowing helium from the atmosphere of a nearby mini-Neptune exoplanet known as TOI-2134 b. The finding was detailed in a research paper ...
An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of two new sub-Neptune exoplanets using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The newfound alien worlds, designated TOI-2084 b and TOI-4184 b, orbit ...
The best hope for finding life on another world isn't listening for coded messages or traveling to distant stars, it's detecting the chemical signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres. This long hoped-for achievement is often ...
Astrobiology
Jun 19, 2023
0
1069
