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UrduGiant gas planets can be agents of chaos, ensuring nothing lives on their Earth-like neighbors around other stars.
Tag: Astrobiology
Novel bacterial proteins from seafloor shine light on climate and astrobiology
In a groundbreaking study, a team of Georgia Tech researchers has unveiled a remarkable discovery: the identification of novel bacterial proteins that play a vital role in the formation and stability of methane clathrates, which trap gigatons of greenhouse gas beneath the seafloor. These newfound proteins not only suppress methane clathrate growth as effectively as toxic chemicals used in drilling but also prove to be eco-friendly and scalable. This innovative breakthrough not only promises to enhance environmental safety in natural gas transportation but also sheds light on the potential for similar biomolecules to support life beyond Earth.
Using cosmic weather to study which worlds could support life
As the next generation of giant, high-powered observatories begin to come online, a new study suggests that their instruments may offer scientists an unparalleled opportunity to discern what weather may be like on far-away exoplanets.
Newly discovered form of salty ice could exist on surface of extraterrestrial moons
Scientists suspect that the red streaks crossing the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa is a frozen mixture of water and salts, but its chemical signature matches no known substance on Earth. Now researchers have discovered a new type of solid crystal that forms when water and table salt combine in cold, pressurized conditions. Researchers believe the new substance created in a lab on Earth could form at the surface and bottom of these worlds’ deep oceans.
Space exploration goes underground
In two connected studies, cave ecologist Jut Wynne, along with dozens of co-authors including engineers, astrophysicists, astrobiologists and astronauts, lay out the research that needs to be done to get us closer to answering the old-age question about life beyond Earth.
Volcanic eruptions may have spurred first ‘whiffs’ of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere
A new analysis of 2.5-billion-year-old rocks from Australia finds that volcanic eruptions may have stimulated population surges of marine microorganisms, creating the first puffs of oxygen into the atmosphere. This would change existing stories of Earth’s early atmosphere, which assumed that most changes in the early atmosphere were controlled by geologic or chemical processes.
Life could exist in the clouds of Jupiter but not Venus
Jupiter’s clouds have water conditions that would allow Earth-like life to exist, but this isn’t possible in Venus’ clouds, according to the groundbreaking finding of new research led by a Queen’s University Belfast scientist.
Rutgers Planetary Scientist, Bioscientist Available for Comment on Perseverance Rover Landing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media contact: Neal Buccino, [email protected], 732-668-8439 Scheduled for a Feb. 18 Mars landing, the rover will look for signs of past life New Brunswick, N.J. (Feb. 11, 2021) – Rutgers University-New Brunswick planetary and life scientists are…
Russian expert comments on a gas in the toxic atmosphere of the planet Venus that could be a by-product of life
A most interesting and important discovery, it shows we still know very little about the closest planet to ours. Naturally, this is by no means evidence of biological activity or its traces, nor does the original publication claim that. The…
Rutgers Researchers Teach Lessons on Extraterrestrial Life in Local Elementary Schools
Each week, researchers with Rutgers ENIGMA teach astrobiology lessons to children in grades four through eight at McKinley Community School and Greater New Brunswick Charter School. Astrobiology is a relatively new interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand whether life arose elsewhere and whether we can detect it.
Rogers examines the effects of ancient microbes in new book
The idea of freezing a life in ice and thawing it out years, even centuries, later has been used extensively in novels, movies and comics. According to BGSU biology professor Scott Rogers in his new book this concept may be more fact than fiction, and the outcomes of this are just as worrying as they are exciting.
Are We Alone in the Universe? Rutgers Professor Explores Possibility of Life on Mars and Beyond
People have spent centuries wondering whether life exists beyond Earth, but only recently have scientists developed the tools to find out.
Introducing VPLanet: A virtual planet simulator for modeling distant worlds across time
Barnes, a UW assistant professor of astrobiology, astronomy and data science, released the first version of VPLanet, his virtual planet simulator, in August. He and his co-authors described it in a paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
NASA Makes Dual Investment in Ocean Worlds Research at WHOI
Agency funds five-year effort to understand the potential for life in outer solar system and establishes a new Network for Ocean Worlds The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will invest in a major new research program headquartered at the…
Looking for life: University of Washington researchers, presentations abound at 2019 astrobiology conference
What are ocean worlds like? Is life possible inside a planet? What might a faraway technological civilization look like from here? Which planets warrant closer study, and why? And above all: Are we alone? Astrobiology is the study of life…