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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Signs of Life would be Detectable in Single Ice Grain Emitted from Extraterrestrial Moons

    March 26, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    cartoon of icy moon with ocean interior covered with thin yellow stripe
    The drawing on the left depicts Enceladus and its ice-covered ocean, with cracks near the south pole that are believed to penetrate through the icy crust. The middle panel shows where authors believe life could thrive: at the top of the water, in a proposed thin layer (shown yellow) like on Earth’s oceans. The right panel shows that as gas bubbles rise and pop, bacterial cells could get lofted into space with droplets that then become the ice grains that were detected by Cassini.European Space Agency

    Could life be found in frozen sea spray from moons orbiting Saturn or Jupiter? New research finds that life can be detected in a single ice grain containing one bacterial cell or portions of a cell...

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    Secrets of the Van Allen Belt revealed in New Study

    March 24, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image Credit: NASA

    A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new study led by the University of Birmingham.

    The research represents the first step towards new theories and methods that will help scientists predict and analyse the behaviour of particles in space.

    It has implications for theoretical research, as well as for practical applications such as space weather forecasting.

    The research focused on two bands of energetic particles in near earth space, referred to as the Radiation Belts, or the Van Allen Belts.

    These particles are trapped within the Earth’s magnetosphere and can damage electronics on satellites and spacecraft passing through, as well as posing risks to astronauts.

    Understanding ho...

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    Astronomers Confirm a New ‘Trojan’ Asteroid that Shares an Orbit with Mars

    March 22, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Mars trojan family keeps growing
    An artist’s impression of an asteroid near Mars. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz (SMM, IAC)

    Using observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) a study led from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) has confirmed that the asteroid 2023 FW14, discovered last year, is accompanying the red planet in its journey round the sun, ahead of Mars and in the same orbit.

    With this new member, the group of Trojans that accompany Mars has increased in number to 17. But it shows differences in its orbit and chemical composition which may indicate that it is a captured asteroid, of a primitive type. The results are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

    A team from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universida...

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    Life’s Building Blocks are Surprisingly Stable in Venus-Like Conditions: Study

    March 21, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Venus in space with multi-colored amino acid molecules in its atmosphere
    Caption:MIT researchers have found that amino acids — major building blocks for life on Earth — are stable in highly concentrated sulfuric acid. Their results support the idea that these same molecules may be stable in Venus’ highly sulfuric clouds.
    Credits:Credit: JAXA/J. J. Petkowski

    If there is life in the solar system beyond Earth, it might be found in the clouds of Venus. In contrast to the planet’s blisteringly inhospitable surface, Venus’ cloud layer, which extends from 30 to 40 miles above the surface, hosts milder temperatures that could support some extreme forms of life.

    If it’s out there, scientists have assumed that any Venusian cloud inhabitant would look very different from life forms on Earth...

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