Category Astronomy/Space

Scientists at UC Riverside are suggesting something is missing from the typical roster of chemicals that astrobiologists use to search for life on planets around other stars — laughing gas.

Chemical compounds in a planet’s atmosphere that could indicate life, called biosignatures, typically include gases found in abundance in Earth’s atmosphere today.

“There’s been a lot of thought put into oxygen and methane as biosignatures. Fewer researchers have seriously considered nitrous oxide, but we think that may be a mistake,” said Eddie Schwieterman, an astrobiologist in UCR’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

This conclusion, and the modeling work that led to it,...

Most theories claim the Moon formed out of the debris of this collision, coalescing in orbit overa months or years. A new simulation puts forth a different theory — the Moon may have formed immediately, in a matter of hours, when material from the Earth and Theia was launched directly into orbit after the impact.

Europa is more than just one of Jupiter’s many moons — it’s also one of most promising places in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Under 10 kilometers of ice is a liquid water ocean that could sustain life. But with surface temperatures at -180 Celsius and with extreme levels of radiation, it’s also one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system. Exploring Europa could be possible in the coming years thanks to new applications for silicon-germanium transistor technology research at Georgia Tech.

Regents’ Professor John D...

A team of researchers from Université Clermont Auvergne, working with a colleague from Universität Bayreuth, has found evidence that suggests the Earth’s composition changed over time during its early years via collisional erosion. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their study of the amounts of samarium and neodymium in meteorites and what it showed them about the processes that led to the current makeup of the Earth. Zoë Malka Leinhardt, with the University of Bristol, has published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining theories regarding the formation of the Earth and the work done by the team on this new effort.

Prior research has suggested that planets form from collisions of material in accretion ...