Category Astronomy/Space

Newly analyzed data from the Galileo spacecraft’s flybys of one of Jupiter’s moons two decades ago is yielding fresh insights: the magnetic field around the moon Ganymede makes it unlike any other in the solar system. Far across the solar system, from where Earth appears merely as a pale blue dot, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft spent eight years orbiting Jupiter. During that time, the hearty spacecraft – slightly larger than a full-grown giraffe – sent back spates of discoveries on the gas giant’s moons, including the observation of a magnetic environment around Ganymede that was distinct from Jupiter’s own magnetic field...

Spectroscopy reveals elements such as gallium in a bacterial sample taken from silica in Yellowstone National Park. (Andrew Gangidine)

Geologists are looking for an elemental biosignature that might help NASA identify life on the red planet during the Mars 2020 rover mission. Doctoral candidate Andrew Gangidine is working with UC geology professor Andrew Czaja to develop a marker for ancient bacterial life on Mars. The research could help scientists put to rest one of our most fundamental mysteries. “We’re trying to answer the question: How rare is life in the universe?” Gangidine said.

Czaja, an assistant professor in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, serves on a NASA advisory committee that will decide where on Mars to send the next remote-controlled rover...

Though Mercury may look drab to the human eye, different minerals appear in a rainbow of colors in this image from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University APL/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Mercury’s crust is thinner than anyone thought, new mathematical calculations reveal. A planetary scientist has used careful mathematical calculations to determine the density of Mercury’s crust, which is thinner than anyone thought. Mercury is small, fast and close to the sun, making the rocky world challenging to visit. Only one probe has ever orbited the planet and collected enough data to tell scientists about the chemistry and landscape of Mercury’s surface. Learning about what is beneath the surface, however, requires careful estimation.

After the probe’s mission end...

Star forming region (Pillars of Creation) in the Eagle Nebula. Low-energy electrons, created in matter by space radiation (e.g., galactic cosmic rays, GCR, etc.), can induce formation of glycine (2HN-CH2-COOH) in astrophysical molecular ices; here, icy grains of interstellar dust (or ices on planetary satellites) are simulated by ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide condensed at 20 K on Pt in UHV, and irradiated by 0-70 eV LEEs. Credit: NASA, Hubble, STScI

New research offers evidence that humans – and the rest of life on Earth – may have been able to form with the right combination of star dust and radiation...