Category Astronomy/Space

Recent advances in astronomical observations have found a significant number of extrasolar planets that can sustain surface water, and the search for extraterrestrial life on such planets is gaining momentum. A team of astrobiologists has proposed a novel approach for detecting life on ocean planets. By conducting laboratory measurements and satellite remote sensing analyses, they have demonstrated that the reflectance spectrum of floating vegetation could serve as a promising biosignature...

Mars, the next frontier in space exploration, still poses many questions for scientists. The planet was once more hospitable, characterized by a warm and wet climate with liquid oceans. But today Mars is cold and dry, with most water now located below the surface. Understanding how much water is stored offers critical information for energy exploration, as well as life sustainability on the planet.

A research group from Tohoku University has helped shed light on this by improving an existing Mars climate model. The enhanced model accommodates the various properties of Martian regolith, or the loose deposits of solid rock that comprise Martian soil. The study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

Searching for life on other celestial bodies, or at the very least the necessary components to support it, has been fascinating scientists and enthusiasts for centuries. While planets are the obvious choice, their moons can also harbor the chemical ingredients for life.

Saturn is orbited by 146 moons, with Enceladus being the sixth largest at approximately 500km in diameter. This small, icy moon is characterized by its highly reflective white surface and geyser-like jets releasing ice and water vapor hundreds of kilometers into space from its south pole.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft identified these jets in 2005, before going on to sample them in 2008, 2009 and 2015...

The first life on Earth formed four billion years ago, as microbes living in pools and seas: what if the same thing happened on Mars? If it did, how would we prove it? Scientists hoping to identify fossil evidence of ancient Martian microbial life have now found a way to test their hypothesis, proving they can detect the fossils of microbes in gypsum samples that are a close analogy to sulfate rocks on Mars.

“Our findings provide a methodological framework for detecting biosignatures in Martian sulfate minerals, potentially guiding future Mars exploration missions,” said Youcef Sellam, Ph.D. student at the Physics Institute, University of Bern, and first author of the article in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

“Our laser ablation ionization ma...