Latest Astrobiology Stories
W. M. Keck Observatory With data collected from the mighty W. M. Keck Observatory, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomer Mike Brown — known as the Pluto killer for discovering a Kuiper-belt object that led to the demotion of Pluto from planetary status — and Kevin Hand from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found the strongest evidence yet that salty water from the vast liquid ocean beneath Europa’s frozen exterior actually makes its way to the surface....
NASA [ Watch The Video Cosmic Ice ] Behind locked doors, in a lab built like a bomb shelter, Perry Gerakines makes something ordinary yet truly alien: ice. This isn't the ice of snowflakes or ice cubes. No, this ice needs such intense cold and low pressure to form that the right conditions rarely, if ever, occur naturally on Earth. And when Gerakines makes the ice, he must keep the layer so microscopically thin it is dwarfed by a grain of pollen. These ultrathin layers turn out...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online On February 28, a team of engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California switched their Mars Curiosity rover over to a redundant onboard computer after discovering a memory issue within the main computer system. That swap put Curiosity into “safe mode,” allowing the team to investigate the main computer before returning the rover back to a normal routine. Today, the JPL team announced Curiosity has transitioned...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory The ground team for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active. The intentional swap at about 2:30 a.m. PST today (Thursday, Feb. 28) put the rover, as anticipated, into a minimal-activity precautionary status called "safe mode." The team is shifting the rover from safe mode to operational status over the next few days and is troubleshooting the...
[WATCH VIDEO: Flying Through The HD 100546 System] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers, for the first time, may have made a direct observation of a planet forming inside a thick disc of gas and dust. An international team led by Sascha Quanz, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), used the European Space Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). Their discovery could help improve scientists' knowledge of how planets form and...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Two compact laboratories inside NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars. Curiosity science team members will use the laboratories to analyze the rock powder in the coming days and weeks. The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments received portions of the sample on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22 and 23,...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists are on the hunt to find habitable exoplanets, and a new discovery might mean there are even more candidates out there than previously thought. A new theoretical study suggests even dying stars might be able to have orbiting exoplanets that are hospitable to extraterrestrial life. As a star dies, its outer layers puff off, leaving behind a hot core known as a white dwarf which is typically about the size of Earth. Although...
PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever collected from the interior of a rock on another planet. No rover has ever has drilled into a rock beyond Earth and collected a sample from its interior. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Transfer of the powdered-rock sample into an open scoop was visible for the first time in images...
[Watch Video: Curiosity Drills - Animation] [Watch Video: Drilling Demonstration] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA released during a teleconference today photos of its Curiosity rover's first-ever sample collected from inside a rock on Mars. Curiosity used its drill to help it collect a sample from inside a Martian rock for the first time earlier this month. During this task, Curiosity drilled about a 0.63-inch wide by 2.5-inch deep hole into a rock...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory A day after NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drilled the first sample-collection hole into a rock on Mars, the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument shot laser pulses into the fresh rock powder that the drilling generated. This scene shows a line of pits left by laser hits on the drill tailings. The view is a mosaic of images taken by the remote micro-imager in ChemCam, with color information from Curiosity's Mast Camera. The drilled hole, at...
Latest Astrobiology Reference Libraries
Image Caption: Artistic concept of a planetary system. Credit: Wikipedia/NASA/JPL-Caltech The term Astronomy encompasses a broad range of topics, including the study of stars, galaxies, and planets. In order to focus on the different areas of study, many subfields of astronomy emerge. One such area is the study of planets known, appropriately, as Planetary Astronomy. Observational Planetary Astronomy Even within the field of Planetary Astronomy, there are several divisions to...
Astrobiology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published monthly by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. It is the official journal of the Astrobiology Society. As of May 2012, the editor-in-chief is Sherry L. Cady, PhD (Portland State University, Department of Geology). Astrobiology is the leading international journal for astronomers, biologists, chemists, geologists, microbiologists, paleontologists, and planetary scientists designed to advance our understanding of life’s origin, evolution, and...
Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer who pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and science in general. He is less well known for his skepticism. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sagan attended the University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree (1955) and a master's degree (1956) in physics, before earning his doctorate (1960) in astronomy and astrophysics. He taught at Harvard University...
Xenobiology -- Xenobiology (or exobiology, or astrobiology) is the term for a speculative field within biology which considers the possibility of, and possible nature of, extraterrestrial life. It also necessarily includes the concept of artificial life, since any life form might naturally evolve elsewhere, could conceivably come out of a laboratory using a future technology. It might be difficult to tell whether a truly strange life form had in fact arisen in space, or was designed much...
Panspermia -- Panspermia is a theory (more directly described as a hypothesis, as there is no compelling evidence yet available to support or contradict it) that suggests that the seeds of life are prevalent throughout the universe and life on Earth began by such seeds landing on Earth and propagating. The theory has origins in the ideas of Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher. An important proponent of the theory was the British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle. There is some evidence to...
