Tag: Astrobiology
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Project Blue tries again with crowdfunding campaign for planet-watching telescope
An artist’s conception shows a preliminary design for the Project Blue telescope. (Project Blue via Vimeo) Project Blue is launching a second try to attract crowdfunding for a space telescope designed to study planets in the Alpha Centauri system, months after the first try fizzled. This time around, the BoldlyGo Institute and its Project Blue…
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Voyager at 40: ‘The Search for Life in Space’ puts big question on the big screen
“The Search for Life In Space” touches on several frontiers in astrobiology. (MacGillivray Freeman) What better way to celebrate 40 years of NASA’s interplanetary Voyager mission than with an eye-filling movie that brings the decades-old story up to date? “The Search for Life in Space,” an IMAX 3-D documentary that opens at the Pacific Science…
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Hubble keeps hope alive for water on potentially habitable TRAPPIST-1 planets
This artist’s impression shows how the surface of a planet orbiting a red dwarf star may appear. The planet is in the habitable zone, so liquid water exists. (CFA Illustration / M. Weiss) Do some of the Earth-sized planets around a dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1, just 40 light-years away, have liquid water? Newly reported findings…
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Planetary protection is serious business at NASA
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Narrow jets of gas and icy particles erupt from the south polar region of Enceladus, contributing to the moon’s giant plume. A cycle of activity in these small-scale jets may be periodically lofting extra particles into space, causing the overall plume to brighten dramatically. Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute…
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Seemingly strange radio signals from a red dwarf star spark interest at Arecibo
The 1,000-foot radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory played a role in the movie “Contact.” (UPRA Photo) The 1,000-foot-wide radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory will take a closer look at a red dwarf star known as Ross 128 after picking up what one astronomer said were “some very peculiar signals” during a 10-minute…
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Newfound super-Earth could be the best planet for analyzing alien atmospheres
An artist’s impression shows a super-Earth passing across the disk of the faint red star known as LHS 1140. (CfA Illustration / M. Weiss) It’s not the closest potentially habitable planet, but astronomers say a world 40 percent wider than Earth could be one of the best places to target in the search for life beyond…
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New discoveries raise prospects for life on moons of Jupiter and Saturn
This diagram of Saturn’s moon Enceladus shows its interior structure, with an icy shell and a subsurface ocean of liquid water over a rocky core. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast liquid water…
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Enceladus’ plumes suggest that Saturn moon’s ocean could support microbial life
This composite image shows how plumes of water emanate from fissures in the surface ice of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. (NASA / JPL Illustration) Scientists have detected molecules of hydrogen in plumes of watery material erupting from cracks in the ice of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn – and that suggests an ocean beneath…
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Hubble spots more signs of Europa’s watery plumes, lifting hopes for habitability
These composite images show a suspected plume of material erupting two years apart from the same location on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Both plumes, photographed in ultraviolet light by Hubble, were seen in silhouette as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. (NASA / ESA / STScI / USGS) Saturn’s moon Enceladus wasn’t the only…
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‘Life’ horror movie sparks reality check on procedures for studying Mars samples
Rebecca Ferguson plays Miranda North, a planetary protection officer aboard the International Space Station, in the movie “Life.” (Sony Pictures Digital Productions) Spoiler Alert! This article doesn’t reveal any major plot twists, but wait to read it if you’re trying to stay totally in the dark about the plot of the movie “Life.” Let sleeping…