News
A Method for Extracting Oxygen from Extraterrestrial Soils Just Passed a Major Test
7+ hour, 24+ min ago (528+ words) A Method for Extracting Oxygen from Extraterrestrial Soils Just Passed a Major Test'Universe Today If humans are ever going to live and work in space, it is paramount that we can meet our basic needs far from home. This includes…...
Very Few Planets Have the Right Chemistry for Life
1+ week, 3+ day ago (911+ words) Many factors influence a planet's habitability. The more obvious ones include being in a star's habitable zone and having a magnetic shield to protect it from radiation. But other important factors are less obvious. New research points out that for…...
Webb Reveals a Plethora of Organic Molecules in a Bright Local Infrared Galaxy
1+ week, 5+ day ago (665+ words) A recent study, led by the Center for Astrobiology (CAB), CSIC-INTA and using modelling techniques developed at the University of Oxford, has uncovered an unprecedented richness of small organic molecules in the deeply obscured nucleus of a nearby galaxy, thanks…...
For the First Time, Scientists Detect Molecule Critical to Life in Interstellar Space
3+ week, 6+ day ago (514+ words) For the first time, a complex, ring-shaped molecule containing 13 atoms'including sulfur'has been detected in interstellar space, based on laboratory measurements. The discovery closes a critical gap by linking simple chemistry in space with the complex organic building blocks found in…...
The Sun's Red Dwarf Neighbors Provide Clues to Origins of Carbon and Oxygen
1+ mon, 3+ day ago (288+ words) We live near a fusion reactor in space that provides all our heat and light. That reactor is also responsible for the creation of various elements heavier than hydrogen, and that's true of all stars. So, how do we know…...
The Universe's Most Common Water is a Hot Mess
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (348+ words) In school, most students are taught about the four phases of matter - solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. But, at extremely high pressures and temperatures, water can exist in a superionic phase that, while it looks like a solid, is actually…...
It Didn't Take Long For Earth's Ancient Oceans To Become Oxygenated
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (539+ words) Earth's story is replete with destiny-changing events, and the GOE is definitely one of them. Why? Because oxygen allowed aerobic respiration, and aerobic respiration generates way more energy from the same amount of food than anaerobic respiration without oxygen. Once…...
Forget Stardust - It Was Star-Ice All Along
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (290+ words) The key to the paper is Zirconium - not an element typically associated with cosmochemistry. However, it has one particular isotope - Zr-96 - that is only created in supernovae. So Dr. Bizzarro and his team decided to look for evidence of it…...
Did Life Begin in Prebiotic Surface Gels?
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (760+ words) [Could life on Earth have begun in surface-bound gels that predated the first cells? Credit: ChemSystemChem/Khanum, et al. (2025)]Surface-bound gels may have provided the structure and chemistry necessary for life to take root on Earth. These findings could also…...
When Ancient Scribes Accidentally Became Scientists
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (249+ words) The eclipse record itself, preserved in the "Spring and Autumn Annals," represents perhaps the earliest datable account of a total solar eclipse. But when researchers tried to verify it using modern astronomical calculations, they hit a problem. The math said…...