No Plate Tectonics? No Problem, Says Life
On Earth, long-term geochemical cycling facilitated by plate tectonics is argued to be the most significant factor for habitability. Plate tectonics allows heat to move from the mantle into the […]
Tag Archives: habitability
Water Vapor Found in Zone Conducive to Rocky Planet Formation
The search for extraterrestrial life and habitable planets revolves around the search for water since water is essential to all forms of life. One place to look for water is […]
Discovery of Phosphates in an Ocean Outside of Earth: Chemical Measurements of Enceladus’ Ocean
The Cassini-Huygens joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) mission surveyed Saturn and its moons, including Enceladus, its sixth-largest moon. This mission led to the discovery of a hydrothermally […]
Terminal Habitability: The Goldilocks Zone of Tidally Locked Exoplanets
With the launch of NASA’s JWST, the hunt for near-Earth-sized exoplanets in the Habitable Zones of stars is heating up. The Habitable Zone (HZ) is defined as the zone around […]
Early Life on Mars May Have Altered the Climate, Wiping Itself Out
Whether ancient Mars harbored life has tantalized scientists and the public for more than a century. Today the surface of Mars is cold and dry, inhospitable to life as we […]
Two Potentially Temperate Exoplanets Discovered in the Venus/Earth Zone
In the age of exoplanet discovery, most planets found have either been large gaseous giants or large terrestrial planets orbiting very close to their stars. Both types of planets are […]
Why Did the Climate of Mars Shift from Habitable to Inhabitable? Clues from Mapping Ancient Riverbeds
Early in martian history, the climate was warm enough for potentially habitable lakes and rivers of water to exist. However, roughly 3.6 billion years ago, the climate shifted from being […]
Analysis of the Allan Hills 84001 Martian Meteorite Reveals Pathways of Abiotic Organic Synthesis on Early Mars
The Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001) martian meteorite is an approximately four billion-year-old igneous rock composed primarily of the mineral orthopyroxene. It was discovered in Antarctica in 1984 and subsequently […]
New Age Constraint on the Morokweng Impact Structure in South Africa
Impact cratering is a ubiquitous geologic process in the solar system. This has important implications for planetary habitability because of the role of impacts in mass extinction events on Earth. […]
The Use of Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
The search for signs of life on exoplanets relies heavily on our ability to detect key biosignatures within a given planet’s atmosphere. Among potential markers for life in exoplanet atmospheres, […]
Now on YouTube: Ask An Astrobiologist with Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra
Episode 34: Aired on August 11thEpisode 34 of Ask An Astrobiologist Please join us as we welcome Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra, a research scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science! […]
The Role of Core Structure in Super-Earths on Exoplanet Habitability
Magnetic fields around planetary bodies are important factors for understanding the habitability of other worlds because they reduce atmospheric loss and protect the surface of the planet from radiation. The […]