March 2025 – Page 3 – My WordPress Site

Silica formations found by the Spirit rover in 2008 near Home Plate in Gusev crater. Do they hold clues to ancient life on Mars? Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Microbiology & Virology

Recovery of Lipid Biomarkers in Hot Spring Digitate Silica Sinter as Analogs for Potential Biosignatures on Mars

by Keith CowingMarch 28, 2025March 28, 2025

Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for the 36 stars in our sample. Stellar metallicity is represented by the colour bar, and the circular points

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy

Optimising Radial Velocity Detection Limits for Southern Habitable Worlds Observatory Targets

by Keith CowingMarch 28, 2025

Comparison between the F410M map (contours) and the DSHARP ALMA continuum map (colors) at λ = 1.3 mm (6"× 6" map in the left and 2" × 2" map in the right, respectively; Isella et al. 2018). The location of the source candidate is indicated by a black arrow. The magenta dots show the location of the ALMA velocity kinks. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Stellar Cartography

JWST/NIRCam Coronagraphic Search for Hidden Planets in the HD 163296 Protoplanetary Disk

by Keith CowingMarch 28, 2025March 28, 2025

S/N values of planets when the stellar active region is located at different positions on G dwarf stars. Upper panels represent the Earthsize active region with temperatures of 1000 K and 10000 K for spots and flares, respectively. Bottom panels represent the Jupiter-size active region of spots and flares. Points A, B, and C in panel (a) represent the position chosen to plot in Fig. 6. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy

The Influence Of Stellar Activity On Detecting Earth-like Planets Via Nulling Interferometry

by Keith CowingMarch 28, 2025March 28, 2025

Several fluorescence measurements of a zebra calcite in Wind Cave were taken using portable spectrometers. Joshua Sebree

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains & Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Microbiology & Virology, Missions & Hardware, Sample Return, Tricorders & Sensors

Fluorescent Caves Could Explain How Life Persists In Extraterrestrial Environments

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Close-up of the Perseverance calibration target. Along the bottom row are five swatches of spacesuit materials that scientists are studying as they degrade. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Away Teams & Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Life Support Systems, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Space Physiology & Medicine

Away Team Tech: How Perseverance Is Helping Prepare Astronauts for Mars

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Titan -- NASA

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Impacts Into Titan’s Methane-clathrate Crust As A Source Of Atmospheric Methane

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Left panel: The rotation period-effective temperature distribution for M dwarfs across open clusters. Each data point is colour-coded according to its corresponding cluster. The spectral type is indicated on a second y-axis. The filled circles are coloured according to their corresponding cluster membership: Pleiades (age:0.12 Gyr) in blue; Praesepe (age: 0.67 Gyr) in green; NGC 6811 (age: 1 Gyr) in purple; NGC 752 (age: 1.4 Gyr) in pink; Ruprecht 147 (age: 2.7 Gyr) in yellow; M67 (age: 4 Gyr) in cyan. K2-18 and TOI 732 are shown as magenta and blue star symbols, respectively. Right panel: Log-log plot of age and rotation period for M dwarfs in the dataset from Engle & Guinan 2023 (shown in black circles). The red colour-coded data points represent cluster members (as reported by Curtis et al. 2020 and Godoy-Rivera et al. 2021) spectral types ranging from M2 to M6, as indicated by the colour bar. A third-degree polynomial best fit (Eqn. 5) to the dataset from Engle & Guinan 2023 is shown as an orange line. The grey shaded area represents the ±1𝜎 confidence interval around the fitted model. The magenta and blue vertical lines show the estimated age ranges as given in Table 4 for K2-18 and TOI-732, respectively. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Stellar Cartography, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Characterising M Dwarf Host Stars Of Two Candidate Hycean Worlds

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Earth's formation -- NASA

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets

Compositional Outcomes Of Earth Formation From A Narrow Ring

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Acetaldehyde integrated intensity maps at Band 7 (left) and Band 4 (right). The synthesized beam is shown in the bottom left corner. The contour levels are (5,10) × sigma (σ=0.07 Jy/beam km/s) and the contour derived from the Band 7 data is overlaid on the Band 4 map for comparison. Green dots mark the AA peak positions determined from a 2-D Gaussian fitting of the map in the left panel. Velocity vectors representing the proper motion of source I and n are shown as gray arrows. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

The Robust Detection And Spatial Distribution Of Acetaldehyde In Orion KL: ALMA Observations And Chemical Modeling

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025