The discovery that ancient rocks harbored microbial life deep below the seafloor confirms a long-standing hypothesis that interactions between mantle rocks and seawater can create potential for life. The scientists behind the discovery, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Virginia Tech, and the University of Bremen, have reported their findings in theProceedings of the […]
An international group of scientists has observed a sudden increase in ice loss on the Southern Antarctic Peninsula, what was previously thought to be a stable region of Antarctica. Led by scientists from the University of Bristol (UK), the group has published their observations in the latest edition of Science. Using measurements of the elevation […]
We’ve known for a long time that there is water in the form of ice on Mars. But now, new data from NASA’s rover Curiosity indicates that it’s possible that there is liquid water on the surface of Mars. Scientists from the University of Copenhagen say the water doesn’t freeze because of calcium perchlorate, which […]
Analysis of water samples taken from subglacial Lake Whillans – hidden beneath 2,600 feet of ice in Antarctica – has revealed a diverse and exotic microbial community. This provides the first definitive evidence that a functional microbial ecosystem exists beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, confirmingmore than a decade of speculation. The finding, detailed in the […]
The slopes of a giant Martian volcano, once covered in glacial ice, may have been home to one of the most recent habitable environments yet identified on Mars, according to new research led by Brown University geologists. Nearly twice as tall as Mount Everest, Arsia Mons (pictured) is the third tallest volcano on Mars and […]
The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered water vapor erupting from the south pole of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Astronomers have long suspected that Europa harbors a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust, and the new images are the first observational evidence of the existence of water on the moon. But whether the water is coming from […]
Peering into the atmospheres of planets many trillions of miles away using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have found the signature of water on five exoplanets. Although the presence of atmospheric water has been hinted at from previous observations of exoplanets, this is the first study to conclusively measure and compare the intensities of these […]
Astrophysicists have found the first evidence of a water-rich rocky planetary body outside our solar system in its shattered remains orbiting a white dwarf 170 light years away. The analysis of the dust and debris surrounding the white dwarf star GD 61 was conducted by scientists at the Universities of Warwick and Cambridge and appears […]
Scientists say data transmitted by the Messenger spacecraft provide compelling support for the notion that Mercury harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters. Given its proximity to the Sun, the existence of frozen water is counter-intuitive, but the tilt of Mercury’s rotational axis is almost zero, meaning […]
The proteins that are vital to living creatures evolved in Earth’s water-rich environment and it was thought that water was vital for proteins to function, but some intriguing new findings from the University of Bristol (UK) challenge this dogma. Proteins consist of one or more polypeptides (chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds) […]
