An abundance of radioactive elements observed in a number of distant solar systems would make the constituent planets much warmer, say scientists who contend that this planetary inner-heat could significantly expand the so-called Goldilocks zone around stars where life could evolve. The preliminary findings, by geologists and astronomers at Ohio State University, were presented this […]
Scientists have discovered a viable community of bacteria that survives in a pitch-black, salty, and sub-zero environment beneath nearly 20 meters of ice in one of Antarctica’s most isolated lakes. Lake Vida, the largest of several lakes found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, contains no oxygen and possesses the highest nitrous oxide levels of any […]
New research suggests that the size of an asteroid belt – and its proximity to a giant Jupiter-like planet – needs to be just right for life to evolve in a planetary system. The new theory, developed by NASA’s Rebecca Martin and Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute, indicates that solar systems with […]
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) […]
Taking observations of Earth’s ice sheets and floating ice shelves and applying them to Europa, scientists say Jupiter’s moon may have a vast body of liquid water located relatively close to the surface under constantly fracturing ice sheets. The idea of liquid water under Europa’s surface isn’t new, but the authors of the new study […]
Researchers have created an analog of what they think the first multicellular cooperation on Earth might have looked like, showing that yeast cells – in an environment that requires them to work harder for their food – grow and reproduce better in multicellular clumps than singly. The research team, led by Harvard professor Andrew Murray, […]
All life on Earth uses “left-handed” amino acids to build proteins and NASA has now found that a greater number of asteroids were capable of creating these left-handed amino acids than previously thought. In March 2009, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center reported the discovery ofan excess of the left-handed form of the amino […]
Replicating the atmosphere of Titan and blasting it with UV light has allowed University of Arizona researchers to create organic macromolecules that they think are a model for the chemistry of pre-life Earth. Earth and Titan are the only known planetary-sized bodies that have thick, predominantly nitrogen atmospheres. “Titan is so interesting because its nitrogen-dominated […]
Scientists have long known that DNA carries the genetic sequence for advanced organisms and that RNA is dependent on DNA for performing roles such as building proteins. But one prominent theory about the origins of life, called the RNA World model, postulates that because RNA can function as both a gene and an enzyme, it […]
The Hubble Space Telescope has detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star, a possible indicator of extraterrestrial life. In this case, the Jupiter-sized planet (called HD 189733b) is too hot for life, but astronomers say that the observations are a proof-of-concept demonstration that the basic chemistry for life can […]
