Chemistry
Enceladus has All the Raw Materials for Life
Saturn's ocean moon, Enceladus, is attracting increasing attention in the search for life in our Solar System. Most of what…
Spaceflight is Polluting the Atmosphere with Metal
Humans can't seem to interact with the environment at all without fouling it in some way. From plastic bags in…
A Hypervelocity Experiment Mimics the Surface Conditions of Ceres
It might be oxymoronic to say that the more we find out about something, the more mysterious it becomes. But…
Is it Life, or is it Volcanoes?
Astronomers are working hard to understand biosignatures and how they indicate life's presence on an exoplanet. But each planet we…
The JWST Just Found Carbon on Europa, Boosting the Moon’s Potential Habitability
Most planets and moons in the Solar System are clearly dead and totally unsuitable for life. Earth is the only…
Strong Evidence that Supermassive Black Holes Affect Their Host Galaxy’s Chemistry
Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) are impossible to ignore. They can be billions of times more massive than the Sun, and…
JWST Gazes into the Dark Molecular Clouds at the Heart of the Milky Way
There's an unusual object near the Milky Way's heart that astronomers call "The Brick." It's a massive cloud of gas…
Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST
The search for life is an incredibly evocative driver of cosmic exploration. It captures our imagination to think that there…
Another Key Amino Acid Found in Space: Tryptophan
Astronomers continue to find more and more of the building blocks of life out in space. This time, researchers have…
Earth Might Have Formed in Just a Few Million Years
Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago. That simplistic statement is common, and it's a good starting point for understanding…