building blocks of life
Lessons From Ancient Earth’s Atmosphere: From Hostile to Hospitable
Will we ever understand how life got started on Earth? We've learned much about Earth's long, multi-billion-year history, but a…
Linking Organic Molecules to Hydrothermal Vents on Enceladus
Despite the vast distance between us and Saturn's gleaming moon Enceladus, the icy ocean moon is a prime target in…
Cosmic Dust Could Spread Life from World to World Across the Galaxy
Does life appear independently on different planets in the galaxy? Or does it spread from world to world? Or does…
Finally, Let’s Look at the Asteroid Treasure Returned to Earth by OSIRIS-REx
NASA's OSIRIS-REx delivered its precious cargo to Earth on September 24th, 2023. The sample from asteroid Bennu is contained inside…
Toxic Gas is Leaking out of Enceladus. It’s also a Building Block of Life.
Enceladus' status as a target in the search for life keeps rising. We've known for years that plumes erupting from…
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…
JWST Sees Organic Molecules Ludicrously Far Away
When astronomers used the JWST to look at a galaxy more than 12 billion light years away, they were also…
Meteorites Bathed in Gamma Rays Produce More Amino Acids and Could Have Helped Life get Going on Earth
Our modern telescopes are more powerful than their predecessors, and our research is more focused than ever. We keep discovering…
Webb Sees Organic Molecules in the Hearts of Galaxies, Surprisingly Close to Active Supermassive Black Holes
When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched, one of its jobs was studying galactic formation and evolution. When we…
Even More Complex Organic Molecules Have Been Found in a Protoplanetary Disc. Was Life Inevitable?
Will we ever understand life's origins? Will we ever be able to put our finger on the exact moment and…