chemistry
There are Mysteries at Venus. It’s Time for an Astrobiology Mission
When scientists detected phosphine in Venus' atmosphere in 2020, it triggered renewed, animated discussions about Venus and its potential habitability.…
Webb Finds Icy Complex Organic Molecules Around Protostars: Ethanol, Methane, Formaldehyde, Formic Acid and Much More
In the quest to understand how and where life might arise in the galaxy, astronomers search for its building blocks.…
ESA’s Ariel Mission is Approved to Begin Construction
We're about to learn a lot more about exoplanets. The ESA has just approved the construction of its Ariel mission,…
Adolescent Galaxies are Incandescent and Contain Unexpected Elements
If the Universe has adolescent galaxies, they're the ones that formed about 2 to 3 billion years after the Big…
JWST Takes a Detailed Look at Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede
Nature doesn't conform to our ideas of neatly-contained categories. Many things in nature blur the lines we try to draw…
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…
The Heaviest Element Ever Seen in an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere: Barium
Astronomers have spotted barium in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet. With its 56 protons, you have to run your…
Scientists Discover a New Way Exoplanets Could Make Oxygen; Unfortunately, it Doesn’t Require Life
Finding oxygen in an exoplanet's atmosphere is a clue that life may be at work. On Earth, photosynthetic organisms absorb…
It’s Not Conclusive, But Methane is Probably the Best Sign of Life on Exoplanets
When the James Webb Space Telescope aims at exoplanet atmospheres, it'll use spectroscopy to identify chemical elements. One of the…