In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land
At first glance, the grit crust could seem like a routine example of what researchers call a biological soil crust, or “biocrust”—a community of coexisting...
Tag : Planetary Science
The Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of an Exoplanet
The JWST’s size and sensitivity enabled it to collect more light from this planet than any previous observatory has obtained. (Its photo looks grainier than...
Life Helps Make Almost Half of All Minerals on Earth
“Each one of those kinds of pyrite is telling us something different about our planet, its origin, about life, and how it’s changed through time,”...
Why the Search for Life on Mars Is Happening in Canada’s Arctic
Only the hardiest organisms can thrive in one of the coldest springs on earth. That’s why in the summers of 2017 and 2019, Lyle Whyte...
Astronomers Radically Reimagine the Making of the Planets
Start at the center, with the sun. Our middle-aged star may be more placid than most, but it is otherwise unremarkable. Its planets, however, are...
Here’s why scientists have chosen Uranus for study in the next decade
Recently, a panel of experts from the US National Academies has set its priorities for planetary science and astrobiology in its report. In this report,...