Water on other planets and moons may be a crucial clue to finding extraterrestrial life. But finding water, even within our own solar system, is proving to be very difficult. It’s a problem which NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) is hoping to resolve with the JUICE [JUpiter ICy moons Explorer] mission launched a year ago on 14 April 2023. Europa captured by NASA’s Juno mission in 2022. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Kevin M. Gill (CC BY 3.0). Its objective is to study Jupiter and three of its Galilean satellites: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. These are all icy worlds which show p ..read more

NASA’s Perseverance rover has found on the surface of Mars exactly the kind of rock that its scientific mission was established for. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. The latest core sample taken by the car-sized robot shows signs of having been awash with water for an extended period of time in the distant past. It might even have been on an ancient Martian beach. It is the 24th out of 38 planned samples to be taken by the rover. “To put it simply, this is the kind of rock we had hoped to find when we decided to investigate Jezero Crater,” says Ken Farley at NASA.  Farley is the project scient ..read more

A new lab-based study shows that a single grain of ice – blown into space by subsurface boiling – could contain enough material to detect signs of life on one of the moons in our solar system. An instrument that has this capability is going to be launched in the direction of some key candidates later this year. Ice-encrusted oceans of some of moons in our solar system are the leading candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life. Artist’s rendition of Saturn’s moon Enceladus with hydrothermal activity on the seafloor and cracks in the crust. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Jupiter and Saturn a ..read more

A giant volcano has been ‘hiding’  on the surface of Mars – but scientists have only just identified the behemoth, as well as possible glacier ice beneath its surface. The volcano has been provisionally given the title “Noctis volcano” pending an official name. Noctis volcano has been imaged repeatedly since 1971. But it has been eroded almost beyond recognition. It lies at the border between the Noctis Labyrinthus – a region of maze-like, deep, steep-walled valleys – and the vast canyons of Valles Marineris. The newly discovered giant volcano on Mars is located just south of the planet ..read more

In between shelf stable rehydrated meals, and white flour tortillas, sometimes an astronaut just needs a few leafy greens. But some innovative science has shown that when you mess with gravity, lettuce can become susceptible to bacterial infection. The new study which involved putting lettuces into a simulated gravity free environment, was conducted at the University of Delaware.   The research has been published in Scientific Reports and npj Microgravity. Where there are humans, there are bacteria, even in space. Researchers have been trying for years to limit the bacterial an ..read more

When I speak with Jeremy Wardell, Project Scientist for NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, it is 54 days and 7 hours out from the scheduled launch of the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. “PACE is a game changer,” says Wardell. “With our heritage instruments, we’ve often known exactly what kind of data we’re going to get. But the information this mission will gather will be so astoundingly superior to what’s available now that not only am I excited just to play with it, it will enable us to really grow scientifically.”  Wardell’s f ..read more

NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured a full day on Mars from sunrise to sunset in a 12-hour video sequence. The rover captured it using its black-and-white Hazard-Avoidance Cameras, also called Hazcams. The rover’s shadow is visible on the surface in these images taken by the front Hazcam. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. A Martian day, called a ‘sol’, lasts 24 hours, 37 minutes and 22 seconds. The video did not reveal any interesting weather phenomena on that day but, taken from 5:30am to 5:30pm local time, it did capture the rover’s own shadow as it shifted across the sandy Martian surface. It was ..read more

Liquid water is often touted as the key to finding life on other planets. But what about finding alien technology? For that, claim two astronomers, the key ingredient might be oxygen. In a study published in Nature Astronomy, they suggest oxygen in the atmosphere – a mark of the ability for a civilisation to burn things – is the crucial element to developing technology on any planet. They’re calling it an “oxygen bottleneck”. “In our paper, we explore whether any atmospheric composition would be compatible with the presence of advanced technology,” says Associate Professor Amedeo Balbi from t ..read more

The last year brought us some interesting new science and perspectives on our solar system. Let’s take a look back at some of the stories covered by Cosmos in 2023 on our planet’s backyard. Venus has oxygen all over German astronomers revealed that Venus – the second planet from the Sun – has oxygen on its atmosphere on both its day and night sides. Illustration of Venus with elements furnished by NASA. Credit: buradaki / iStock / Getty Images Plus. Venus is roughly the same size as Earth. But, while our planet is a mild, hospitable one, Venus is hot and hostile. Temperatures reach 460°C on i ..read more

Astronomers have long wondered why there are so many hydrogen-poor supernovae in the universe. Current models can’t explain it but a bold new theory involving hidden stars could provide the answer. Supernovae are the explosive deaths of large stars. They can be as bright as entire galaxies. But more low-hydrogen supernovae from massive stars exist than physicists have been able to explain. The precursor giant stars that should have made them don’t seem to be numerous enough to have produced the supernovae. It’s as if the supernovae are exploding into existence out of nothing. “Either we can’t ..read more