New Atlas

Space Audio available

NASA experiment shows DNA sugars could be floating around in space

Michael Irving December 18, 2018

Evidence is building that life's chemical building blocks may start stacking up in space. Now, NASA astrophysicists have managed to create DNA sugars in a vacuum chamber that simulates interstellar space, and in follow-up studies found other sugar derivatives in meteorite samples.

DNA sugars may form in the interstellar medium, which is seeded with vital molecules from nebulae

Environment Audio available

10-year study documents massive, mysterious ecosystem deep beneath our feet

Michael Irving December 10, 2018

A study has taken a census of life in the “deep biosphere” beneath the Earth's surface. Among the finds are bizarre creatures that can survive at record depths, pressures and temperatures, and even “zombie” bacteria that may live (in a loose sense of the word) for millions of years at a time.

Researchers have cataloged the extensive biosphere of life deep beneath the surface of the Earth

Space Audio available

Climate simulations forecast the weather on all seven TRAPPIST exoplanets

Michael Irving November 22, 2018

Among the almost-4,000 exoplanets found so far, none really capture the imagination like TRAPPIST-1. Now a team of astronomers led by the University of Washington has simulated the climates that could be found on each TRAPPIST world.

An artistic render of a temperate TRAPPIST-1 f, which could also be frozen or stifling under ...

Space Audio available

New Arecibo Message updates original attempt to contact ET

Michael Irving November 18, 2018

In 1974, astronomers used the Arecibo Observatory to beam a message from humanity to the stars, in one of the most well-known attempts to contact possible alien life. For the 44th anniversary of the Arecibo Message, scientists are reaching out to the public for help in designing an updated version.

The Arecibo Observatory, which was used to send the original Arecibo Message in 1974

Biology Audio available

Rains bring death to the Atacama Desert

David Szondy November 15, 2018

Studying the effects of once-in-a-century rainfall in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert in Chile, a team of astrobiologists found that instead of causing a bloom of growth, the unexpected abundance of water killed off three quarters to seven/eighths of the microbe species present.

A small, ephemeral lagoon in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert

Biology

Synthetic organisms engineered to shed light on ancient evolution

Michael Irving October 30, 2018

To peer back in time at certain key steps of evolution, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have engineered synthetic microorganisms designed to be similar to some that might have lived billions of years ago.

These synthetic microorganisms are made up of yeast cells (blue) with bacteria (pink) inside them, which ...

Space

Alien life could be wiped out by outbursts from violent young stars

Michael Irving October 21, 2018

The majority of stars in our Milky Way aren’t Sun-like – they’re the smaller and cooler red dwarfs. To determine how well these stars might be able to support life, A NASA program is using Hubble to monitor their flare activity, and the first results don’t paint a positive picture.

An artist's rendering of a red dwarf star, which could sterilize exoplanets with its intense radiation ...

Science Audio available

New study finds oldest evidence of life may just be boring old rocks after all

Michael Irving October 17, 2018

A few years ago, researchers studying stromatolites in Greenland dated them to 3.7 billion years old, making them the oldest evidence of life on Earth. However, a new study has now taken another look at the rocks and found that they probably weren’t biological in origin.

An earlier study found the conical structures (highlighted) appeared to be biological in origin, but a ...

Space Audio available

50-foot ice spikes may dot Europa's surface

Michael Irving October 9, 2018

While NASA has plans to possibly send a lander to Europa in the coming years, a new discovery might make touchdown tricky – there’s a chance that large swathes of Europa’s surface are covered in ice spikes almost 50 ft (15 m) high.

A new study suggests Europa's surface could be dotted with giant penitentes (ice spikes), such as ...

Space

Water discovered hidden deep beneath Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Anthony Wood September 5, 2018

Scientists may have discovered large amounts of water hidden deep beneath the surface of Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot. The discovery, which was made using ground-based telescopes, opens up the possibility that extremophile lifeforms could exist in the atmosphere of the enigmatic gas giant.

Image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot created from data collected by NASA's Juno spacecraft