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| High Planetary Tilt Lowers Odds for Life? |
| Topic: Alien Life |
02/06/12 |
| Highly-tilted worlds would have extreme seasons, subjecting life to alternating periods of scorching and subzero temperatures. This could make the development of all but hardiest, simplest creatures a long shot. |
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| Elements of ExoPlanets |
| Topic: New Planets |
02/02/12 |
| By looking at the wavelengths of light from nearby stars, researchers have determined the abundance of certain elements for more than a hundred stars. Trace elements in such stars may influence their habitable zones, where planets with life might dwell. |
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| Earth’s Cloudy Past Could Reveal Exoplanet Details |
| Topic: Spaceship Earth |
01/23/12 |
| The pattern of clouds on Earth is largely determined by the arrangement of the continents below. Now, astronomers are modeling the clouds at different periods in Earth’s past to better understand what alien worlds might look like. |
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| A Salt-Free Primordial Soup? |
| Topic: Origin & Evolution of Life |
01/19/12 |
| Most scientists who study the origin of life assume that it occurred in the ocean. But a minority view is that ions in seawater may interfere with prebiotic chemistry, making a freshwater environment more likely. |
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| Loss of Planetary Tilt Could Doom Alien Life |
| Topic: Alien Life |
01/12/12 |
| Gravitational interactions between red dwarf stars and habitable planets could erase a world's axial tilt, which moderates global temperatures and creates seasons, before life gets a chance to develop. |
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| Wanted: Habitable Moons |
| Topic: Alien Life |
01/05/12 |
| Rocky moons that orbit gas giant planet and reside in the habitable zone of their star could contain the seeds of life. Thanks to new research, finding those moons just got a little easier. |
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| SAM I Am |
| Topic: Mars |
12/05/11 |
| When the Mars Science Laboratory rover ‘Curiosity” lands on Mars in August 2012, its SAM instrument will “follow the carbon” to better understand the past and present habitability of our planetary neighbor. |
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| Pluto's Hidden Ocean |
| Topic: Outer Solar System |
11/17/11 |
| NASA's New Horizon mission should be able to learn whether liquid water exists a hundred miles beneath Pluto's surface. |
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