chemistry

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…

5 months ago

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…

5 months ago

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…

12 months ago

The Building Blocks of Earth Could Have Come From Farther out in the Solar System

Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago via accretion. Earth's building blocks were chunks of rock of varying sizes. From…

1 year ago

Even More Complex Organic Molecules Have Been Found in a Protoplanetary Disc. Was Life Inevitable?

Will we ever understand life's origins? Will we ever be able to put our finger on the exact moment and…

1 year ago

What’s it Like Inside a Super-Earth?

We know a ton about the inside of Earth. We know it has both an inner core and an outer…

1 year ago

One of Life’s Building Blocks can Form in Space

Peptides are one of the smallest biomolecules and are one of life's critical building blocks. New research shows that they…

1 year ago

Curiosity Sees a Strong Carbon Signature in a Bed of Rocks

Carbon is critical to life, as far as we know. So anytime we detect a strong carbon signature somewhere like…

1 year ago

Did Cosmic Dust Deliver the Phosphorus Needed for Life?

Without phosphorus, there's no life. It's a necessary part of DNA, RNA, and other biological molecules like ATP, which helps…

1 year ago

How To Search the Chemical Makeup of Exoplanet Atmospheres for Hints at Their History

Author’s note – this article was written with Dr. Vincent Kofman, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), working in…

2 years ago