From NASA’s successful missions on the Red Planet, to more distant potentially habitable worlds like to Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Titan, and even to developing techniques to look for biosignatures; read more about NASA’s Astrobiology Program here! Link: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/state-of-nasa-astrobiology-2022/
On the 15th of March,1806, a meteorite fell near Alais, France and was the first object from space in which scientists discovered organic chemicals. Link: https://www.space.com/39251-on-this-day-in-space.html
Getting involved in British Science Week is really easy, and you can take part in lots of different ways. Check out the official website to find out more! Link: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/
A reference database to enable our search for life on the surface of icy exoplanets and exomoons by using records from Earth’s icy biota is missing, so this team developed a spectra catalogue of life in ice to facilitate the search for extraterrestrial signs of life. Link: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2021.0008
The detection of a complex organic molecule, dimethyl ether, in the disk around an infant star suggests prebiotic chemistry starts in the space between stars. Link: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/largest-molecule-yet-found-in-planet-forming-disk/
Jennifer Lobo from the Science and Industry Museum at Manchester spoke to some of their women volunteers who work in fields related to STEM. Click below to read more about their experiences! Link: https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/international-womens-day-women-in-stem/#:~:text=March%208%20is%20International%20Women’s,and%20raising%20awareness%20against%20bias.
Blog Contributor: Arty Goodwin
Sustainability is something that is becoming ever more important in our daily lives. We are now more conscientious of the effect our habitual ways of living have on the environment. More recycling, less fossil fuels, and managing our impact on this one planet we inhabit. Yet, as humans launch an increasing number of satellites into orbit, it is clear we need to extend this mentality to our activities in space.
Blog Contributor: Sibsankar Palit
The biggest challenge to life on Earth that prevents it from moving beyond our own planet Earth is the impact of space on its metabolism and physiology. Many germs and microscopic animals exhibit amazing biochemistry that helps them survive extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme radiation and extreme space conditions
Blog Contributor: Arty Goodwin
Stromatolites are an important geological feature for tracking the earliest life on Earth. These sedimentary structures first appeared in the geological record ~3.5 billion years ago and have historically been used as a biosignature for life, often with some controversy
