planetary surface
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Scientists Can Detect Life in Single Grain of Alien Ice
Icy moons like Europa and Enceladus are exciting venues for the prospect of life beyond Earth, because they are thought to contain oceans of water beneath their frigid surfaces. Now, a team of scientists has concluded that a single grain of material spewed up by the outgassing moons could contain biosignatures—signs of life—if there are…
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Bennu Asteroid Samples Expected to ‘Fundamentally’ Shift Our Perspective on Cosmic Life
If NASA ever manages to pry open the sample canister, that is.
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Returned Asteroid Sample Canister Contains Way More Asteroid Than Expected
Scientists working to open up the sample canister containing rock and dust from asteroid Bennu have run into a problem: there’s just too much of it. The process of disassembling the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head is taking longer than anticipated due to the abundance of material found when the canister lid was removed…
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Lifespans of Rivers Revealed on Titan and Ancient Mars
Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan are of a shared scientific interest: the two worlds boast river channels similar to those on our own planet. Though Mars’ water networks dried up long ago, Titan’s liquid methane and ethane rivers are still coursing on the moon’s surface today. Both kinds are of scientific interest because they could…