habitability

Podcast: Astrobiology with Cosmic Rays

Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for July features a conversation with Dr. Dimitra Atri titled “Astrobiology with Cosmic Rays“. The sun provides the primary energy source for life on Earth, and biologists have also speculated that geothermal heat near oceanic vents may have also provided energy for early forms of life. But could life survive on other forms of energy? Galactic cosmic rays are charged particles with origins from outside our solar system, and Dr. Atri suggests that these cosmic rays could […]

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Solar Events Unlikely to Cause Birth Defects

High-energy cosmic rays can pose threats to airline crews at high altitudes, but how much risk do they pose for everyday life on the surface? A new study by a team of scientists that includes Dr. Dimitra Atri finds that Earth’s atmosphere provides a shilding mechanism that protects us at the surface, further confounding the problem of birth defects but at least giving us a sense of safety from cosmic rays above. This research has been featured by Science Daily […]

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Can Cosmic Rays Power Life?

A new hypothesis paper by Dr. Dimitra Atri suggests that galactic cosmic rays could provide a source for living organisms in subsurface environments. Dr. Atri suggests several mechanisms by which secondary particles induced by galactic cosmic rays could penetrate into deep subsurface environments and provide energy to biological systems. This suggests that planets with a strong geothermal heat flux, rogue planets, and other worlds previously thought to be uninhabitable could in fact support life in the absence of starlight. Dr. […]

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Atacama Research Featured in HuffPo

Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos was recently featured in a Huffington Post article on the extreme limits of life in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Dr. Azua-Bustos discusses his team’s recent discovery of bacterial species at María Elena South, a location previously thought too dry to sustain life. The researchers are now investigating whether any such “dry limit” for life exists on Earth at all, and they are continuing to search for habitable environments with even less available water than at María Elena South. […]

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Podcast: Habitability of Tattoine Planets

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for August features a conversation with Dr. Duncan Forgan of the University of St. Andrews titled “Habitability of Tattoine Planets: Even More Complicated Than You Think“. Planets in orbit around multiple star systems were once thought confined to realm of science fiction, but ongoing planet-finding missions have confirmed that planets can readily form in such environments. Dr. Duncan Forgan considers how habitable conditions could arise on such planets, and he presents some of his climate […]

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Podcast: Habitabily Metrics for Astrobiology

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for July features a conversation with Dr. Abel Méndez of the University of Puerto Rico about his research on “Habitabily Metrics for Astrobiology“. Habitability is often defined as the ability of a planet to have liquid water on its surface, but can one planet be “more habitable” than another? Is Earth at optimal habitable conditions? Dr. Abel Méndez raises such questions in his efforts to quantify habitability using analytical tools borrowed from ecology. He describes […]

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Iceland Photoblog

Join Dr. Sanjoy Som on a recollection of his field work in Iceland from this past June. Follow along on his SAGANet.org blog as he shares photos, memories, and strategies from exploring the basaltic rock systems in Iceland and discusses possible research applications for his collected data. [read the blog on SAGANet.org]

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Pubs: Habitable Zones & Planetary Mass

A new paper led by Dr. Ravi Kopparapu explores the liquid water habitable zone for terrestrial planets and how these limits change with planetary mass. Astronomers are currently interested in identifying extrasolar planets that may be habitable, and calculations such as those led by Dr. Kopparapu help to understand the range of planetary parameters that could retain such conditions. The paper is titled “Habitable zones around main-sequence stars: Dependence on planetary mass” and is available as a pre-print on arXiv.org. […]

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