For years we have observed the compelling fluvial features on the Martian surface. How did they get there? Was there a large ocean? Check out the very first measurements of how much water once flowed on Mars 4.5 billion years ago.
In just three years NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will leave Earth and start producing groundbreaking science! That means we have three years to figure out how to best utilize the instruments on board. It’s time for a crash course in exoplanet observations with JWST.
Calling undergrads, graduate students and early career scientists interested in exoplanet studies and/or astrobiology to apply for the Emerging Researchers in Exoplanet Science Symposium and/or the Astrobiology Graduate Conference.
The Kepler Mission has measured planet radii and orbital periods for 3,000+ light curves. So what is next? Either we convince the continental USA to become amateur astronomers… Or we figure out ways to retrieve more planetary parameters from the Kepler data set. I’ll stick with the later. And so will the authors or this paper.
We have one canonical idea of what life looks like on Earth: nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide. But would this be true on another world? When looking for life in the atmospheres of exoplanets, we might want to consider searching for something completely different.