When it comes to habitability for Earth-like life, we’ve got more than just liquid water to worry about. Today’s astrobite looks at how planets could lose portions of their atmospheres to quasar radiation.
That giant blob of plasma right there in our cosmic backyard rules our everyday lives, and yet it still holds many surprises. We will see today that the Sun is significantly less active than other stars similar to it, and how this affects our future studies on the subject.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest space observatory built to date. The authors of today’s paper suggest one possible use for the giant new telescope: Searching for signs of life on other planets.
How can we find other pale blue dots? Today’s paper studies what could be the most time-effective way to search for Earth-like exoplanets, just by looking at their colors.
Can life on exo-worlds build its own habitable environment in extremely unfavourable conditions?
How and where did the first organic molecules emerge? Sophisticated chemistry models for the synthesis of amino acids within planetesimals can help us to decipher these mysteries.