AbSciCon '08: The Astrobiology Universe

The opening speaker at the 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon), Lord Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge, said that our universe may just be one of many. Multiple universes could be stacked sideways like sheets of paper, separated by only a thin margin of space. We would never know they were there unless we could be awakened to the existence of that other dimension.

This could have been the theme of the conference. Every morning and afternoon, nine separate talks were given simultaneously, often just separated by thin walls through...

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April 28, 2008 / Written by: Leslie Mullen

Found: Earth-Like Planet

A rocky planet not much larger than Earth has been detected orbiting a star close to our own neighborhood in the Milky Way, and the European astronomers who found it say it lies within the star’s “habitable zone,” where life could exist, possibly in oceans of water.

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May 1, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Exoplanets and M Stars

Members of NAI’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory Alumni Team and their colleagues have a new paper in the current issue of Astrobiology. They present a critical discussion of M star properties that are relevant for the long- and short-term thermal, dynamical, geological, and environmental stability of conventional liquid water habitable zone (HZ) M star planets.

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April 18, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Final Assembly of Earth-Like Planets

NAI Postdoctoral Fellow Sean Raymond leads a team of authors from NAI’s University of Colorado, Boulder, and University of Arizona Teams, and Virtual Planetary Laboratory and University of Washington Alumni Teams in a new publication in Astrobiology. They present analysis of water delivery and planetary habitability in 5 high-resolution simulations forming 15 terrestrial planets. Their results outline a new model for water delivery to terrestrial planets in dynamically calm systems, which may be very common in the Galaxy.

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April 17, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Habitability of Planets Around M Dwarf Stars

Multidisciplinary work from members of NAI’s SETI Institute Team and a host of collaborators across the NAI re-examines what is known at present about the potential for a terrestrial planet forming within, or migrating into, the classic liquid–surface–water habitable zone close to an M dwarf star. Their new paper, published in the current issue of Astrobiology, presents the summary conclusions of an interdisciplinary workshop sponsored by NAI and convened at the SETI Institute in 2005.

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April 10, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Planets Around the Stars

Researchers from NAI’s University of Washington, University of Colorado, Boulder, and Virtual Planetary Laboratory Teams have developed models testing planet formation in four known systems, 55 Cancri, HD 38529, HD 37124 and HD 74156. Placing Mars to Moon-sized planet embryos between giant planets and allowing them to evolve for 100 million years, they found terrestrial planets formed readily in 55 Cancri, sometimes with substantial water and orbits in the system’s habitable zone. They found HD 38529 is likely to support an asteroid belt and Mars-sized or smaller bodies but no notable terrestrial planets. No planets formed in HD 37124...

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July 25, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe