21 October 2020
OSIRIS-REx successfully touches asteroid Bennu
..., TAGSAM, the only portion of OSIRIS-REx that actually made contact with Bennu’s surface, fired a burst of nitrogen gas to dislodge fine material on the surface, trapping that material inside the device. “It’s hard to put into...
28 October 2020
Unexpected molecule found in Titan's atmosphere
...,” Lopes added. Aside from being incredibly thick and dotted with hydrocarbons, Titan’s atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, like Earth’s, with a hint of methane (CH4). 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, methane filled Earth’s air instead of oxygen...
30 November 2020
Researchers discover solid phosphorus in comet 67P
... growth and replication). But, it takes more than phosphorus for life to exist; it also needs carbon (c), hydrogen (h), nitrogen (n), oxygen (o) and sulphur (s) – a group that has become known as the life-necessary CHNOPS-elements. Past studies...
16 December 2020
Hayabusa2 delivers first-ever gas sample from an asteroid
... condition,” say JAXA in a statement. “From here, we will move to chamber CC3-3, remove the samples from chamber A in a nitrogen environment, and open chambers B and C.” A detailed analysis of both grains and gas is expected in due course.
23 December 2020
Harmful stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets after all, new study says
... managed to get established. This is because stellar flares can increase the abundance of life-indicating gasses such as nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide and nitric acid, from barely there to detectable levels. "Space weather events are...
24 September 2021
New reactor could turn Mars' atmosphere into rocket fuel
... atmosphere compared with Earth’s, but the wispy skies it does have is composed of 95 percent carbon dioxide, 3 percent nitrogen, 1.6 percent argon, along with traces of other gases and lots of dust. Wu suggests that potential martian astronauts...
