Mystery stone circles may point to water on Mars

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 days 20 hours (www.newscientist.com)

Using cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Matt Balme of the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and his colleagues mapped the Elysium Planitia, a region near the equator. They saw rings up to twenty-three meters across made up of stones sorted by size into concentric bands.

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First detection of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.sciencenews.org)

Moving one step closer to finding the fingerprints of life in a habitable planet beyond the solar system, astronomers have for the first time detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet that orbits a star other than the sun.

The extrasolar planet and its star lie about sixty-three light-years from Earth. A gaseous body slightly bigger than Jupiter, the orb circles its parent star at a proximity that renders it far too hot to support life

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Planets without metal cores may be bad for life

merry submitted, created time 4 months 2 weeks (space.newscientist.com)

Some planets beyond our solar system might be rocky like Earth, but lack its gooey metallic middle, a new study suggests. Such "coreless" terrestrial planets would not have magnetic fields, which would make them inhospitable to life as we know it.

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Has Mars lost the fire? Northern ice cap suggests little geothermal activity.

Darkfrog submitted, created time 7 months 3 days (www.sciencemag.org)

I remember learning long ago that Mars once had an atmosphere belched up by its many volcanoes, but that its gravity had been insufficient to keep it from drifting off into space. Once the volcanoes slowed and stopped, the atmosphere began to deplete. New data suggest that Mars today shows little geothermal activity.

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Investigating Life in Extreme Environments report gives hints on facts of life

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.esf.org)

From the deepest seafloor to the highest mountain, from the hottest region to the cold Antarctic plateau, environments labeled as extreme are numerous on Earth and they present a wide variety of features and characteristics. Investigating life processes in extreme environments not only can provide hints on how life first appeared and survived on Earth (as early earth was an extreme environment) but it can also give indication for the search for life on other planets.

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Earth-like exoplanet found!

Hecate submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.nature.com)

A few throw rugs, some flowers... we could move right in! The commute would be hell, though.

The planet is about five times Earth's mass and may have an average temperature between 0 and 40 degrees centigrade (that's 32 and about 114 F). We can't tell much about its composition, but if it turns out to be a rocky or ocean-like planet, it could sustain liquid water and perhaps life. If it has a gaseous outer layer, though, no luck.

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