[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] The shallow habitable region of cratonal crust deforms with a strain rate on the order of 1019 s1. This is rapid enough that small seismic events are expected on one-kilometer spatial scales and one-million-year timescales.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] Europa is a prime target for astrobiology. The presence of a global subsurface liquid water ocean and a composition likely to contain a suite of biogenic elements make it a compelling world in the search for a second origin of life.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] We examine means for driving hydrothermal activity in extraterrestrial oceans on planets and satellites of less than one Earth mass, with implications for sustaining a low level of biological activity over geological timescales.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] Dissolved H2 concentrations up to the mM range and H2 levels up to 9-58% by volume in the free gas phase are reported for groundwaters at sites in the Precambrian shields of Canada and Finland.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] Models are employed to investigate sources of chemical energy for autotrophic microbial metabolism that develop during mixing of oxidized seawater with strongly reduced fluids discharged from ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal systems on the seafloor.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] In June 2003, the geochemical composition of geothermal fluids was determined at 9 sites in the Vulcano hydrothermal system, including sediment seeps, geothermal wells, and submarine vents.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] Radiolysis of water may provide a continuous flux of an electron donor (molecular hydrogen) to subsurface microbial communities.

[Wednesday, January 2, 2008] A key challenge in Astrobiology is to comprehend life and its interaction with the environment at a level sufficiently fundamental to embrace the alternative biochemistries that may be encountered in a search for life elsewher

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] Scientists have discovered the youngest known extrasolar planet. Its host star is still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust from which it was only recently born. This discovery allows important conclusions to be drawn about planet formation.

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] The longest-running search for radio signals from alien civilizations is getting a burst of new data from an upgraded Arecibo telescope, which means the SETI@home project needs more desktop computers to help crunch the data.

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show researchers more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex.

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Titan and the large, equatorial bright region at center called Adiri. The Huygens probe landing site is in view here, northwest of Adiri.

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] NASA intends to release a Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN, Cycle-5) soliciting new institutional members to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI).

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] Astronomers at the Carnegie Institution have found the first indications of highly complex organic molecules in the disk of red dust surrounding a distant star.

[Thursday, January 3, 2008] Four years ago, NASA's Stardust spacecraft chased down a comet and collected grains of dust blowing off its nucleus. When the spacecraft Comet Wild-2 returned, comet dust was shipped to scientists all over the world.

[Friday, January 4, 2008] Samples of the material picked up during the NASA Stardust mission indicate that parts of the comet Wild 2 actually formed in an area close to the sun.

[Monday, January 7, 2008] The ability to explore remote worlds in space has been enhanced through a polarization technique that allows the first ever detection of light reflected by extrasolar planets. The study has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

[Tuesday, January 8, 2008] On January 8, 2008, NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is releasing a Cooperative Agreement Notice (NNH08ZDA002C) soliciting new institutional members to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI).

[Thursday, January 10, 2008] Astronomers have successfully predicted the existence of an unknown planet, the first since Neptune was predicted in the 1840s. This planet, however, is outside our own solar system, circling a star a little more than 200 light years from Earth.

[Friday, January 11, 2008] New work shows that if Earth had been slightly smaller and less massive, it would not have plate tectonics -- the forces that move continents and build mountains. And without plate tectonics, life might never have gained a foothold on our world.

[Friday, January 11, 2008] Astronomers announced today that a mystery object orbiting a star 170 light-years from Earth might have formed from the collision and merger of two protoplanets.

[Saturday, January 12, 2008] Zigzagging some 60,000 kilometers across the ocean floor, Earth's system of mid-ocean ridges plays a pivotal role in many workings of the planet: in plate-tectonic movements, heat flow from the interior, and the chemistry of rock, water and air.

[Saturday, January 12, 2008] Only plants can take nitrogen gas from the air and use it to make the protein they need to grow. Or so biologists thought.

[Tuesday, January 15, 2008] We propose that astronomers will be eventually be able to discriminate between extrasolar Earth-like planets with surface oceans and those without using the shape of phase light curves in the visible and near-IR spectrum.

[Thursday, January 17, 2008] Space exploration supporters have descended upon a presidential primary debate website and posted hundreds of questions on space policy. More activity is needed to sustain this visibility such that this issue appears in the questions asked of candidates.

[Thursday, January 17, 2008] In May, researchers successfully conducted the third and final field test of the autonomous underwater robot, DEPTHX. Their objective was to explore Cenote Zacaton, the world's deepest water-filled sinkhole.

[Friday, January 18, 2008] The full recovery of ecological systems, following the most devastating extinction event of all time, took at least 30 million years, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

[Monday, January 21, 2008] A four-man science team led by British Antarctic Survey has begun exploring an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The lake could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise.

[Monday, January 21, 2008] Astronomers from Arecibo Observatory radio telescope have detected for the first time the molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide  two ingredients that build life-forming amino acids  in a galaxy some 250 million light years away.

[Wednesday, January 23, 2008] The most detailed three-dimensional seismic images yet of the Chicxulub crater, a mostly submerged and buried impact crater on the Mexico coast, may modify a theory explaining the extinction of 70 percent of life on Earth 65 million years ago.

[Thursday, January 24, 2008] Contrary to expectations for a small icy body, much of the comet dust returned by the Stardust mission formed very close to the young sun and was altered from the solar system's early materials.

[Sunday, January 27, 2008] The Cassini spacecraft peers closely at the layers of organic haze in Titan's upper atmosphere during a recent flyby.

[Wednesday, January 30, 2008] Scientists studying microbial communities and the growth of sedimentary rock at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park have made a surprising discovery about the geological record of life and the environment.