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04/29/2013
UWAB Spring 2013 Newsletter Released!
For up-to-date news about what's going on with UW Astrobiology, check out the latest issue of our newsletter! MORE>
04/19/2013
UWAB Researcher Eric Agol Discovers Most Earth-like Exoplanet to Date
In the latest discovery from the Kepler Space Telescope, UW astronomer Eric Agol has identified Kepler-62f: an exoplanet in its star's habitable zone, with a radius only 40% larger than Earth— making it the smallest potentially habitable exoplanet found to date. Kepler-62f has an orbital period of 267 days, and belongs to a multi-planet system orbiting a K2 dwarf star roughly 1200 light years from Earth. Although Kepler's mass and density have not been measured, it is likely to have a rocky composition. MORE>
04/18/2013
UWAB Student Elena Amador Wins Award at LPSC 2013
Last month at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Woodlands, Texas, UWAB graduate student Elena Amador won the Dwornik Award for best graduate oral presentation. Her talk highlighted her work with UWAB's Deb Kelley and Billy Brazelton ("The Lost City Hydrothermal Field: A Spectroscopic and Astrobiological Martian Analog"). Congrats, Elena! MORE>
04/08/2013
UWAB Scientist Rory Barnes's Tidal Venuses Research Featured in Astrobiology
In his latest paper, recently featured in Astrobiology, UWAB's Rory Barnes explores the evolution of hypothetical "Tidal Venuses", tidally-heated terrestrial exoplanets experiencing a runaway greenhouse effect. MORE>
01/27/2013
UWAB Scientist Rory Barnes's work on Exomoons Featured in Astrobiology
Research by UWAB's Rory Barnes has been featured as the cover story in the latest issue of Astrobiology! In the paper "Exomoon Habitability Constrained by Illumination and Tidal Heating", Barnes explores the effects that physical and orbital parameters may have on the habitability of "exomoons", or moons belonging to exoplanets-- which it may now be feasible to detect. MORE>
01/26/2013
Research by UWAB Graduate Student David Smith Featured in Science
Graduate student David Smith's work on microorganisms in the upper atmosphere was recently featured in the Editor's Choice section of Science. MORE>
12/11/2012
UWAB Fall 2012 Newsletter Released
For up-to-date news about what's going on with UW Astrobiology, check out the latest issue of our newsletter! MORE>
11/20/2012
UWAB Graduate Student Explores Life at High Altitudes
While studies have previously discovered microbes living in the upper atmosphere, new research by UWAB graduate student David Smith aims to better understand the types of microorganisms present at high altitudes, how they get there, and how they're able to survive in such an extreme environment. MORE>
09/24/2012
How the Land Was Won 2.75 Billion Years Ago: New UWAB Research
New research by UWAB student Eva Stüeken suggests that microbes might have been widespread on Earth's surface around 2.75 billion years ago, where they produced oxygen and weathered pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans. In turn, this sulfur likely enhanced the spread of marine life. To learn more, check out the story in UW News. MORE>
09/11/2012
UWAB Student Rika Anderson Wins Poster Prize at ISME14
Last month, UWAB graduate student Rika Anderson won the prize for Best Student Poster at the 14th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read the story and see her poster, titled "Viral Manipulation of the Genetic Landscape of Hydrothermal Vent Microbial Communities" here: MORE>
09/05/2012
VPL Team Selected to Rejoin the NASA Astrobiology Institute
The University of Washington's Virtual Planetary Laboratory was one of five teams recently selected for membership in the NASA Astrobiology Institute. MORE>
09/05/2012
Research by UWAB Graduate Student Tom Tobin Featured in UW News
UWAB graduate student Tom Tobin and professor Peter Ward have discovered that there may have been two separate extinction events leading to the dinosaur die-out. Their research has recently been featured in UW News. MORE>
08/02/2012
Graduate Student Ty Robinson Receives UWAB's First Dual-Title PhD
UWAB graduate student Ty Robinson successfully defended his dissertation "Simulating and Characterizing the Pale Blue Dot", and graduates with our first ever UW PhD in Astronomy and Astrobiology! Ty is now a postdoc in the UWAB Program, working with VPL for one more year. Read a description of his dissertation here: MORE>
04/19/2012
UWAB Graduate Program Featured in Nature
"Alien Encounters": Establishing a Career in Astrobiology is not always easy. But keeping one's options open can lead to work in this niche field. MORE>
03/28/2012
UWAB Faculty & Alumni Use Fossilized Raindrop Imprints to Explore Earth's Ancient Environment
In a much-anticipated paper in Nature, UWAB faculty (Prof. Roger Buick & David Catling) and alumni (Sanjoy Som, PhD '10) have uncovered evidence -- using 2.7 billion-year old, fossilized raindrop impressions -- that an abundance of greenhouse gases in Earth's ancient atmosphere likely caused warm temperatures that allowed the planet to retain liquid water... a crucial environmental component for the evolution of early life on our planet. MORE>
03/18/2012
UWAB Alumni Uncover the Ingredients of Earth's Ancient Atmosphere
UWAB alum Mark Claire and former UWAB/Virtual Planetary Lab Postdoc Shawn Domagal-Goldman are co-authors on the Nature Geosciences paper, "A bistable organic-rich atmosphere on the Neoarchaean Earth" that provides geochemical evidence that methane was an important component of Earth's atmosphere throughout the Archaean era more than 2.5 billion years ago.The paper has received wide attention in the scientific and news community including National Geographic, New Scientist, Science Magazine, and NASA. MORE>
02/09/2012
UWAB Research Scientist Rory Barnes Featured in Astrobiology Magazine for his work on Tidal Venuses
Alien planets might experience tidal forces powerful enough to remove all their water, leaving behind hot, dry worlds like Venus... "This has fundamentally changed the concept of a habitable zone," said researcher Rory Barnes, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist at the University of Washington. "We figured out you can actually limit a planet's habitability with an energy source other than starlight." MORE>