Former Astrobiology SciComm Fellow Zack Savitsky wins top national award for science journalists
https://scicom.ucsc.edu/about/program-news-articles/2024-10-savitsky.html
Hydrothermal vents on seafloors of ‘ocean worlds’ could support life, new study says
https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/06/ocean-worlds.html
Jonathan Fortney Garners Simons Investigator in Astrophysics Award
https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/06/fortney-simons-investigator.html
Natalie Batalha Appointed UCSC Presidential Chair
Natalie Batalha is appointed the UCSC Presidential Chair
Baked Meteorites Yield Clues to Planetary Atmospheres
https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/04/meteorite-outgassing.html
Study Warns of ‘Oxygen false positives’ in Search for Signs of Life on Other Planets
Oxygen in the atmosphere may not be an entirely reliable ‘biosignature,’ but there are ways to distinguish false positives from signs of life, scientists say
How Radioactivite Elements May Make Planets Suitable or Hostile to Life
What makes a planet suitable to life? Some researchers think that focusing on a planet’s distance from its sun — the “habitable zone” — is too narrow. A new hypothesis looks at how radioactive elements may be an important factor for life to emerge.
WARNING: Too Much Radiogenic Heat Could Hurt Exoplanet Habitability
https://astrobites.org/2020/11/17/radiogenic-heat-hurts-dynamos/
UC Santa Cruz Leads Interdisciplinary Consortium for Astrobiology Research
With funding from NASA, the UCSC-led team will lay the foundation for detecting the signatures of life in the atmospheres of other planets
Stellar Smashups May Fuel Planetary Habitability, Study Suggests
Radioactive elements produced by colliding neutron stars could make the difference between living and lifeless worlds.