Mars
Curiosity Detects Unusually High Methane Levels On Mars 
This week, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover found a surprising result: the largest amount of methane ever measured during the mission -- about 21 parts per billion units by volume (ppbv).
Conferences and Meetings
AbSciCon 2019 - Livestream
AbSciCon 2019 is the next in a series of conferences organized by the astrobiology community. AbSciCon will be held 24-28 June 2019 in Bellevue, Washington.
Habitable Zones & Global Climate
Our Changing Views of Habitable Planets
The main idea is easy to grasp: Set Goldilocks loose in our galaxy and let her choose a planet that's "just right." For decades, the Goldilocks zone has been the go-to shorthand for scientists. More formally known as the "habitable zone," it's the region around a star where the temperature is just right for liquid water to pool on the surface of planets with suitable atmospheres.
Astrochemistry
Amino Acid Chiral Selection Via Weak Interactions in Stellar Environments: Implications for the Origin of Life
Magnetochiral phenomena may be responsible for the selection of chiral states of biomolecules in meteoric environments.
SETI
The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Observations of 1327 Nearby Stars over 1.10-3.45 GHz
Breakthrough Listen (BL) is a ten-year initiative to search for signatures of technologically capable life beyond Earth via radio and optical observations of the local Universe.
Genomics and Cell Biology
A Prebiotic Route to DNA
DNA, the hereditary material, may have appeared on Earth earlier than has been assumed hitherto. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich chemists led by Oliver Trapp show that a simple reaction pathway could have given rise to DNA subunits on the early Earth.
Astrogeology
Plate Tectonics May Have Driven The Cambrian Explosion
The quest to discover what drove one of the most important evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth has taken a new, fascinating twist.
Extrasolar Planets
Two Earth-like Planets Discovered Near Teegarden's Star
An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has discovered two new Earth-like planets near one of our closest neighboring stars.
SETI
Breakthrough Listen Publishes Most Comprehensive and Sensitive Search for Radio Technosignatures Ever Performed
Breakthrough Listen - the astronomical program searching for signs of intelligent life in the Universe - has submitted two publications to leading astrophysics journals, describing the analysis of its first three years of radio observations and the availability of a petabyte of radio and optical telescope data.
Habitable Zones & Global Climate
Impact of Stellar Superflares on Planetary Habitability
High-energy radiation caused by exoplanetary space weather events from planet-hosting stars can play a crucial role in conditions promoting or destroying habitability in addition to the conventional factors.
Habitable Zones & Global Climate
Can We Detect Aurora in Exoplanets Orbiting M dwarfs?
New instruments and telescopes, such as SPIRou, CARMENES and TESS, will increase manyfold the number of known planets orbiting M dwarfs.
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