Biosignatures & Paleobiology
Exoplanets: Possible Biosignatures 
The ancestor philosophers' dream of thousands of new worlds is finally realised: about 3500 extrasolar planets have been discovered in the neighborhood of our Sun. Most of them are very different from those we used to know in our Solar System.
Impact events
Dinosaur-killing Asteroid Could Have Caused 2 Years of Darkness
Tremendous amounts of soot, lofted into the air from global wildfires following a massive asteroid strike 66 million years ago, would have plunged Earth into darkness for nearly two years, new research finds.
Astronomy
Future Astrometric Space Missions for Exoplanet Science
High-precision astrometry at the sub-microarcsecond level opens up a window to study Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars, and to determine their masses.
Astrochemistry
Influence of Surface and Bulk Water Ice on the Reactivity of a Water-forming Reaction
On the surface of icy dust grains in the dense regions of the interstellar medium a rich chemistry can take place.
Extrasolar Planets
A Glimpse of Habitability When The Ozone Layer first Formed on Earth
Kepler-96 is an active solar-type star harbouring a Super-Earth planet in close orbit. Its age of 2.3 Gyr is the same as the Sun when there was a considerable increase of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere due to micro-organisms living under the sea.
Tricorder
A Real Tricorder
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed technology that enables a smartphone to perform lab-grade medical diagnostic tests that typically require large, expensive instruments.
Astrochemistry
The Spatial Distribution of Carbon Dust in the Early Solar Nebula and the Carbon Content of Planetesimals
A high fraction of carbon bound in solid carbonaceous material is observed to exist in bodies formed in the cold outskirts of the solar nebula, while bodies in the terrestrial planets region contain nearly none.
Alpha Centauri
Searching for Faint Comoving Companions To The α Centauri System In The VVV Survey Infrared Images
The VVV survey has observed the southern disk of the Milky Way in the near infrared, covering 240 deg2 in the ZYJHKS filters.
Astrochemistry
Formamide in Protostellar Shocks: Evidence for Gas-phase Formation
Context: Modern versions of the Miller-Urey experiment claim that formamide (NH2CHO) could be the starting point for the formation of metabolic and genetic macromolecules.
Extrasolar Planets
Rotational Spectral Unmixing of Exoplanets: Degeneracies between Surface Colors and Geography
Unmixing the disk-integrated spectra of exoplanets provides a clue to heterogeneous surfaces that we cannot directly resolve in the foreseeable future.
Extrasolar Planets
Astrophysicists Predict Earth-like Planet in Star System 16 Light Years Away
Astrophysicists at the University of Texas at Arlington have predicted that an Earth-like planet may be lurking in a star system just 16 light years away.
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