CEH member James McCormac coordinated the efforts of a team of astronomers from the CEH as they contributed to observations of the unique variable star KIC 8462852.

This paper was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 853, Issue 1, article id. L8

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: James McCormac, David Armstrong, David Brown, John Dolan, Emma Foxell, Kristine Lam, Hugh Osborn & Don Pollacco

Data from NASA's Cassini satellite has shown that Saturn's moon Enceladus harbours a sub-surface, salty ocean. After multiple flybys of Saturn's moon Enceladus, including one that passed through the plume of material being ejected from the moon, the various instruments on Cassini have given NASA enough information to confidently claim the existence of this ocean, and to speculate that there may even be hydothermal vents on the ocean's floor.

A new paper published today provides a new viewpoint on the habitability of planets, and its codependence on inhabitance of those same planets. The presence of life influences the habitability of a planet, through its effect on the composition of the planet's atmosphere.

An intriguing paper published on the ArXiv preprint server today discusses the length of time for which planets are habitable, and the implications for SETI experiments.

A paper published on the astronomy preprint server last week investigates whether life could develop and survive in globular clusters. These stellar environments are often ignored as potential cradles of civilisation, but this study shows that they could have more potential than previously thought.