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July 9, 2025

OoL digest — July 7

This week we have 38 new papers on the origin of life. Enjoy!


Astrobiology

Is There Life on Mars? Studying the Context of Uncertainty in Astrobiology
Atanassova et al. — preprint

Detecting alien living worlds and photosynthetic life using imaging polarimetry with the HWO coronagraph
Berdyugina et al. — preprint

A Statistical Method for Constraining the Capability of the Habitable Worlds Observatory to Understand Ozone Onset Time in Earth Analogs
Blunt et al. — preprint

Detecting Surface Liquid Water on Exoplanets
Cowan et al. — preprint

Exploring the habitability and interior composition of exoplanets lying within the extended habitable zone
Deb et al. — preprint

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs - Occurrence rates of Earth-like planets around very low-mass stars
Kaminski et al. — Astronomy & Astrophysics

Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars
Kite et al. — Nature

Challenge-Based Funding to Spark Origins Breakthroughs
Mathis et al. — preprint

Djerfisherite in a Ryugu grain: A clue to localized heterogeneous conditions or material mixing in the early solar system
Miyahara et al. — Meteoritics & Planetary Science

Origin of the RNA World in Cold Hadean Geothermal Fields Enriched in Zinc and Potassium: Abiogenesis as a Positive Fallout from the Moon-Forming Impact?
Mulkidjanian et al. — Life

Testing Origin-of-Life Theories with the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)
Ranjan et al. — preprint

Prebiosignatures with the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)
Ranjan et al. — preprint

Ocean Tides on Asynchronously Rotating Planets Orbiting Low-mass Stars
Shi et al. — preprint

Building SPARCS, an Ultraviolet Science CubeSat for Exoplanet Habitability Studies, Technology Advancements, and Mission Training
Shkolnik et al. — preprint

Structural Biosignatures—A Category of Potential Biosignatures in the Life Detection Knowledge Base
Shkolyar et al. — Astrobiology

Detecting Land with Reflected Light Spectroscopy to Rule Out Waterworld O$_2$ Biosignature False Positives
Ulses et al. — preprint


Astrochemistry

Formation of Complex Organic Molecules in Prestellar Cores: The Role of Non-Diffusive Grain Chemistry
Borshcheva et al. — preprint

Abiotic origin of the citric acid cycle intermediates
McAnally et al. — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Photochemistry of interstellar ice forming complex organic molecules
Muñoz Caro et al. — Nature Reviews Chemistry


Astrophysics

Diversity of rocky planet atmospheres in the C-H-O-N-S-Cl system with interior dissolution, non-ideality, and condensation: Application to TRAPPIST-1e and sub-Neptunes
Bower et al. — preprint

Near-circular orbits for planets with Earth-like sizes and instellations around M and K dwarf stars
Kipping et al. — Nature Astronomy

A first look at rocky exoplanets with JWST
Kreidberg et al. — preprint

Detecting and characterising the magnetic field of exoplanets
Strugarek et al. — preprint

Earth-like planets prefer circles
Xie — Nature Astronomy


Biochemistry

Spontaneous formation of urea from carbon dioxide and ammonia in aqueous droplets
Mohajer et al. — Science

Prebiotic gas flow environment enables isothermal nucleic acid replication
Schwintek et al. — eLife


Biology

Macroevolutionary coupling of marine biomass and biodiversity across the Phanerozoic
Singh et al. — Current Biology


Chemistry

Abiotic formation of hexoses and disaccharides in aqueous microdroplets
Edwards et al. — Chemical Science


Computational biology

Spatial structure supports diversity in prebiotic autocatalytic chemical ecosystems
Plum et al. — npj Complexity


Geoscience

Evidence for Hadean mafic intrusions in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, Canada
Sole et al. — Science

Phosphate behavior during submarine hydrothermal alteration of ca. 3.455 Ga basaltic seafloor rocks from Pilbara, Western Australia
Tsukamoto et al. — Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta


Microbiology

CryoRhodopsins: A comprehensive characterization of a group of microbial rhodopsins from cold environments
Lamm et al. — Science Advances

Chemosynthesis enhances net primary production and nutrient cycling in a hypersaline microbial mat
Ricci et al. — The ISME Journal


Physics

Low-density amorphous ice contains crystalline ice grains
Davies et al. — Physical Review B


Planetary sciences

Dynamical origin of Theia, the last giant impactor on Earth
Branco et al. — preprint

A new class of rocky exoplanets?
Hu — Nature Astronomy

Earth-mass planets with He atmospheres in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars
Lammer et al. — Nature Astronomy

Rapid protoplanet formation in the outer Solar System recorded in a dunite from the carbonaceous chondrite reservoir
Rider-Stokes et al. — Communications Earth & Environment


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