Featured News
June 2022
StarTalk Live! Extraterrestrial Oceans with Neil deGrasse Tyson
What are the oceans like on planets beyond Earth? On this episode of Star Talk, Neil deGrasse Tyson explores the oceans of Earth and other planets in the search for alien life together with Exploring Ocean Worlds lead investigators Julie Huber (WHOI) and Kevin Hand (NASA-JPL) along with comedian guests Eugene Mirman (Bob’s Burgers), Ellie Kemper (Kimmy Schmidt), and John Mulaney (Documentary Now!)
News Archive
4/14/2021
Sit'N Listen! Space and Earth: Oceanography and Astrobiology Ext Interview
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
In the first episode on our Earth and Space Series, we heard a little bit about how research on Earth’s oceans has had major implications for the search for life in the cosmos. Here, we’ve published an extended interview with a pioneer in this area of exploration: Dr. Christopher German.
2/7/2021
The Search for Life, WHOI researchers featured in episode of news program Full Measure
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
This week, NASA’s Perseverance Rover lands on Mars to continue the search for life on the Red Planet. At the same time, WHOI scientists and engineers are applying their experience exploring the deepest parts of planet Earth to the quest for life beyond Mars.
11/6/2020
Wave Glider provides gateway to remote exploration
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
In August 2021, WHOI geochemist Chris German will test an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) called a Wave Glider while exploring the East Pacific Rise, a submarine volcanic chain in the southeastern Pacific Ocean.
8/10/2020
Discovery transforms understanding of hydrogen depletion at the seafloor
Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences
Scientists analyzing submarine vent-fluids at the Mid-Cayman Rise find that non-biological processes consume hydrogen previously thought to be readily available to the subseafloor biosphere.
Spring 2020
Oceanus
One of the oldest questions facing humanity is whether we are alone in the universe. Now, thanks to a richer understanding of the conditions that support life in our own ocean, we have an opportunity to answer that question, and to do so within the lifetime of the current human generation.
11/11/2019
If alien life exists in our solar system, it may look like this
National Geographic
Pictures of deep-sea vents hidden below ice offer some of our first looks at creatures thriving in conditions akin to those on watery moons.
12/29/2018
How Hawaii's Volcanoes Could Help Us Find Life on Saturn's Icy Moon
Gizmodo
Kilauea’s historically huge 2018 eruption didn’t just transform the southeastern corner of Hawaii’s Big Island. Most of the lava wound up spilling into the ocean, creating an enormous new undersea delta that hardy ocean microbes are already colonizing.
9/12/2018
To find life on other planets, scientists are exploring submerged volcanoes on Earth
Boston Globe
Julie Huber, WHOI, inside the Inner Space Center Mission Control area at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett. NASA is preparing for future space missions by exploring underwater volcanoes off Hawaii.
5/30/2018
NASA Dives Deep into the Search for Life
NASA
Off the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island and more than 3,000 feet beneath the ocean surface lie the warm, bubbling springs of a volcano—a deep-sea location that may hold lessons for the search for extraterrestrial life.
12/11/2017
Exploring ocean worlds on Earth and beyond
Nature Geoscience
The exploration of ocean worlds in the outer Solar System offers the opportunity to search for an independent origin of life, and also to advance our capabilities for exploring and understanding life in Earth’s oceans. (Open as pdf.)