Frank Postberg is a Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Institute of Geological Sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin. In their recent paper, “Detection of phosphates originating from Enceladus’s ocean,” Frank and coauthors describe the surprising detection of vast amounts of the bioessential nutrient, phosphorus, in the liquid ocean beneath Enceladus’s icy shell. Frank describes how they made this astonishing discovery, and why it could be a harbinger for habitability in the outer solar system.

Ana Franco is a Chemistry PhD student in Instituto Superior Técnico at Universidade de Lisboa. In this article, Aubrey Zerkle spoke with Ana about her recent hypothesis paper “Boron as a Hypothetical Participant in the Prebiological Enantiomeric Enrichment”. Astrobiologists seek to unravel how life emerged on our planet to illuminate how life might originate on other worlds. In this Q&A, Ana discusses one of the outstanding mysteries of life’s origins and how she thinks boron could solve it.

Daniela de Paulis is Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute and at the Green Bank Observatory. She’s the mastermind behind the experiential live performance, A Sign in Space. On May 24, Daniela and colleagues transmitted a top-secret signal to Earth. The signal, meant to simulate an alien message from outer space, was transmitted from the Trace Gas Orbiter as it circled Mars. Astronomers at the Green Bank Telescope, the SETI Allen Telescope Array, and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station successfully intercepted the signal, and the world-wide race to decode the message began.

Roy Price is an Assistant Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. In his recent paper, “Quantifying the bioavailable energy in an ancient hydrothermal vent on Mars and a modern Earth-based analogue”, Roy and colleagues explored shallow hydrothermal vents in Iceland to imagine what types of microbes might have lived in similar environments on past Mars.

This week we had an inspiring conversation with Anurup Mohanty, who is Research Project Staff at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In addition to his research, Anurup is also a Visiting Scholar at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, where he channels his passion for science communication. In this Q&A, Anurup shares his journey as a budding astrobiologist and discusses his recent perspectives article, “Toward sustainable space exploration: a roadmap for harnessing the power of microorganisms.”

We had the pleasure of interviewing Maryse Napoleoni, a 3rd year PhD student in the Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing group at Freie Universität Berlin. For her recent paper, “Mass Spectrometric Fingerprints of Organic Compounds in NaCl-Rich Ice Grains from Europa and Enceladus”, Maryse used special instruments on Earth to simulate what similar devices on space missions might see in plume material from icy moons.

In our inaugural Q&A for Astrobiology Revealed, we talk with astrobiologist Armando Azua-Bustos about his recent paper “Dark microbiome and extremely low organics in Atacama fossil delta unveil Mars life detection limits”. Armando discusses growing up in the Atacama Desert, why he thinks it's harboring 100 million-year-old DNA, and how we should (or shouldn’t!) be searching for life on Mars.