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Astrobiology
In 2023, data from the James Webb Space Telescope soured hopes that TRAPPIST-1 c had an atmosphere. That disappointment might have been premature.
The number of planets that could support life may be far greater than previously thought, a recent discovery suggests.
NASA's minivan-sized drone is scheduled to search for signs of life on Titan in 2034.
Learning to decode complex communication on Earth may give us a leg up if intelligent life from space makes contact.
An interview with Lisa Kaltenegger, the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute, about the modern quest to answer an age-old question: "Are we alone in the cosmos?"
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Physicist Sean Carroll on entropy, complexity, and the origins of life:
"I hope we take a mindset where we are willing to look for weird life in weird places."
Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where's everyone else?
Since 1962, humanity has been sending messages into space with the intent to make contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. Are those efforts worth the risks?
Aliens are often portrayed in popular culture as humanoid. But in reality, intelligent extraterrestrials might take far stranger forms.
Forensics has reached the final frontier, and could be used to solve future space accidents—or crimes.
Well-preserved ancient plants and other finds at the Clarkia fossil beds hint at what kind of evidence any Martian life may have left behind.
Known as the Great Oxygenation Event, Earth froze over as oxygen accumulated in our atmosphere, nearly driving all life extinct.
In a recent paper, biologists outlined a three-part hypothesis for how all life as we know it began.
Until the Apollo missions, we had no idea how the moon got here, just a series of educated guesses. They rewrote the story of the moon’s origins.
There are plenty of life-friendly stellar systems in the Universe today. But at some point in the far future, life's final extinction will occur.
In the early stages of our Solar System, there were three life-friendly planets: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Only Earth thrived. Here's why.
Whenever someone waxes poetic about terraforming alien worlds, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the ethical implications of the proposal.
The case for why NASA should pivot to searching for current — not ancient — signs of life.
Although early Earth was a molten hellscape, once it cooled, life arose almost immediately. That original chain of life remains unbroken.
If there’s life lurking on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, could our instruments even detect it?
The answer is set to change in the year 2113, a recent estimate suggests.
Two scientists recently wagered a bottle of whiskey. The bet? Whether we'll find evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life in the next 15 years.
Life became a possibility in the Universe as soon as the raw ingredients were present. But living, inhabited worlds required a bit more.
Fire was crucial to the evolution of human technology. That's why alien species stuck in the "oxygen bottleneck" may be forever primitive.
Earth wasn't created until more than 9 billion years after the Big Bang. In some lucky places, life could have arisen almost right away.
Teller and Sagan debated fiercely over nuclear proliferation. But was the conflict as personal as it was intellectual for Teller?
These theoretical megastructures represent one way an advanced civilization might harvest energy from stars.
Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets — very few of which resemble Earth.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, matter can escape the center of the Earth.