Scientists recreate Enceladus’s ocean and watch Earth microbes thrive
Laboratory experiments show that a methane-producing archaeon from Earth can grow under simulated Enceladus seafloor conditions at pH…
Rainstorms billions of years ago may have created habitable hotspots on Mars
A new global model suggests ancient Mars did not receive prebiotic formaldehyde evenly. Rainfall and atmospheric water vapor…
Scientists Thought Mars’s North Polar Ice Was 25% Dust. They Were Way Off
When NASA’s Mars Phoenix mission successfully sampled ice from the Martian arctic regions, it made astrobiological history. This…
UK’s £3 Million Bet Could Help NASA Find Life on Nearby Planets
A conceptual design of the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Credit: NASA A £3 million investment could help secure a…
Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Be Locked Beneath a Frozen Wall
Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, has drawn scientific interest because its frozen surface may hide a global…
In July 2028 NASA launches a car-sized, 1,000-pound nuclear drone toward Saturn’s moon Titan, a six-year, $3.35 billion trip to a world where the air is four times denser than Earth’s, gravity is one-seventh as strong, and flying is the easy part.
The upcoming Dragonfly mission is unlike any planetary mission NASA has ever attempted. Instead of another slow-moving rover,…
50 years ago, did NASA’s Viking landers destroy the Martian life they were searching for?
Nearly half a century after NASA’s Viking landers touched Mars, one question shadows their experiments: Did they miss…
An atmosphere has been detected for the first time around a rocky exoplanet
ⓘ NASA – Unsplash An artist’s illustration showing a blue planet and two stars. Astronomers have detected an…
Scientists Challenge a Fundamental Assumption About Consciousness
Could consciousness exist without a brain like ours? Philosophers at the University of California, Riverside argue that consciousness…
NASA Moon Base Could Become Earth’s First Defense Against Alien Microbes
Scientists say the Moon could serve as Earth’s first biological shield by housing a secure facility for quarantining…
Why Mars May Remain Uninhabitable for Centuries
Realistic image of a completely terraformed Mars. Credit: Daein Ballard Making Mars Earthlike is not impossible in principle,…
Scientists Just Found All 5 Genetic “Letters” of DNA and RNA on an Asteroid
Ryugu sample in its return capsule. Credit: JAXA The discovery of all five nucleobases on Ryugu strengthens the…