50 Years Later, Precious Moon Samples Will Finally Be Opened
During the Apollo missions, NASA smartly set aside some lunar materials knowing future scientists would likely be…
Simulated Mission in Chilean Desert Shows How a Rover Could Detect Life on Mars
By using the barren Atacama Desert in Chile as a stand-in for Mars, researchers have shown that it’s possible to use an…
Freaky Eight-Letter DNA Could Be the Stuff Aliens Are Made Of
Conventional DNA is comprised of the familiar A, C, G, and T base pairs, but a newly created genetic system is packed…
A Guide to the Chemistry of Cold Weather
You might have noticed that it’s pretty cold throughout much of the United States—frostbite-inducing, school-closing,…
How Hawaii's Volcanoes Could Help Us Find Life on Saturn's Icy Moon
Kilauea’s historically huge 2018 eruption didn’t just transform the southeastern corner of Hawaii’s Big Island. Most of…
Why a Mission to a Visiting Interstellar Object Could Be Our Best Bet for Finding Aliens
Life may exist elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy, though try as they might, scientists have yet to detect any sign of…
New Report Urges NASA to Intensify Search for Exoplanets and Aliens
A new congressionally mandated report says NASA should refine its strategy and improve its tools to foster the study of…
Why This Star-Packed Region of Space Is Likely Devoid of Life
Globular clusters are among the most fascinating celestial phenomena in the galaxy, packing a hideous amount of stars…
This Solar System Catalog Could Be Key to Finding an Earth-Like Exoplanet
By searching for the telltale, periodic dimming of light from distant stars, astronomers can spot orbiting exoplanets…
The Discovery of Complex Organic Molecules on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Is a Huge Deal
Using data collected by NASA’s late-great Cassini space probe, scientists have detected traces of complex organic…
A New NASA-Led Project Means the Search for Aliens Is Heating Up
To date, scientists have catalogued more than 3,500 exoplanets, some of which may even be capable of fostering life.…
Intense Gravity of Super-Earths Could Trap Aliens on Their Home Planet
Rocky worlds larger than Earth are commonplace in the galaxy, and a few of them may even be habitable. Which poses an…
Canadian Scientists Discover Freakishly Salty Lakes Hidden Under Giant Glacier
Researchers working in the Canadian high north have discovered two super-salty lakes buried deep beneath the Arctic…
Dark Splotches on Venus Could Be Signs of Life
Venus, with its crushing atmospheric pressure and scorching surface temperatures, seems an unlikely place for life to…
Experiment Shows Microbes Could Thrive on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
Enceladus is one of the most fascinating objects in the Solar System. Parked in orbit around Saturn, the ice-covered…
TRAPPIST-1 Star System Contains Two Potentially Habitable Planets, New Study Suggests
It’s been less than a year since astronomers detected seven planets around TRAPPIST-1, a remarkable star system located…
Our Universe Could Be Littered With Alien Viruses—and We Should Be Looking for Them
It’s generally agreed that some kind of microbe will be the first form of life we discover on another planet, moon, or…
Here's Why NASA Selected Its Two Potential New Missions
Space is great, and it is very fun to have an agency that funds research missions to explore things far from our little…
How Aliens We’ve Never Met Could Help Humanity Escape Self-Destruction
Humans have had such a dramatic impact on Earth that some scientists say we’ve kickstarted a new geological era known…