Astrobiology

Scientists have (probably) made contact with Earth’s most alien lake!

13,000 feet beneath the surface of Antarctica’s vast ice sheet rests the otherworldly Lake Vostok. Home to some of the most extreme conditions on Earth, Vostok has remained isolated from the rest of the world for 20 million years, and completely inaccessible to mankind. Until now. Yesterday, reports originating from Ria Novosti — a state-run,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 7

NASA is too poor to help Europe go to Mars

This is devastating news. The BBC is reporting that ExoMars — a joint program between NASA and the European Space Agency with Martian missions scheduled for 2016 and 2018 — is on the ropes, owing to America’s budgetary woes. Is this the first scientific casualty of the 2013 budget cuts? For those of you unfamiliar…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 6

Russian scientists prepare to explore the most alien lake on Earth

Buried over two miles beneath the East Antarctic Ice sheet lurks Lake Vostok — an isolated body of subglacial water, removed from the rest of the world for more than twenty million years. Now, Russian researchers are just a few meters of ice away from entering an environment unlike any we’ve ever seen… at least,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 2

Life might not be possible around red dwarf stars

There could be over 150 billion planets in our galaxy alone, which makes the chances of life on other words look very solid indeed. But there’s one snag: the universe’s most common stars might not support life at all. The problem is down to axial tilt. Relative to its orbital plane around the Sun, the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 16

Evidence of extraterrestrial life could be sitting on the Moon at this very moment

When you consider the utter vastness of space, it isn’t hard to accept that, somewhere out there, extraterrestrial life probably exists. That being said, one can just as soon reason that the Universe is so immense, the odds of us actually finding evidence for the existence of alien organisms are probably pretty slim. Given the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 28

What is the best way to locate the galaxy’s habitable planets?

We’ve officially found over 700 exoplanets, and with so many worlds to explore the big question is which, if any, could support life. But should we be looking for Earth-like planets — or is life hiding on far more alien worlds? Based on our current rate of discovery, it’s entirely probable that we will have…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Nov 22

What does the future of space exploration hold?

This past weekend marked the opening of the American Museum of Natural History’s brilliant new exhibition, Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration. As part of our ongoing Hardcore Science Interview series, io9 spoke with the show’s curator, AMNH astrophysicist Michael Shara, about the exhibit. Shara tells us about NASA’s upcoming mission to Mars,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 21

We could spot alien civilizations from the light of their cities

There’s no surefire way to find evidence of alien civilizations — indeed, they’re basically all long shots — but a new method could reveal the existence of aliens just like us. And we’ve almost got the technology needed to do it. It’s always dangerous to assume that another intelligent species would evolve along the same…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Nov 8

New galactic survey reveals relatively few stars have the right stuff to create life

To get life, you first need organic molecules, and the easiest way to get those is from the compound methanol. Now it seems there are very specific conditions needed to create methanol and, ultimately, life… and most stars don’t have them. The organic molecules that are the basis for life here on Earth — and,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Nov 3

The next NASA rover could bring the first microbes to Mars

There’s no way to be absolutely certain, but we’re pretty sure that no germs have ever survived the grueling journey from Earth to Mars. But the latest rover to explore the Red Planet might just take along some microscopic colonists. NASA takes a number of steps to ensure that the probes that reach the Martian…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Sep 7

Did “DNA tool kits” from meteorites make life on Earth possible?

We’ve often found trace evidence of DNA on meteorites, but it wasn’t clear whether these DNA pieces originated in space, or were accidental byproducts of contamination by scientists. Now we have our best evidence yet that they actually come from space. While it often gets bogged down in fanciful and pseudoscientific interpretations, the basic principle…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 8

NASA Denies Scientist’s Claim of Finding Alien Life

We’ve already seen Richard B. Hoover’s claim of finding alien life get debunked. Now NASA, whom Hoover once worked for, is disavowing his report as well, saying no one supports Hoover’s claims. Apparently, to them, there’s a lot of stuff there but not too much science. [AP]

Tech News Casey Chan Mar 8

What is creating all that energy beneath the ice on Saturn’s moon Enceladus?

Enceladus is home to one of the solar system’s most incredible hotspots, churning out 15.8 gigawatts of power. It’s even more proof that there’s a liquid ocean hiding beneath the ice…but scientists have no clue what’s creating all that heat. The heat created in Enceladus’s southern polar region is 2.6 times that created by all…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 8

No, alien life was not discovered this weekend

If you’ve been scanning the internet this weekend, chances are you’ve seen that particular Fox News story about alien bacterial fossils being discovered on meteorites. The findings in the Fox story were published in the Journal of Cosmology, which is less of an academic website and more like watching laser Jethro Tull at your local…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Mar 6

Why do we look for water when searching for extraterrestrial life?

Why is it that astrobiologists consider water a prerequisite when seeking out alien life? Steve Nerlich of Universe Today has the details. The assumption that alien biochemistries probably require liquid water may seem a little Earth-centric. But given the chemical possibilities available from the most abundant elements in the universe, even an alien scientist with…

io9 Steve Nerlich -- Universe Today Jan 9

Russians will be first to explore untouched Antarctic Lake Vostok, in hunt for weird life forms

An oxygen-rich lake, unreachable for the past 14 million years and buried beneath a thick sheet of ice, is about to be penetrated by a drill bit from a faraway place. It’s possible that special life forms have adapted to live in this extreme environment, and scientists hope to learn more once they can analyze…

io9 Rebecca Boyle -- Popular Science Jan 8

Let Ke$ha explain the search for intelligent life on other planets

This is music video parody heaven, right here — a glitter-lipped songstress sings about the difficulties in finding life in the universe, in a spoof of Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R.” What rhymes with “prokaryote-ote-ote-otes”? [via Greg Laden]

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jan 6

Have we already hopelessly contaminated the search for extraterrestrial life?

Every time we send spacecraft to explore the solar system, we send along lots of tiny microbes. In fact, we may have deposited a trillion microbial spores on Mars. How will we ever discover alien life through all that haze? That’s the problem Barry E. DiGregorio, the director of the International Committee Against Mars Sample…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 28

Forests might be detectable on extrasolar planets

Thanks to a new remote sensing technique, astronomers may soon be able to detect the presence of multicellular life (like trees) on planets outside of the Solar System. Excitingly, we’ve been able to detect the composition of atmospheres on a handful of planets orbiting other stars. But if next-generation space observatories go online within the…

io9 Nancy Atkinson -- Universe Today Dec 11

Was the arsenic life form announcement just a NASA publicity stunt?

After the Earth-shaking announcement last week that they’d discovered an arsenic-based life form, NASA researchers are under attack from many in the scientific community. Experts are calling the research shoddy, and wondering if NASA is just desperate for publicity. Last week, NASA held a press conference to announce the new organism, which they teased with…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 7

Scientists have (probably) made contact with Earth’s most alien lake!

NASA is too poor to help Europe go to Mars

Russian scientists prepare to explore the most alien lake on Earth

Life might not be possible around red dwarf stars

Evidence of extraterrestrial life could be sitting on the Moon at this very moment

What is the best way to locate the galaxy’s habitable planets?

What does the future of space exploration hold?

We could spot alien civilizations from the light of their cities

New galactic survey reveals relatively few stars have the right stuff to create life

The next NASA rover could bring the first microbes to Mars

Did “DNA tool kits” from meteorites make life on Earth possible?

NASA Denies Scientist’s Claim of Finding Alien Life

What is creating all that energy beneath the ice on Saturn’s moon Enceladus?

No, alien life was not discovered this weekend

Why do we look for water when searching for extraterrestrial life?

Russians will be first to explore untouched Antarctic Lake Vostok, in hunt for weird life forms

Let Ke$ha explain the search for intelligent life on other planets

Have we already hopelessly contaminated the search for extraterrestrial life?

Forests might be detectable on extrasolar planets

Was the arsenic life form announcement just a NASA publicity stunt?

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