Astrobiology News

Baker’s Yeast Can Survive Mars-like Stress Conditions, New Study Shows

Model depicting the importance of RNP condensate in mediating survival under Mars-like stress condition. Image credit: Dhage et al., doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf300.
Oct 14, 2025 by News Staff

Exploring the possibility of the survival of life under extraterrestrial conditions is an important goal of astrobiology. In a new study, scientists used baker’s yeast, a powerful model organism, to assess the impact of Mars-like conditions; they observed that yeast survive shock waves and perchlorate treatment — two stressors relevant to Mars; further, yeast responds to Martian conditions by assembling conserved RNA-protein complexes. Model...

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This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Perseverance Finds Potential Chemical Signatures of Ancient Microbial Life on Mars

Sep 10, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover has explored and sampled igneous and sedimentary rocks within Jezero crater to characterize early Martian geological processes...

This illustration depicts the interior of Ceres, including the transfer of water and gases from the rocky core to a reservoir of salty water; carbon dioxide and methane are among the molecules carrying chemical energy beneath Ceres’ surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Dwarf Planet Ceres May Have Had Lasting Source of Chemical Energy to Fuel Habitability

Aug 20, 2025 by News Staff

Although there is no evidence that microorganisms ever existed on Ceres, the results of a new study support theories that this dwarf planet may have once...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this stunning mosaic of Enceladus on October 5, 2008 as the spacecraft sped away from this geologically active moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Underground Microbial Life Could Survive on Mars, Europa and Enceladus Using Cosmic Rays

Jul 29, 2025 by News Staff

Radiolysis induced by Galactic cosmic rays could provide a viable energy source for microbial metabolism in the subsurface environments of rocky planetary...

Ramiro Saide et al. explored how hidden electromagnetic leakage might look to extraterrestrials up to 200 light-years from Earth, if they had state-of-the-art radio telescopes like our own. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Civilian and Military Radar Leakage is Revealing Our Existence to Alien Civilizations, Study Suggests

Jul 8, 2025 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of researchers from the University of Manchester performed comprehensive simulations of Earth’s radar systems as potential technosignatures...

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth exoplanet K2-18b. Image credit: A. Smith / N. Mandhusudhan.

Webb Detects Possible Biosignature Gases in Atmosphere of K2-18b

Apr 17, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide...

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Titan May Be Able to Support Only Minuscule Amount of Biomass, New Modeling Study Suggests

Apr 8, 2025 by News Staff

A team of biologists from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France has developed a scenario of what life on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon,...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

What If Astronomers Find Nothing in Future Exoplanet Habitability and Biosignature Surveys?

Apr 7, 2025 by News Staff

Using advanced statistical modeling, a team of researchers from ETH Zurich, SETI Institute, the Università di Roma ‘Tor Vergata’ and the University...

Aerial view of Mono Lake. Image credit: Dick Lyon / CC BY 4.0.

Large Lakes Supplied Essential Element during Origins of Life, Study Suggests

Mar 26, 2025 by News Staff

The origin of life on Earth required a supply of phosphorus for the synthesis of universal biomolecules. Closed lakes may have accumulated high concentrations...

Levin et al suggest that we could have more in common with our extraterrestrial neighbors than initially thought. Image credit: Fernando Ribas.

New Theory Increases Probability of Intelligent Life beyond Earth

Feb 18, 2025 by News Staff

In 1983, the theoretical physicist Brandon Carter concluded that the time it took for humans to evolve on Earth — relative to the total lifespan...

An artist’s impression of a habitable planet orbiting a white dwarf. The ghostly blue ring is a planetary nebula - hydrogen gas the star ejected as it evolved from a red giant to a white dwarf (David A. Aguilar / CfA)

New Research Reveals Surprising Potential for Earth-Like Life around White Dwarf Stars

Feb 13, 2025 by News Staff

White dwarfs may present amenable environments for life on planets formed within or migrated to their habitable zones, generating warmer surface environments...

This composite image, taken by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft, shows Venus. Image credit: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic.

Venus Has Never Been Habitable, New Study Suggests

Dec 9, 2024 by News Staff

Planetary researcher Tereza Constantinou and her colleagues at the University of Cambridge have examined the chemical composition of the Venusian atmosphere...

The white edges along these gullies in Mars’ Terra Sirenum are believed to be dusty water ice. Khuller et al. think meltwater could form beneath the surface of this kind of ice, providing a place for possible photosynthesis. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Meltwater beneath Martian Ice Could Support Microbial Life, Researchers Suggest

Oct 17, 2024 by News Staff

On Earth, solar radiation can transmit down to multiple meters within ice, depending on its optical properties. Organisms within ice can harness energy...

This artist’s impression shows the view from the surface of one of the exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser / Spaceengine.org.

Allen Telescope Array Searches for Radio Technosignatures from TRAPPIST-1 System

Oct 16, 2024 by News Staff

The TRAPPIST-1 system is a compact system of at least seven exoplanets with sizes similar to Earth. Penn State and SETI Institute astronomers spent 28...

Levin et al suggest that we could have more in common with our extraterrestrial neighbors than initially thought. Image credit: Fernando Ribas.

Alien Visitation Claims Are Widespread Societal Problem, Researcher Says

Sep 3, 2024 by The Conversation

Around a fifth of U.K. citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and an estimated 7% believe that they have seen a UFO. The figures...

Conceptual image of an exoplanet with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Structures on the right are orbiting solar panel arrays that harvest light from the parent star and convert it into electricity that is then beamed to the surface via microwaves. The exoplanet on the left illustrates other potential technosignatures: city lights (glowing circular structures) on the night side and multi-colored clouds on the day side that represent various forms of pollution, such as nitrogen dioxide gas from burning fossil fuels or chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration. Image credit: NASA / Jay Freidlander.

Astronomers Propose New Technosignature: Silicon-Based Solar Panels

Aug 2, 2024 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Ravi Kopparapu of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues assessed the potential...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Study: Biological Amino Acids Could Survive in Near-Surface Ices of Europa and Enceladus

Jul 18, 2024 by News Staff

Europa and Enceladus are key targets to search for evidence of alien life in our Solar System. However, the surface and shallow subsurface of these airless...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Scientists Revise Famous Drake Equation

Jul 2, 2024 by News Staff

Within the uncertainties of involved astronomical and biological parameters, the Drake equation typically predicts that there should be many exoplanets...

This graphic illustrates how Cassini scientists think water interacts with rock at the bottom of Enceladus’ ocean, producing hydrogen gas. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Southwest Research Institute.

Study: Active, Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems on Small Ocean Worlds Could Support Life

Jun 25, 2024 by News Staff

Ocean worlds are planetary bodies that have a liquid ocean, often under an icy shell or within the rocky interior. In our own Solar System, several moons...

An illustration of various planetary technosignatures, including artificial atmospheric gases. Image credit: Sohail Wasif / UC Riverside.

Astrobiologists Identify Five Greenhouse Gases that Would Be Giveaways of Terraformed Exoplanet

Jun 25, 2024 by News Staff

The five artificial greenhouse gases identified by University of California, Riverside astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman and his colleagues would be detectable...

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