Astrobiology News

An artist’s impression of a habitable exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf. Image credit: Sci-News.com / NASA.

Stellar Flares: Life Givers or Sterilizers of Worlds?

Aug 15, 2018 by James Romero

Have Carl Sagan and astrobiologists been too hard on stellar flares? A new study imagines an alternative scenario where they power photosynthesis around...

Researchers Identify Exoplanets with Optimal Chemical Conditions for Life’s Origin

Aug 2, 2018 by News Staff

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK, have identified a group of exoplanets where the same chemical...

An artist’s impression of a potentially habitable exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Planets Don’t Need Plate Tectonics to Be Habitable

Aug 1, 2018 by News Staff

There may be more habitable exoplanets than we previously thought, according to Pennsylvania State University researchers Bradford Foley and Andrew Smye,...

Moon May Have Had Conditions Suitable for Life, Astrobiologists Say

Jul 24, 2018 by News Staff

There may have been two windows of habitability for the Moon, according to new research by University of London’s Professor Ian Crawford and Dr. Dirk...

Exoplanet Biosignatures: Will We Be Able to Recognize Extraterrestrial Life If We See It?

Jun 26, 2018 by News Staff

A team of leading astronomers, biologists and geologists have come together under the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), a NASA research coordination...

This Hubble WFPC2 image shows Alpha Centauri A (left) and Alpha Centauri B (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

X-Rays Pose No Threat to Alpha Centauri AB Exoplanets, Chandra Data Show

Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

New observations by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory indicate the two brightest stars in the triple-star system Alpha Centauri are not pummeling any...

An artist’s impression of an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting an M-dwarf star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

We May Miss Life-Hosting Exoplanets If We Only Look for Their Oxygen

Jun 8, 2018 by James Romero

There could be a flaw in the search for atmospheric oxygen as a signature of life around most of our nearby exoplanets. A team from the University of Washington...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules in Ancient Rocks, Seasonal Methane Releases on Mars

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has detected organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks at the base of the Murray formation at Pahrump Hills,...

A study of the inhabitants of Easter Island served in part as the basis for a mathematical model showing the ways a technologically advanced population and its planet might develop or collapse together. Image credit: Michael Osadciw / University of Rochester.

How Do Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations Solve Climate Change?

Jun 7, 2018 by News Staff

As the population of a technologically advanced civilization grows, it uses more and more of its planet’s resources. By consuming the resources, the...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Iron-Rich Rocks are Best Place to Seek Fossil Evidence of Martian Life, Scientists Say

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

Iron-rich rocks near ancient lake sites on Mars are the most promising and best understood astropaleontological targets, according to new research led...

If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to human era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? Image credit: Michael Osadciw, University of Rochester.

Silurian Hypothesis: Were There Industrial Civilizations on Earth before Humans?

Apr 17, 2018 by News Staff

How do we really know there weren’t previous civilizations on our planet that rose and fell long before humans appeared? That’s the question posed...

This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by Hubble of the Crab Nebula, a 6-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Hester / A. Loll, Arizona State University.

Phosphorus May Be More Rare in Universe than Previously Thought

Apr 9, 2018 by News Staff

A new study from Cardiff University suggests there may be a cosmic lack of phosphorus, a crucial ingredient for life. This is a mosaic image, one of the...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Venus’ Atmosphere Could Host Acid-Resistant Microorganisms

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

In the search for alien life, astrobiologists have turned over all sorts of rocks. For example, Mars has geological features that suggest it once had subsurface...

This high-resolution scanning electron microscope image shows an unusual tube-like structural form that is less than 1/100th the width of a human hair in size found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. Image credit: NASA.

How Will Humanity React to Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life?

Feb 20, 2018 by News Staff

How will humans react to the discovery of alien life? Speculation on this topic abounds, but empirical research is practically non-existent. In a paper...

Future telescopes like the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (right) will observe the atmospheres of distant planets to seek evidence of life. Earth (top left) has several gases in its atmosphere that reveal the presence of life, primarily oxygen and ozone. Krissansen-Totton et al find that for the early Earth (bottom left), the combination of abundant methane and carbon dioxide would provide an alternative sign of life. Image credit: NASA / Wikimedia Commons / Joshua Krissansen-Totton.

Astrobiologists Find New Way to Detect Extraterrestrial Life

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astrobiologists from the Universities of Washington and California has found a simple approach to look for alien life that might be more promising...

Berliner et al review current virology research pertinent to astrobiology and propose ideas for future astrovirology research foci. Image credit: Arek Socha / FL.

Viruses Are Everywhere, Maybe Even in Space, Biologists Say

Jan 19, 2018 by News Staff

Viruses are the most abundant and one of the least understood biological entities on modern Earth. They might also exist in space, but as of yet scientists...

3.465-billion-year-old fossil microbes indicate that life in the Universe is common. Image credit: Reimund Bertrams.

Study: Simple Life Forms are Common throughout Universe

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

A detailed analysis of 3.465-billion-year-old microbial microfossils provides evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in...

Hypervelocity space dust is a unique entity in planetary systems like our Solar System, which is able to go past and enter the atmosphere of planets, collect samples of those planets and deposit samples of other planets. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Space Dust May Transport Biological Particles between Distant Planets, New Study Suggests

Nov 22, 2017 by News Staff

Streams of space dust that continually bombard Earth’s atmosphere could deliver microbial life and life essential molecules from distant planets, or...

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

Extraterrestrials May Be More Like Us than We Think, Say Biologists

Nov 1, 2017 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of biologists at the University of Oxford shows how evolutionary theory can be used to make predictions about aliens. According...