During periods known as Snowball Earth, between 720 and 635 million years ago, early eukaryotes — complex cellular lifeforms that eventually evolved...
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide...
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...
With more than 5,500 detected exoplanets, the search for life is entering a new era. Using life on Earth as a guide, astrobiologists from Cornell University...
Planets too close to their star are too hot (such as Venus), those too far, are too cold (like Mars), whereas planets in the habitable zone are just right....
Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in the Solar System, identified by NASA as the second-highest priority site for a flagship mission in...
In the search for life in the Universe, Earth provides a template of evolution for the one habitable planet we know. Earth’s atmospheric composition...
Methylated gases are made when organisms add a carbon and three hydrogen atoms to an undesirable chemical element. Called methylation, this process can...
Nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) — a product of microbial nitrogen metabolism — is a compelling exoplanet biosignature gas with distinctive...
The case for methane as a biosignature stems from its instability in the planet’s atmosphere. Because photochemical reactions destroy atmospheric methane,...
With thousands of discovered exoplanets and new missions that will explore our Solar System, the search for life in the Universe has entered a new era....
Hycean worlds are composed of water-rich interiors with massive oceans underlying hydrogen-rich atmospheres; with densities between those of rocky super-Earths...
The ‘methane mystery’ on Mars has been ongoing for many years, with contradictory findings from seveal missions, wuch as ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s...
Along with analyzing rocks using X-rays and ultraviolet light, NASA’s Perseverance rover will zoom in for close-ups of rock surfaces that might show...
Using data gathered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ESA’s Gaia satellite, a team of U.S. astronomers has identified 1,004...
Astronomers using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected phosphine (PH3) gas...
