Exoplanets

Tiny spheres of once-molten metal magnetically dredged from the seafloor could be pieces from IM1, a potential interstellar meteor that struck Earth in 2014

The discovery that life on Earth looks a lot like information propagating itself offers new clues, and new directions, to the hunt for life elsewhere

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that TRAPPIST-1 c, the second world in a seven-planet system, lacks an atmosphere

More and better data are required to solve the mystery of strange apparitions in the air, the sea and space, according to NASA’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study team

Human intelligence may be just a brief phase before machines take over. That may answer where the aliens are hiding

Cell-phone towers leak radio waves into space, but they’ll be tough for aliens to detect

White dwarfs, Earth-sized exoplanets, early galaxies and even Saturn’s moon Enceladus are on the agenda for JWST’s second year in space, but exomoons and others miss out

Hints of life on distant worlds will come from signals pioneered by NASA’s jumbo space telescope

Hints of water vapor on a world called GJ 486 b could just as well come from the planet’s host star

A dying star swallowing a giant planet hints at the fate awaiting our solar system some five billion years from now

For centuries, scientific discoveries have suggested humanity occupies no privileged place in the universe. Now, however, studies of worlds beyond our solar system could place meaningful new limits on our existential mediocrity

A promising combination of exoplanet-finding methods pinpoints details about its first world