Extraterrestrial Life

In the Oscar-nominated film Bugonia, Emma Stone’s character is accused of being an alien. But would we know extraterrestrial life if we saw it on Earth?

New insights into a tiny, tough microbe have huge implications for the search for life beyond Earth

On Thursday the U.S. president ordered the release of federal files related to UFOs and aliens, although no evidence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth is known to exist

New laboratory studies could shed light on a rock containing potential signs of alien life that’s stranded on Mars

New experiments show how RNA might form not just on Earth but on other rocky planets, too

Hole in the Sky, by Daniel H. Wilson, is one of Scientific American’s best fiction picks of 2025. In the novel, aliens talk through an AI headset and land in the Cherokee Nation, while the military scrambles to contain and control the unknown

A machine-learning breakthrough could lift the veil on Earth’s early history—and supercharge the search for alien life

In a new book, NASA astrobiologist Caleb Scharf says the fate of life on Earth may hinge on leaving our planet behind

Huge eruptions from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole in the distant past may have sterilized much of the inner galaxy

New peer-reviewed research reporting strange lights in the pre-space-age sky is sparking curiosity and controversy

A fresh analysis of old data has found rich organic chemistry within the hidden ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earth-like planets are common—if it can get off the ground