Early Origins for Life Raises Major Planetary Puzzles
A recent claim for evidence of life on Earth as early as 4.1 billion years ago runs headlong into prevailing theories about a period of heavy asteroid impacts and the reshuffling of the young solar system's orbital architecture
Human Missions to Mars Will Look Completely Different from The Martian
The blockbuster film’s futuristic vision of interplanetary exploration could soon be out of date
How Our View of Mars Has Changed from Lush Oasis to Arid Desert
Once thought of as a lush alien world teeming with life and later dismissed as an arid, desolate orb, the Red Planet’s salty, liquid water just might aid in the search for extraterrestrial life
Water Flows on Mars Today, NASA Announces
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found evidence that flowing water causes suspicious dark streaks on the Red Planet
Searching for Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky
The risk of microbial contamination could prevent humans and even robots from visiting the most promising parts of the Red Planet
Cassini Confirms a Global Ocean on Saturn's Moon Enceladus
Philae's Real-Time Descent and Enceladus's Global Ocean [Video]
This week brings a video reconstructed from images of the Philae lander's approach to a comet, and a major new analysis of data from the Cassini mission that bolsters the case for a global, not just local, ocean beneath the icy crust of Enceladus
Having an Existential Crisis? It Could be Worse, and Weirder
Living on a small planet in a big universe exposes us to all manner of existential problems, but what are the worst, and what are the weirdest?
Archimedes, 3 Trillion Trees and Life in the Universe
A new estimate of Earth's total tree population shows previous estimates were seven times too low, and there are implications for efforts to understand the nature of life here and elsewhere in the universe
Alien Transit Systems May Be a Giveaway in the Search for ET
A Harvard professor devises a scheme to detect extraterrestrials by tracking how they might commute from one world to the next
3 Years into Its Mission, Curiosity's Stunning Martian Panorama
NASA's Curiosity rover provides a beautiful, scientifically appetizing view of what's ahead on Mount Sharp on Mars
To Play or Not to Play the Exoplanet Name Game?
Campaigns to name exoplanets seem like Shakespearean farce