Extraterrestrial Life

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

The Perseverance rover’s new findings set the stage for bringing Martian samples back to Earth to test whether microbes once inhabited the Red Planet

A monumental sign of an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1e could be the precursor to finally finding a living world around another star

Fresh results from near-infrared instruments foretell a bright future for finding life elsewhere in the Milky Way

The search for extraterrestrial life has periodically been turned upside down