Extraterrestrial Life

The elaborate landing of the $2.5-billion mission went off without apparent incident

Gliese 581 g shot to the top of a list put out by researchers at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo’s Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) after a new study marshaled support for its long-debated existence

Despite the cancellation of the Terrestrial Planet Finder telescope, astrobiologists are modeling possible chemical biomarkers that could be used to detect indicators of life on newfound worlds

The Curiosity rover is set to begin exploring Mars on August 6. But first it has to land. John Matson reports

Two teams have repeated a much-debated study and found that the chemical rules of life remain unbroken

Scientists have used the last moments of major experiments or spacecraft to make a push for knowledge--or to produce some fireworks

Meet Minnie Mao, 26, one of the up-and-coming physicists attending this year's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and the founder and director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, talks about his new book The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet

Dimitar Sasselov, director of Harvard's Origins of Life Initiative, explains how rocky exoplanets larger than Earth could have greater potential for life than Earth did. Steve Mirsky reports

A subsurface source of liquid methane may be replenishing equatorial lakes on Titan, which might be a crucible for life

Co-screenwriter Jon Spaihts speaks with Scientific American about the Alien universe and humanity's quest for knowledge in Scott's latest film