Extraterrestrial Life

The Phobos-Grunt mission, which could launch November 8th, will try to grab some Phobos soil and bring it back to Earth. John Matson reports

Mars has plenty of minerals that suggest a watery past, but that does not mean that the Red Planet once looked like Earth

Did space rocks seed Earth with life? To test that idea, a Russian probe is about to see whether microbes can survive a round-trip to Mars

The Mars Phoenix mission revived hopes that the Red Planet may be habitable, preparing the way for a new rover to be launched this month

A protoplanetary disk 175 light-years away looks to contain enough water to coat newborn planets with oceans thousands of times over

Leading planet hunters from around the world announced the discovery of some 75 extrasolar planets, and hints of many more

Christian de Duve, 1974 Nobel laureate for physiology or medicine, talks about going from a cell biologist to a theorist on evolution and the origin of life

Newly discovered exoplanet HD 85512 b could be hospitable to life. John Matson reports

Seven years into its three-month mission, the Mars rover Opportunity reaches Endeavour Crater, a possible geologic treasure trove. John Matson reports

The Opportunity rover is less than 50 meters from the crater rim and is due to pull up to it later this week

Blog documenting quest to replicate finding could be taste of things to come.

A glut of alien sci-fi films comes at a time when scientific discoveries are making the existence of life beyond Earth seem more and more plausible