'Super-Earths': Could They Harbor Life?
The night skies are littered with distant planets, but what are they really like? Theoretical models suggest that a surprising number of "exoplanets" could be similar to Earth—and may even support life
Study shows how sunlight on Titan yields life-precursor compounds
How did life begin on Earth?
Data Deluge: Texas Flood Canyon Offers Test of Hydrology Theories for Earth and Mars
A massive overflow from a dam in 2002 carved a channel several meters deep into the bedrock in just days
Mass Transits: Kepler Mission Releases Data on Hundreds of Possible Exoplanets
NASA's planet hunter has identified more than 700 candidate extrasolar worlds that have yet to be confirmed, including some that may be Earth-size
Astrobiologist tries to set the record straight about extraterrestrial life on Titan
Water Spirit: Rover Findings Hint of a Warmer, Wetter Era on Mars
Bountiful carbonate minerals in a rock outcrop on the Red Planet could have formed under watery greenhouse conditions billions of years ago
12 Events That Will Change Everything
In addition to reacting to news as it breaks, we work to anticipate what will happen. Here we contemplate 12 possibilities and rate their likelihood of happening by 2050
Astronomers Could Soon Find Moons Outside the Solar System--Even Habitable Ones
Ewoks and the Na'vi may be pure fiction, but Endor and Pandora, the moons they inhabit, appear closer to reality
Extraterrestrial Specks in Antarctic Snow Yield New Clues to Solar System's Past
Micrometeorites buried under decades of snowfall in Antarctica preserve scraps of cosmic chemistry that hint at how organic molecules made it to Earth
Alien horror: Stephen Hawking hawks Stephen King
Water Ice Found on the Surface of an Asteroid for the First Time
The asteroid 24 Themis has organic material and a layer of frost, bolstering theories that asteroids could have seeded Earth with both water and the precursors to life