Extraterrestrial Life

Organisms on Earth produce a wide array of durable “biofluorescent” materials. If those on other planets do, too, the Compact Color Biofinder should be able to detect them

Planetary scientists are eager to bring Red Planet rocks, soil and even air to Earth, but critics fear the risk of contaminating our world’s biosphere 

We now know that plants survive but fail to thrive in lunar soil

A structure that links amino acids suggests that early organisms could have been based on an RNA-protein mix

The alien comets could illuminate the history of their planetary system

An updated communication could be beamed out for space alien listeners in hopes of making first contact

A new theory suggests that searches for molecular complexity could uncover convincing evidence of extraterrestrial life—and do so soon

Sparked by major advances in their field, astrobiologists are grappling with how best to discuss possible breakthrough discoveries with the public

The radio signal seemed to originate from the star Proxima Centauri and provided a helpful drill for future searches

Humanity’s greatest achievement might be building our successors

Much of astrobiology is focused on looking for organisms with chemistry similar to ours—but there could well be other kinds