Alien Life | Astronomy.com

The search for alien life may depend on plate tectonics

Brooks Mendenhall — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 19:14:36 +0000

For decades, scientists have grappled with a profound question known as the Fermi Paradox: if the galaxy is teeming with the potential for extraterrestrial life, why is the cosmos so quiet? A new study offers a potential answer, suggesting the specific geological and atmospheric conditions needed for a technological civilization to arise are so rareContinue reading "The search for alien life may depend on plate tectonics"

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NASA study finds Ceres may have once been habitable

Brooks Mendenhall — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 13:53:47 +0000

New research based on data from NASA’s Dawn mission suggests the dwarf planet Ceres may have once possessed a deep, long-lasting energy source capable of sustaining habitable conditions in its ancient past. The findings, published on Aug. 20 in the journal Science Advances, add a crucial third piece to the puzzle of Ceres’s potential habitability.Continue reading "NASA study finds Ceres may have once been habitable"

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NASA announces strongest evidence yet for ancient life on Mars

Brooks Mendenhall — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:36:56 +0000

NASA announced Wednesday that its Perseverance rover discovered what scientists are calling a “potential biosignature” in a rock on Mars last year. This signature, which may have a biological origin but requires further study, represents the most compelling evidence to date for ancient microbial life on Mars, scientists and agency officials said in a pressContinue reading "NASA announces strongest evidence yet for ancient life on Mars"

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To find alien life, try eavesdropping on their conversations with spacecraft, astronomers suggest

Brooks Mendenhall — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:43:22 +0000

A new study suggests a novel approach in the long-running scientific endeavor to find intelligent life beyond Earth. Instead of casting a wide, speculative net across the cosmos, researchers from Penn State and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory propose a more targeted strategy: listen for alien civilizations in the same way they might be listening forContinue reading "To find alien life, try eavesdropping on their conversations with spacecraft, astronomers suggest"

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The search for biosignatures in the Milky Way

Theo Nicitopoulos — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:00:00 +0000

The next time you look at a star, imagine a rocky planet orbiting at just the right distance for a climate that supports liquid water on its surface. Picture thick forests upon vast landscapes teeming with wildlife. Or consider a water world devoid of land where strange marine life swims beneath a hydrogen sky. MaybeContinue reading "The search for biosignatures in the Milky Way"

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New study revisits signs of life on K2-18 b

Brooks Mendenhall — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 18:52:11 +0000

Astronomers have long sought signs of life beyond Earth, with exoplanets like K2-18 b — a world about 124 light-years away — offering tantalizing possibilities. In 2023 and again in April 2025, a team using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detected molecules in K2-18 b’s atmosphere they claimed could be a biosignature: dimethyl sulfideContinue reading "New study revisits signs of life on K2-18 b"

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How much evidence do scientists need to claim they’ve found alien life?

Daniela Mata — Fri, 02 May 2025 19:51:00 +0000

The detection of life beyond Earth would be one of the most profound discoveries in the history of science. The Milky Way galaxy alone hosts hundreds of millions of potentially habitable planets. Astronomers are using powerful space telescopes to look for molecular indicators of biology in the atmospheres of the most Earth-like of these planets.Continue reading "How much evidence do scientists need to claim they’ve found alien life?"

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Can we detect alien artifacts?

Seth Shostak — Thu, 01 May 2025 13:00:00 +0000

There are tens of billions of Sun-like stars in the Milky Way, an immense tally that encourages the possibility that extraterrestrial life peppers the universe. Finding evidence for aliens — even microscopic ones — would confirm the widespread belief that life is not an unlikely event, constrained to a small number of planets and moons.Continue reading "Can we detect alien artifacts?"

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K2-18 b could have dimethyl sulfide in its air. But is it a sign of life?

Mark Zastrow — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 05:40:18 +0000

Scientists have reported new observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that strengthen the case that the exoplanet K2-18 b has molecules in its atmosphere that, on Earth, are produced only by life. The work, announced Wednesday, builds on previous observations from JWST published in 2023 by the same team that yielded weak hintsContinue reading "K2-18 b could have dimethyl sulfide in its air. But is it a sign of life?"

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Mystery ‘interstellar icy objects’ are carrying the seeds of life

Alison Klesman — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 13:00:00 +0000

In the century or so since Edwin Hubble discovered that the Milky Way is just one of countless galaxies in the universe, our understanding of our home galaxy has grown in leaps and bounds. But as recent research into a new type of cosmic object shows, there’s still plenty left to learn. Astronomers found twoContinue reading "Mystery ‘interstellar icy objects’ are carrying the seeds of life"

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