Extraterrestrial

Just how common are potentially habitable Earth-like planets? Researchers on a new study claim to have come up with the most accurate estimate yet – and they’re more common than you might think.

While we have some idea about what kinds of signs of life to look for on other planets, many of these can also be created under natural processes. Now NASA is about to launch a new mission that can help root out these false positives by studying the interactions between stars and their planets.

Statistically it’s pretty much a given that alien life is out there, whether that’s Martian microbes or intelligent life beaming comms through the cosmos. Now, a new telescope array has joined Breakthrough Listen, scanning for flashes of laser light that alien civilizations might be giving off.

Modern Mars is a desolate husk of a planet, as far as life is concerned. But it’s not completely uninhabitable, since microbes could be hiding in the cracks of rocks and dirt. And now a new study has found a possible food source for these organisms – space dust.

Astronomers have discovered a weird star system that appears to be dimming completely at random, and none of the usual explanations seem to fit.

With oceans of liquid methane, Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most fascinating places in the solar system. To better understand this weird world, scientists recreated Titan’s alien oceans in the lab, producing new types of crystals that don’t occur naturally on Earth but may be common on Titan.

Alien life is almost certainly out there somewhere, but because it’s most likely microscopic, it won’t be easy to spot. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a new and fairly obvious sign of life: pasta-shaped rocks.

Different conditions on different planets could have led life down paths that are completely … well, alien. To demonstrate, a NASA-funded study has successfully created a new synthetic genetic system that’s a viable alternative to DNA, made with twice as many “ingredients.”

After a year of analysis, the SETI Institute has concluded that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object known to have visited our Solar System, isn't trying to make radio contact with us.

In 1974, astronomers used the Arecibo Observatory to beam a message from humanity to the stars, in one of the most well-known attempts to contact possible alien life. For the 44th anniversary of the Arecibo Message, scientists are reaching out to the public for help in designing an updated version.

Whether there’s life beyond Earth is one of the most profound questions we can ask. Making ourselves easier to find could be part of our first contact strategy. A new MIT study outlines a way to use existing or near-future tech to build a kind of laser lighthouse to signal to our cosmic neighbors.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is one of the most promising places in the Solar System to look for extraterrestrial life. Now Cassini mission data has shown the presence of complex organic molecules, spraying up from the moon’s subsurface ocean through cracks in the icy shell.