Life

A new study argues that the death of a huge asteroid caused an ice age that dramatically altered the evolution of life on Earth.

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.

Exactly how life sprung out of non-living matter is one of biology’s biggest mysteries. In new research, scientists cooked up a “primordial soup” and found that some of the crucial building blocks of life spontaneously stacked themselves in a surprisingly efficient way.

A new study has used simulations to show that even Earth-like planets completely encased in ice could still have areas warm enough for life, muddying up the already-murky definition of habitable worlds.

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered three worlds orbiting a star located a mere 73 light-years from Earth. The exoplanets are a tempting target for scientists hoping to understand how planets form, and may even be a future hunting ground for E.T.

The biggest missing link lies between non-living matter and the earliest living cells. A new study has found a mechanism that may have helped droplets transition into early cells, taking place in ponds, puddles and waterways that dried out and refilled repeatedly over time.

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.

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has successfully pulled off a second touchdown on the surface of the distant asteroid Ryugu. The risky dive saw the probe collect material that had been exposed during the creation of an artificial crater on April 5.

A new study from UCL may have brought us a step closer to understanding how life arose. The team may have solved a long-standing chicken-and-egg riddle related to how different types of peptides and proteins interact to give rise to life.

It’s been suggested in the past that life could hitch a ride on asteroids or comets to jump from world to world – a process known as panspermia. Now, a Harvard team has calculated just how likely that scenario would be throughout the Milky Way. In short: extremely.