Life
The Raw Materials for Life Form Early on in Stellar Nurseries
Life doesn't appear from nothing. Its origins are wrapped up in the same long, arduous process that creates the elements,…
Worlds Bustling With Plantlife Should Shine in a Detectable Wavelength of Infrared
Future historians might look back on this time and call it the 'exoplanet age.' We've found over 5,000 exoplanets, and…
We Could Spread Life to the Milky Way With Comets. But Should We?
Here's a thorny problem: What if life doesn't always appear on planets that can support it? What if we find…
Meteorites Bathed in Gamma Rays Produce More Amino Acids and Could Have Helped Life get Going on Earth
Our modern telescopes are more powerful than their predecessors, and our research is more focused than ever. We keep discovering…
Want to Colonize Space? Unleash the Power of Microbes
If space colonization is in our future, we'll have to use the resources available there. But we won't be able…
Should We Build a Nature Reserve on Mars?
There are 8 billion of us now. The UN says when the population peaks around the year 2100, there'll be…
Earth’s First Known Mass Extinction Event Starved Life of Oxygen
650 million years ago, Earth was completely or almost completely frozen, according to the Snowball Earth Hypothesis. As the atmosphere…
Hydrothermal Vents Under the Arctic Ice are Perfect Places to Practice Exploring Europa
Someday on Europa, there'll be a robotic explorer diving beneath its icy surface to find volcanoes. Yes, even though it's…
Earth’s Hardiest Bacteria Could Survive Hundreds of Millions of Years Just Under the Surface of Mars
A few years from now, a small capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere and float to the surface under a parachute.…
Early Life on Mars Might Have Wiped Out Life on Mars
Life might have wiped itself out on early Mars. That's not as absurd as it sounds; that's sort of what…