Astrobiology

High Potential for Life Circling Alpha Centauri B, our Nearest Neighbor

While exoplanets make the news on an almost daily basis, one of the biggest announcements occurred in 2012 when astronomers…

11 years ago

Prebiotic Molecules May Form in Exoplanet Atmospheres

Before there was life as we know it, there were molecules. And after many seemingly unlikely steps these molecules underwent…

11 years ago

Lithopanspermia: How Earth May Have Seeded Life on Other Solar System Bodies

With the recent discovery that Europa has geysers, and therefore definitive proof of a liquid ocean, there’s a lot of…

11 years ago

Book Review: ‘Five Billion Years of Solitude’ by Lee Billings

Over the past few years, the field of astrobiology has made great strides. With missions such as Kepler making exoplanet…

11 years ago

Here’s One Idea Of How To Search For Life Beyond Earth

Using a phone to search for signs of life? Yeah, we can get behind that. One group of researchers has…

11 years ago

How to Plant a Garden on Mars — With a Robot

Editor's note: This guest post is written by Louisa Preston, an Astrobiologist and Planetary Geologist. She is a TED Fellow,…

12 years ago

‘Ultimate’ Prebiotic Molecules Found in Interstellar Space

The building blocks of life could have their beginnings in the tiny icy grains that make up the gas and…

12 years ago

Hunting for High Life: What Lives in Earth’s Stratosphere?

The Moon photographed through the layers of the atmosphere from the ISS in December 2003 (NASA/JSC) What lives at the…

12 years ago

Mars Sample Return Mission? Naaah… Just Beam Back Martian DNA

Artist concept of a Mars Sample Return mission. Credit: Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion. A Mars sample return mission has long…

12 years ago