'Snowball Earth' Might Be Slushy By Michael Schirber Climate modelers go back in time to simulate past Snowball Earth conditions and find that complete freeze-over is hard to achieve.
Rock Art On Earth Draws Scientists to Ancient Lakes By Michael Schirber Seven thousand year-old rock paintings in the Sahara desert have, somewhat serendipitously, helped uncover evidence of ancient lake beds.
Microbe's Innovation May Have Started Largest Extinction Event on Earth By Michael Schirber The environment can produce sudden shocks to the life of our planet through impacting space rocks, erupting volcanoes and other events.
Scientists Use Earth to Understand Possible Life in the Universe By Michael Schirber Astrobiologists use Earth as an analogue for other planets.
Stratosphere-Dwelling Microbes Could Inform Mars Life Hunt By Michael Schirber Earth's stratosphere and the Martian surface are similar in key ways, researchers say.
Future Planetary Rovers May Make Their Own Decisions By Michael Schirber A new technique could make planetary rovers more autonomous.
Volcanic Rocks Could Have Nurtured Life on Earth & Elsewhere By Michael Schirber Volcanism on other planets could nurture microbes as well.
Asteroid Impacts Could Help out Underground Life By Michael Schirber Big impacts could create new habitats for subterranean microbes.
Our Sun May Have Been Bigger Long Ago By Michael Schirber The sun may have started out 2 to 5 percent more massive than it is now.
How NASA's Curiosity Rover Will Study Building Blocks of Life By Michael Schirber Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument will analyze organic material.
Missions Proposed to Explore Mysterious Tilted Planet Uranus By Michael Schirber Several Uranus missions are in development, but none have been approved and funded yet.
New Spacecraft Will Hunt for Mars' Lost Water By Michael Schirber Missions like Mars MAVEN will look for signs that the Red Planet used to be wet.
How Vital Is a Planet's Magnetic Field? New Debate Rises By Michael Schirber Does our magnetic field really shield Earth from the solar wind?
Definition of Life: Debate Still Swirls Around Arsenic Claim By Michael Schirber The claim of a microbe that swaps arsenic for phosphorus may be questionable, but its implications are far-reaching.
'Snowball Earth' Scenario Plunged Our Planet Into Million-Year Winters By Michael Schirber Snowball Earths, eras in which our planet was locked in a global winter, have perplexed researchers studying how our planet unfroze itself.
Meteorite-Based Debate Over Martian Life Is Far from Over By Michael Schirber Scientists are still arguing about whether the Martian meteorite ALH84001 contains fossils.
Alien Life May Need More Than Liquid Water to Survive By Michael Schirber The search for life on other planets focuses on water, but researchers argue that — judging from our own planet — a large fraction of water conditions may be inhospitable to life.
Alien Plants Get New Twist in World of 'Avatar' By Michael Schirber The film "Avatar" takes viewers to a fictional moon, where the alien plants glow, shoot poison leaf tips and communicate.
Martian Hunting: The Search for Extraterrestrial Genomes By Michael Schirber The possibility that life was shared between Earth and Mars could be tested with a DNA analyzer. One research team has built a prototype and plans field tests on a South American volcano.
Scientists Cook Up Saturn Moon Cocktail on Earth By Michael Schirber Scientists are cooking up a replica of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan to learn more about the lakes recently discovered there.
Water Shield May Have Seeded Earth’s Oceans By Michael Schirber Water vapor in planet-forming disks may block ultraviolet radiation from destroying water and other important molecules for life, according to new calculations.
Key to Mars Channel Mystery May be on Earth By Michael Schirber Sinuous channels on the Martian surface may be evidence of more recent rainfall than expected. Researchers plan to test this hypothesis by studying sinuous streams on Earth.
Dark Energy Search Could Aid Planet Hunters By Michael Schirber A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find.
