Search for Life

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Graphic illustration showing the layers of Mars against the backdrop of space.

Mars: Everything you need to know about the Red Planet

By Charles Q. Choi last updated

Reference Mars, the fourth planet from the sun is famed for its rusty red appearance. Here we explore the Red Planet in more detail and see why scientists find it so intriguing.

Reference
a small uncrewed helicopter flies above a sandy planet's surface

Saturn moon Titan could hold the clues to life's origin. This NASA drone could find them

By Josh Dinner published

The Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander will be one of NASA's most diversely capable planetary exploration craft that will be used to search for signs of life on Saturn's moon Titan.

a section of the Martian surface covered in rocks

Artificial intelligence could help hunt for life on Mars and other alien worlds

By Robert Lea published

A newly developed machine-learning tool could help scientists search for signs of life on Mars and other alien worlds.

Artist's illustration of a large alien spaceship above Earth.

Alien mothership lurking in our solar system could be watching us with tiny probes, Pentagon official suggests

By Hannah Osborne published

A draft paper by a Harvard scientist and the head of the Pentagon's UFO office has raised the idea an alien mothership could be in the solar system, sending out tiny probes dubbed "dandelion seeds" to explore the planets within.

An artist's depiction of an asteroid hitting Earth.

Space dust could carry alien life across the galaxy, study suggests

By Josh Dinner published

Astrobiologists should examine space dust and other exoplanetary debris to search for the existence of life beyond Earth, a new study suggests.

dark rocks in a white container

Building block of life found in sample from asteroid Ryugu

By Keith Cooper published

An organic compound that's part of the RNA molecules that transmit genetic information in cells has been discovered in samples from the asteroid Ryugu, suggesting the stuff of life came from space.

This artist's illustration shows a water-rich world orbiting a binary star.

How much water lurks beneath an exoplanet's surface? New tool could help astronomers tell

By Robert Lea published

A new method could allow astronomers to assess exoplanets' likely subsurface water stores, aiding the search for worlds capable of supporting life as we know it.

a small planet beside a violent star

Bad news for alien life? Even calm red dwarf stars rage more violently than the sun

By Robert Lea published

Even quiet red dwarfs are prone to extreme outbursts that put our sun to shame, with significant implications on the search for alien life.

Active vents from Earth's "Lost City" hydrothermal system could be similar to features found in the oceans of Europa and Enceladus.

Surprising newfound ocean bacteria could aid search for alien life

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

A newfound, highly adaptable bacterium shows the kind of diverse life to look for on Europa or Enceladus, astronomers say.

The luminous, hot star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124), which lies about 15,000 light-years from Earth, is prominent at the center of this James Webb Space Telescope composite image, which combines near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light from Webb's Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument. NASA released this image on March 14, 2023.

Exoplanets, dark matter and more: Big discoveries coming from James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers say

By Keith Cooper published

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has dazzled us plenty already, but the best is yet to come from the observatory, mission team members say.

an illustration of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. it is an orangeish orb covered in deep cracks

Melting ice cores on frozen worlds could speed up the search for alien life

By Laurence Tognetti published

The Melter-Sublimator for Ice Science (MSIS) instrument offers a unique opportunity to help scientists process ice deposits on other worlds in a much more efficient way.

a colorful cloud of gas in space

Asteroids may have picked up building blocks of life from interstellar clouds

By Keith Cooper published

Scientists have taken a big step towards figuring out where building blocks of life such as amino acids and amines form in space.

The Haughton Impact Crater is similar to Mars in many ways, making it a great place for researchers to test new technology that could one day be used to explore other planets. Here a team of researchers working on the ground are seen from a drone.

Designing a drone that can search for life on other planets

By Nina Lanza published

We have yet to find microbial life on another planet. But with the assistance of autonomous drones, we may be able to find it sooner rather than later.

An artist's impression of JUICE arriving in the Jovian system (distances of celestial bodies not to scale).

How the risk of biological contamination could complicate the fate of Europe's Jupiter mission

By Keith Cooper published

If the huge Jupiter moon Ganymede is more potentially habitable than previously thought, it could alter the end of Europe's JUICE mission.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie looking down at one of 10 sample tubes deposited at the sample depot it created in an area nicknamed Three Forks. This image was taken by the WATSON camera on the rover’s robotic arm on Jan. 20, 2023, the 684th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Signs of Mars life may be too elusive for rovers to detect

By Charles Q. Choi published

The robots currently exploring Mars may not be capable of detecting potential traces of life on the Red Planet, a new study finds.

graphic illustration of planets in a goldilocks zone or habitable zone around a host star.

Goldilocks zone: Everything you need to know about the habitable sweet spot

By Vicky Stein published

Reference The Goldilocks zone or habitable zone is the region around a star where an orbiting planet could host liquid water and, therefore, possibly support life.

Reference
An artist's depiction of the Enceladus Orbilander mission concept.

Mini astrobiology laser could join hunt for life on Mars and beyond

By Keith Cooper published

A mass spectrometer called the Orbitrap has been scaled down to fit on astrobiology missions to planets and moons of the solar system.

Active regions on the Sun combined to look something like a jack-o-lantern’s face on Oct. 8, 2014. The active regions appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy — markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona.

'Starspots' could improve our understanding of habitable zones

By Robert Lea published

A new technique to measure starspots could help test stellar magnetism theories and improve our understanding of habitable zones.

An artist's depiction of Wolf 1069 b.

Astronomers discover potential habitable exoplanet only 31 light-years from Earth

By Laurence Tognetti published

Wolf 1069 b offers a unique opportunity to study a potentially habitable and tidally locked exoplanet.

An artist's depiction of the Green Bank Telescope hooked up to a machine learning system.

Machine learning spots 8 potential technosignatures

By Robert Lea published

Humans have five new leads in the search to find life beyond our solar system.