Extraterrestrial Life

A human figure holds a lantern in a dark, panoramic landscape beneath a starry sky dominated by the arc of the Milky Way

The UniverseOctober 31, 2025

Do We Live in a Haunted Galaxy?

Huge eruptions from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole in the distant past may have sterilized much of the inner galaxy

Phil Plait

Glowing UFO-like lights against a foggy winter night sky.

Extraterrestrial LifeOctober 28, 2025

UFOs Are Just One Explanation for Mysterious Patterns in Old Telescope Data

New peer-reviewed research reporting strange lights in the pre-space-age sky is sparking curiosity and controversy

Jonathan O'Callaghan

The Young American Scientists Event—Register Now

Still from computer-animated film depicting the Cassini spacecraft conducting a fly-by through the plumes of Enceladus

Extraterrestrial LifeOctober 1, 2025

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has complex, life-friendly chemistry

A fresh analysis of old data has found rich organic chemistry within the hidden ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Jacek Krywko

A looped animation of three different design concepts for NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory showing the architecture of each including sensors, mirrors and sun shields

Extraterrestrial LifeSeptember 30, 2025

NASA’s First-Ever Alien-Hunting Space Telescope Could Enlighten Our New Dark Age

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earth-like planets are common—if it can get off the ground

Nadia Drake, Lee Billings

To the left of the rover near the center of the image is the arrowhead-shaped rock nicknamed "Cheyava Falls, " which has features that may bear on the question of whether Mars was home to microscopic life in the distant past. The small dark hole in the rock is where Perseverance took a core sample, which is now in a sample tube stored in the rover's belly. The white patch to the right of the hole is where the rover used an abrasion tool to clear away the top surface, allowing science instruments to study the rock's composition

MarsSeptember 10, 2025

This Rock May Hold Proof of Life on Mars

The Perseverance rover’s new findings set the stage for bringing Martian samples back to Earth to test whether microbes once inhabited the Red Planet

Humberto Basilio

Illustration of a star with multiple flares and four small orbiting planets. Star is off center to the lower right, with a silhouetted planet to its lower right. A smaller planet is shown an inch to the left, also silhouetted. A third planet is directly to the left of the star, gray and white but without much detail, and farther out near the left edge of the image is the fourth planet, also gray with little detail

ExoplanetsSeptember 9, 2025

Hints of Atmosphere on Earth-Sized Exoplanet Raise Hopes for Life

A monumental sign of an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1e could be the precursor to finally finding a living world around another star

Jonathan O'Callaghan

Artistic impression of the Proxima Centauri system, with the planets Proxima b (in the distance) and Proxima d (in foreground), the latter confirmed by NIRPS

AstronomyAugust 26, 2025

New Instrument Checks on Proxima Centauri’s Planets

Fresh results from near-infrared instruments foretell a bright future for finding life elsewhere in the Milky Way

Ivan Farkas

Illustration of people sitting on Exoplanets looking at others

Extraterrestrial LifeAugust 19, 2025

The search for extraterrestrial life is a roller coaster of hope and disappointment

The search for extraterrestrial life has periodically been turned upside down

Sarah Scoles

Triptych with photographs of Europa, Mars, and Enceladus (seen with a portion of Saturn's rings and Titan in the background)

Extraterrestrial LifeAugust 18, 2025

Can Cosmic Rays Help Alien Life Thrive?

Beneath the surfaces of distant planets, microbes might subsist on harsh radiation rather than starlight, a new study suggests

Emma R. Hasson

Felisa Wolfe-Simon on NASA panel gestures mid-speech in 2010

MicrobiologyJuly 24, 2025

‘Arsenic Life’ Microbe Study Retracted after 15 Years of Controversy

A controversial arsenic microbe study unveiled 15 years ago has been retracted. The study’s authors are crying foul

Dan Vergano

An image of HOPS-315, a still-forming planetary system, as seen by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

AstronomyJuly 16, 2025

Astronomers Witness an Alien Solar System’s Birth for the First Time

Observations of a baby star may show the earliest stages of planet formation that astronomers have ever seen

Lee Billings

Many dark and light-toned slope streaks are visible on the wall of the trough surrounded by dunes in an area of Mars called Acheron Fossae

The UniverseJuly 11, 2025

Mars ‘Water’ Streaks Could Just Be Dust

A new global overview of Mars suggests dust, rather than water, is the source of mysterious streaks there

Phil Plait

Previous Next