When did the first exocontinents appear in the universe?

On Earth, continents are likely necessary to support life. Continents "float" on top of the Earth's viscous mantle, and heat from the planet's core keeps the mantle from solidifying and locking the continents into place.

Red dwarf stars might be best places to discover alien life

Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the universe, and nearly every one of these stars may have a planet located in its habitable zone where life has the best chance of existing, a new study concludes.

Solar system's youth gives clues to planet search

Comets and meteorites contain clues to our solar system's earliest days. But some of the findings are puzzle pieces that don't seem to fit well together. A new set of theoretical models from Carnegie's Alan Boss shows how ...

Martian clay minerals might have a much hotter origin

(Phys.org)—Ancient Mars, like Earth today, was a diverse planet shaped by many different geologic processes. So when scientists, using rovers or orbiting spacecraft, detect a particular mineral there, they must often consider ...

Study exposes habit formation in smartphone users

Popular media has raised the issue of repetitive and obsessive use of smartphones. Data collected in Finland and in USA presents the first scientific evidence for what the authors dubbed "checking habits": repetitive checks ...

Double vision: New instrument casts its eyes to the sky

The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer has taken its first images of the star Beta Peg in the constellation Pictor -- an encouraging start for an instrument designed to probe the cosmic neighborhoods where Earth-like ...