Reflections on the habitability of Earth

We know the Earth is habitable because—well, here we are. But would it look like a good candidate for life from hundreds of light-years away?

Nitrogen may be a sign of habitability

We might commonly think of Earth as having an oxygen-dominated atmosphere, but in reality the molecule makes up only a fifth of our air. Most of what surrounds us is nitrogen, at 78 percent. Astrobiologists are beginning ...

Swedish Mars instrument selected by ESA

HABIT is the name of the first Swedish instrument to be placed on the surface of Mars. It was developed by an international research team led by Professor Javier Martín-Torres and Professor María-Paz Zorzano at Luleå University ...

What is the habitable zone?

The weather in your hometown is downright uninhabitable. There's scorching heatwaves, annual tyhpoonic deluges, and snow deep enough to bury a corn silo.

Kepler's six years in science (and counting)

NASA's Kepler spacecraft began hunting for planets outside our solar system on May 12, 2009. From the trove of data collected, we have learned that planets are common, that most sun-like stars have at least one planet and ...

Techniques to prove or disprove existence of other planets

Astronomers long have sought to find planets that can sustain life as humans know it. Four years ago, they thought they had one, possibly even two, pointing to signs that suggested that at least one rocky planet located in ...

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