https://phys.org/space-news/astrobiology/ en-us Astrobiology news stories about origin and evolution of life in the Universe Between the mid-1970s and early 1980s, two physicists, Michael Hart and Frank Tipler, published a controversial series of papers arguing that extraterrestrial intelligence didn't exist. As they argued, the likelihood that extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) would have had enough time to develop advanced computing, spaceflight and self-replicating machines (Von Neumann probes) means they would have colonized the galaxy, and come to Earth, long ago. Since there was no evidence of this, they reasoned that ETCs must not exist and humanity was alone in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-david-kipping-advanced-life-universe.html Astrobiology Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:30:02 EDT news700402136 The United States government's recent release of hundreds of previously classified unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) cases spanning the 1940s to the present, along with the new Steven Spielberg movie, "Disclosure Day," about extraterrestrial life, has fueled the idea that aliens are visiting Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-aliens-theyre.html Space Exploration Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:00:08 EDT news700475161 Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober, a former UCR graduate student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, assert that consciousness is likely possible in life forms made of very different stuff. Think of the five-limbed alien with a rocklike exterior in the recent blockbuster movie "Project Hail Mary." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-consciousness-unique-earthlings-paper.html Astrobiology Thu, 11 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT news700381442 There's a question at the heart of SETI that doesn't get nearly enough attention. It isn't whether aliens exist, and it isn't whether we have the technology to detect them. It's a far more practical problem: With a billion stars in our galaxy and finite telescope time, how do you decide which ones to actually listen to? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-where-not-to-look-in.html Astrobiology Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:20:43 EDT news700307582 The space between stars may seem like a barren desert, but over the past few decades scientists have been finding all sorts of interesting chemicals in it. From the precursors to proteins to the building blocks of cell membranes, there has been discovery after discovery of new molecules in the giant gas clouds between the stars. Now, a new paper available on the arXiv preprint server details the discovery of the first-ever four-carbon sugar in the interstellar medium (ISM), and it is another brick on the path to understanding how life on Earth first developed. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astronomers-carbon-sugar-deep-space.html Astronomy Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:20:01 EDT news700300081 The asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs also created an underground environment suited to supporting new life, and new research suggests it lasted for millions of years longer than previously suspected. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dino-asteroid-fueled-underground-life.html Astrobiology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:20:02 EDT news700231012 Asteroids and planetesimals regularly bombarded Earth between about 4.6 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, during the Hadean and Archean eons. Because few rocks today are more than 4 billion years old, our understanding of the planet's environment during that time is limited. However, samples from the moon and its cratered surface hint at the period's rate of cosmic impacts. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cosmic-bombardment-earth-crust-prebiotic.html Astrobiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:40:04 EDT news700143613 The IAA SETI Committee has updated rules for evaluating and revealing the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-alien-stricter-verification-disclosure.html Astronomy Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:00:04 EDT news700129803 A pair of stars spiraling around each other. That's the origin of a new source of repeating radio bursts we've detected, called ASKAP J1745. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mysterious-space-astronomers-rosetta-stone.html Astronomy Sun, 07 Jun 2026 20:30:04 EDT news699529438 It may seem like we are on the verge of discovering alien life. In 2025, a press release stated that we have the "strongest hints yet" of extraterrestrial life on the exoplanet K2-18b. And when talking about a collected sample from a rock named "Cheyava Falls" on Mars, NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said this was the "closest we have ever come" to discovering life on the red planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-aliens-cheyava-falls-mars-exoplanet.html Astrobiology Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:40:01 EDT news699870782 Researchers have developed the Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM) to assess which planets can maintain life-supporting atmospheres, focusing on size and atmospheric dynamics. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-atmosphere-survival-refines-habitable-planets.html Astrobiology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:40:04 EDT news699795001 In the region where the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will search for signs of life, clay deposits extend beyond previous estimates, a new study finds. One hypothesis even suggests a vast ocean once covered the landing site. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-exomars-rover-vast-bed-clay.html Astrobiology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:40:05 EDT news699783180 NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution of these elements throughout the young solar system. The study, published in Science Advances, examines this history by looking at the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen in iron meteorites and in younger objects known as chondrites. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jupiter-redirected-life-ingredients-earth.html Astrobiology Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:50:01 EDT news699726061 Scientists at the SETI Institute recently searched for technological signals from 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object observed in our solar system. Using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California, the team scanned a wide range of radio frequencies for signs of extraterrestrial technology and found none, as expected based on other astronomical observations showing that the object exhibits natural comet-like composition and behavior. The paper is published in The Astronomical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-interstellar-3iatlas-reveals-technosignatures-hour.html Astrobiology Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:30:01 EDT news699724681 Multi-billion-dollar space telescope programs aren't only feats of aerospace engineering. They also feature "lies, damn lies, and statistics." Or at least statistics. They definitely feature those, as does all good observational astronomy. The problem with statistics is, in order to get a clear definitive answer, you need lots of samples. And, to put it mildly, it's hard to find lots of samples of planets with alien life on them. And even harder to prove that the signals we think are caused by alien life aren't caused by some other non-biological process. Or at least that's the theory underpinning a new paper available on the arXiv preprint server from David Kipping of Columbia University (and Cool Worlds YouTube fame). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astrobiology-looming-statistical-crisis.html Astrobiology Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:20:03 EDT news699602221 New observatories and spacecraft missions are probing environments in our solar system that could potentially host life but have long remained hidden. Icy moons like Saturn's Enceladus and Jupiter's Europa likely contain oceans beneath frozen outer shells. But a layer of ice prohibits space probes from sampling them directly. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-icy-moons-ability-host-life.html Astrobiology Tue, 02 Jun 2026 05:40:01 EDT news699542933 4.5 billion years ago was an interesting time for Earth. The atmosphere was thick and what we would now think of as toxic. The moon, which was freshly formed, looks much more massive than it does today and faintly glows with the residual heat from its own creation. And the floor was literally lava. Everywhere. If there were any children alive at the time, they would have no chance of winning that game. But for a long time, scientists had thought this molten phase of Earth didn't last long. But according to a new paper, available on the arXiv preprint server by researchers at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, it might have lasted for upward of half a billion years. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-giant-moon-steam-atmosphere-built.html Astrobiology Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:20:03 EDT news699540295 When astronomers discovered the first planet outside our solar system, it was orbiting a pulsar, one of the most extreme, radiation-blasted environments imaginable. Not exactly the kind of place you'd expect to find a planet, let alone a representative one. The first confirmed exoplanet was an oddity, a product of the fact that pulsar timing is extraordinarily sensitive, not a reflection of what planets are typically like. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-shone-habitable-worlds.html Astrobiology Mon, 01 Jun 2026 10:40:02 EDT news699524701 Life exists because elements combine to form complex organic molecules. Astrochemistry studies this process, trying to understand how nature creates carbon-based molecules critical for life. One source for these types of molecules is the outflows emitted by protostars. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-natural-chemistry-laboratory-protostar.html Astrobiology Sun, 31 May 2026 18:30:01 EDT news699180468 Past research has indicated Mars's largest northern basin, Utopia Planitia, was once the location of a large body of water, but details surrounding when this body of water may have existed have not been resolved. Researchers have now identified a ring of minerals in the region that have helped them string together a timeline of what happened there. The new study, published in Nature Communications, provides details about the ocean's timeline and what it says about life on Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mars-manganese-bathtub-reveals-ancient.html Astrobiology Fri, 29 May 2026 11:50:26 EDT news699274173 About a billion years ago, Earth started to come into its own. It was past the awkwardness of its younger years full of growing pains and turmoil: comet strikes and slimy water, including the Great Oxidation Event that flipped the world upside down. Roughly a billion years ago, the planet began to advance and mature, with plant life developing about 700 million years ago, but still with the occasional wild climate parties to keep things interesting. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-supercontinent-ancient-earth-snowball-phase.html Astrobiology Thu, 28 May 2026 11:20:04 EDT news699181908 On May 22, 2026, the Pentagon released a second batch of previously classified photos and videos showing what appear to be unexplained flying objects. These file dumps were the culmination of a process that was set in motion back in July 2023, when a group of government whistleblowers testified before Congress that the U.S. government was secretly in possession of extraterrestrial spacecraft and suspected alien body parts. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-aliens-earth-aerospace-scientist-interstellar.html Astrobiology Wed, 27 May 2026 10:01:14 EDT news699094082 Mars holds a special place in the solar system. It represents marginal habitability. This means it transitioned from warm and wet and potentially hospitable, to cold and dry and inhospitable. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mars-marginal-exoplanets.html Astrobiology Tue, 26 May 2026 07:00:04 EDT news698993041 The thinking around exoplanet habitability is mostly concerned with a planet's distance from its star. Too close, and any surface water is boiled away into space. Too far, and surface water is frozen. Both are severe limits on the prospects for life. Habitability depends on an exoplanet being in the Goldilocks Zone, a distance range around a star where liquid water can persist. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-supermassive-black-holes-exoplanets-uninhabitable.html Astrobiology Mon, 25 May 2026 18:00:01 EDT news698921322 In his 1964 paper, "Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations," famed astrophysicist and radio astronomer Nikolai Kardashev addressed the types of transmissions (and at what energies) astronomers should search for in their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). As part of his analysis, Kardashev proposed a universal scale for classifying the technological advancement of civilizations based on their overall energy consumption. The resulting Kardashev Scale (as it came to be known) came down to three categories. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-kardashev-conundrum-bitcoin-metric.html Astrobiology Thu, 21 May 2026 12:20:02 EDT news698582862 Suppose there are signs of extraterrestrial life and we have not yet been able to detect them. What does that mean? In Nature Astronomy, researchers discuss the consequences of these so-called false-negative results. "We are currently investing a great deal of money in missions that might need to be designed differently." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-extraterrestrial-life-space-missions-astrobiologists.html Astrobiology Thu, 21 May 2026 11:00:17 EDT news698570821 A discovery by a South Korean research team suggests that impact-generated lakes may have fostered early oxygen-producing life. A team of South Korean scientists has uncovered new evidence that could help explain how Earth's atmosphere became rich in oxygen, one of the most transformative events in the planet's history. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-asteroid-impact-site-reveals-early.html Astrobiology Wed, 20 May 2026 10:20:05 EDT news698490421 Looking back at 14 years of Hubble telescope data for Jupiter's moon Europa has given Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists a better understanding of its tenuous atmosphere. The findings have cast doubt on previous evidence suggesting that the icy moon intermittently discharges faint water plumes from a presumed subsurface ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-reconsider-europa-vapor-plumes.html Astrobiology Mon, 18 May 2026 17:00:05 EDT news698337061 Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, is also the solar system's largest satellite, even larger than the planet Mercury. It is also the only celestial body aside from Earth (and the gas giants) to have an intrinsic magnetic field. As if this didn't make the icy body interesting enough, scientists also predict that it has a massive interior ocean with more water than all of Earth's oceans combined. At present, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is in transit to Ganymede to explore it for signs of habitability. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-geysers-juice-mission-explore-ganymede.html Astrobiology Tue, 12 May 2026 20:40:03 EDT news697810079 Earth's earliest continents may have set the chemical stage for life by regulating boron levels in ancient oceans, a new study in Terra Nova suggests. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-continents-stage-life-earth.html Astrobiology Wed, 06 May 2026 17:50:02 EDT news697304942