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Signs of alien life may be hiding in these gases

Scientists have identified a promising new way to detect life on faraway planets, hinging on worlds that look nothing like Earth and gases rarely considered in the search for extraterrestrials.

Webb exposes complex atmosphere of starless super-Jupiter

An international team of researchers has discovered that previously observed variations in brightness of a free-floating planetary-mass object known as SIMP 0136 must be the result of a complex combination of atmospheric ...

Mission concept proposes sampling Enceladus's subsurface ocean

How can we explore Saturn's moon, Enceladus, to include its surface and subsurface ocean, with the goal of potentially discovering life as we know it? This is what a recent study presented at the American Geophysical Union ...

Ancient beaches testify to long-ago ocean on Mars

A Chinese rover that landed on Mars in 2021 detected evidence of underground beach deposits in an area thought to have once been the site of an ancient sea, providing further evidence that the planet long ago had a large ...

If you're going to call aliens, use this number

Let's dive into one of those cosmic curiosities that's bound to blow your mind: how we might chat with aliens. And no, I'm not talking about elaborate coded messages or flashy signals. We're talking about something incredibly ...

Sulfur may be a new tool for finding alien life

Astronomers have identified sulfur as a potentially crucial indicator in narrowing the search for life on other planets. While sulfur itself is not necessarily an indication of habitability, significant concentrations of ...

More news

Astrobiology
Jupiter's moon Callisto is very likely an ocean world
Astrobiology
A new theory explains how water first arrived on Earth
Astrobiology
Evolving intelligent life took billions of years—but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted
Astrobiology
Does planetary evolution favor human-like life? Study ups odds we're not alone
Astrobiology
Asteroid Ryugu samples suggest presence of salty water in outer solar system
Astrobiology
White dwarf stars may host more habitable exoplanets than expected
Astronomy
SPHEREx space telescope will seek life's ingredients
Astrobiology
Witnessing the birth of planets: Webb telescope provides unprecedented view into PDS 70 system
Astrobiology
Is methane the key to finding life on other worlds?
Astrobiology
Roving the red planet: New paper documents first Mars mission soil samples
Astrobiology
Enceladus study shows the physics of alien oceans could hide signs of life from spacecraft
Astrobiology
Efforts to find alien life could be boosted by simple test that gets microbes moving
Astrobiology
Meteorite discovery challenges long-held theories on Earth's missing elements
Astronomy
SETI researchers double-check 1 million objects for signs of alien signals
Astrobiology
How a twin Earth could detect Earth
Astrobiology
Life-bearing water arrived on Earth later rather than sooner, meteorite analysis suggests
Astronomy
High-resolution imaging of Dyson sphere candidate reveals no radio signals
Space Exploration
Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely
Astrobiology
Pristine asteroid samples reveal secrets of the ancient solar system
Astrobiology
Are we all aliens? NASA's returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world

Other news

Quantum Physics
D-Wave claims its quantum computers can solve a problem of scientific relevance much faster than classical methods
General Physics
Why does nature love spirals? The link to entropy
Optics & Photonics
Boosting the response speed of quantum LEDs via an excitation memory effect
Other
Saturday Citations: A baffling discovery from Webb; the face of an early human; humans and dogs like to chill together
Ecology
Study finds chain-link fences reduce predator attacks on livestock
Space Exploration
Crew launch to ISS paves way for 'stranded' astronauts' return
Evolution
Genomic study indicates our capacity for language emerged 135,000 years ago
Quantum Physics
Quantum entanglement wins: Researchers report quantum advantage in a simple cooperation game
Plants & Animals
How a rapidly growing population of crocs has been impacting Australia's Northern Territories ecosystem
Paleontology & Fossils
Melanosome patterns in Mesozoic mammals suggest they had dark, uniformly dull fur coloring
Archaeology
Smell like a god: Ancient sculptures were scented, Danish study shows
Earth Sciences
Earthquake rupture patterns reveal Mamara fault directs considerable seismic energy towards Istanbul
Biochemistry
Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping to explain unusual refolding behavior
Bio & Medicine
Unveiling cancer's hidden messengers: How extracellular vesicles aid tumor spread
Optics & Photonics
Physicists use optical vortex beams to control atom ionization
Biochemistry
Color-changing fluorescent dyes enable precise temperature measurements within living cells
Astronomy
TOI-1453 c: A key sub-Neptune discovered in a system of two exoplanets
Environment
Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires deadlier than remote wildfires, study finds
Condensed Matter
Understanding the origin of magnetic moment enhancement in novel alloys
Cell & Microbiology
Tapuy rice wine fermentation yields possible anti-aging superfood

Do aliens exist? We studied what scientists really think

News stories about the likely existence of extraterrestrial life, and our chances of detecting it, tend to be positive. We are often told that we might discover it any time now. Finding life beyond Earth is "only a matter ...

Planets without plate tectonics could still be habitable

It has been thought that plate tectonics were a significant factor in the shaping of our planet and the evolution of life. Mars and Venus don't experience such movements of crustal plates, but then the differences between ...

Dormancy: Life's first survival strategy?

The early Earth was an extreme place. Asteroids pommeled the surface. Volcanoes spewed lava and carbon dioxide. The thick, toxic atmosphere lacked oxygen. Yet, in this turmoil, life emerged.