Storming Area 51 to find aliens? Here's some science to consider

Millions of people have signed up to a tongue-in-cheek Facebook event to storm the US military base "Area 51" on 20 September to discover whether aliens are inside. While the organisers said it was a joke, the US military ...

Mushrooms on Mars? Five unproven claims that alien life exists

A recent study claims to have found evidence for mushroom-like life forms on the surface of Mars. As it happens, these particular features are well known and were discovered by cameras aboard Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover ...

Is it life, or is it volcanoes?

Astronomers are working hard to understand biosignatures and how they indicate life's presence on an exoplanet. But each planet we encounter is a unique puzzle. When it comes to planetary atmospheres, carbon is a big piece ...

Exploring the galactic habitable zone

Our planet sits in the habitable zone of our sun, the special place where water can be liquid on the surface of a world. But that's not the only thing special about us: we also sit in the galactic habitable zone, the region ...

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