The case for alien life

Only one planet has been proven to support life: Earth. But evidence is mounting that we are not alone. Biogeochemist Ariel Anbar and astrophysicist Steven Desch, professors in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, ...

Cloud behavior expands habitable zone of alien planets

A new study that calculates the influence of cloud behavior on climate doubles the number of potentially habitable planets orbiting red dwarfs, the most common type of stars in the universe. This finding means that in the ...

New method for ecological risk assessments of alien species

A new semi-quantitative method that enables researchers and others to assess the environmental impacts posed by alien species is now in use in Norway. While the method is tailored to the Norwegian environment, it can easily ...

First transiting planets in a star cluster discovered

(Phys.org) —All stars begin their lives in groups. Most stars, including our Sun, are born in small, benign groups that quickly fall apart. Others form in huge, dense swarms that survive for billions of years as stellar ...

Invaders' away-field advantage weaker than ecologists thought

(Phys.org) —For decades, ecologists have assumed the worst invasive species—such as brown tree snakes and kudzu—have an "away-field advantage." They succeed because they do better in their new territories than they ...

New method of finding planets scores its first discovery

(Phys.org) —Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling ...

Invasion of the slugs—halted by worms...

The gardener's best friend, the earthworm, is great at protecting leaves from being chomped by slugs, suggests research in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology. Although they lurk in the soil, they seem to protect ...

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