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Scientists Simulated What Earth Would Be Like if Life Never Existed
A new computer model of an Earth without life aims to sharpen how astronomers search for alien biosignatures with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Astrobiology
51 trends tracked about this subject — the full history, oldest to newest below.
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An Earth Microbe Can Grow in Simulated Mars Conditions
University of Florida researchers grew the salt-loving microbe Haloferax volcanii for 160 days in a simulated Martian subsurface environment with low pressure, high salinity, no oxygen, and carbon-dioxide-rich air.
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All 5 genetic “letters” of DNA and RNA discovered in a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid
Scientists find all five genetic letters of DNA and RNA in a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid, offering new clues on life's origins.
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Martian volcanoes once thought to be extinct show possible signs of life
New data from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter suggests Martian volcanoes may harbor environments capable of supporting life.
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The Components For Life May Not Have Arrived By Comet
New scientific research casts significant doubt on the long-standing theory that comets delivered life's ingredients to Earth.
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Comets probably didn't seed life on Earth after all, new study suggests
A new study from Cambridge suggests that while comets carry the building blocks of life, they likely did not deliver them to Earth.
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Webb links interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS to worlds beyond Neptune through similar ice signatures
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope link interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS to frozen worlds beyond Neptune.
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NASA may already have proof life once existed on another planet. Scientists might never get to find out
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How Enceladus' ocean spray becomes chemically diverse ice grains
Researchers are investigating how the ocean spray of Saturn's moon Enceladus transforms into chemically diverse ice grains, raising questions about alien life.
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Scientists Thought Mars’s North Polar Ice Was 25% Dust. They Were Way Off
New findings reveal that the water ice at the north pole of Mars is significantly cleaner than previous scientific estimates suggested.
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NASA's Perseverance Mars rover finds groundwater, lakes, and hot fluids in one place
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Astronomers discover a cold lava planet that may resemble early Earth
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Scientists Find Microbial Life Could Survive on Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus
Recent scientific coverage reveals that ice blasting from Saturn's moon Enceladus is stranger than previously realized and could support microbial life.
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The sun may once have swallowed a super-Earth planet and could still be hiding the evidence
New research indicates the Sun may have consumed a super-Earth planet early in its history, leaving hidden fingerprints.
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NASA found possible sign of life on Mars, but sample remains stuck there
NASA has identified preserved organic carbon in rocks from an ancient Martian river, marking a significant step in the search for extraterrestrial life.
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Is There Alien Debris on the Moon? Some Scientists Plan to Find Out.
Researchers are reviving a decades-old concept to investigate whether microscopic alien technology might be hidden in lunar soil.
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A meteorite punched through a bedroom ceiling in Hillsborough, New Jersey, in 2024. Scientists have now found hundreds of different amino acids inside it
A meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey home in 2024 has been found to contain hundreds of different amino acids, providing clues to the origins of life.
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Mars could have carried liquid water more recently than we thought
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Viking lander's 1976 Mars soil test may have found life after all
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Earth Has a Billion Years Left. This Plan Could Stretch It to 9 Quadrillion
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Meteorite That Smashed Through a New Jersey Roof Hid an Ancient Chemical Secret
A meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey roof reveals ancient chemical secrets concerning the origins of life.
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Jupiter's moon Europa may have signs of life in its buried ocean
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Mars has such thin air that around noon near the equator, sunlit ground beneath your boots could reach 24 degrees Celsius while the air around your head remained below freezing — allowing one standing person to span temperatures resembling spring and
New discoveries of hematite and water-trapping micro-habitats are reshaping the scientific understanding of Mars' surface environment.
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Europa is smaller than Earth's Moon, yet the ocean locked beneath its ice contains more liquid water than every ocean on Earth combined — kept from freezing not by sunlight, but by Jupiter's gravity squeezing the moon like a slow, endless fist
Jupiter's moon Europa contains more liquid water than Earth's oceans, but new findings suggest this hidden ocean may be harder to reach and study.
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Astronomers Detect an Atmosphere on a Potentially Earth-Like World
Astronomers have identified a rocky exoplanet 49 light-years away that possesses an atmosphere, marking it as a prime candidate in the search for alien life.
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At least six moons in our solar system are thought to hide oceans of liquid water beneath their frozen surfaces — and the list may keep growing as old spacecraft data, improved models and new missions reveal oceans in increasingly unexpected places
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Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Be Even Harder to Reach Than We Thought
New measurements suggest the frozen shell of Jupiter's moon Europa is significantly thicker than previously estimated, complicating searches for alien life.
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NASA's Perseverance rover finds the strongest evidence yet of ancient life on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has uncovered the most compelling evidence to date suggesting that ancient life once existed on the planet Mars.
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Finding no evidence of life in Enceladus’s ocean could be almost as scientifically important as finding it — because a world with liquid water, internal heat, phosphorus and complex organic chemistry but no detectable biology would suggest that the ingred
Scientists weigh the scientific weight of both finding and not finding life in the hidden oceans of Enceladus and Europa.
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Rivers of magma once bubbled beneath crust of Mars, research suggests
New research reveals evidence of ancient magma rivers beneath the Martian crust, potentially altering the search for extraterrestrial life.
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Astronomers find the first atmosphere on a rocky world in the habitable zone
Astronomers have identified the first known atmosphere surrounding a rocky exoplanet located within its star's habitable zone.
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Life Has Life Been Found on Mars?
New discoveries of organic molecules and competing sample-return missions have reignited the global debate over the existence of life on Mars.
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Did Viking 1 find life on Mars 50 years ago? Here's why the debate continues
The 50th anniversary of Viking 1's historic Mars landing has reignited a scientific debate over whether the probe actually discovered evidence of alien life.
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First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
Astronomers have detected an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet located within the habitable zone of a distant star for the first time.
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Scientists drilled 1.3 km beneath the Atlantic and found superheated water that may fuel one of Earth’s s
Scientists have discovered superheated water 1.3 kilometers beneath the Atlantic seafloor, revealing the hidden energy source fueling the "Lost City" vents.
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Astronomers Find an Atmosphere on a Nearby Earthlike Planet
Astronomers have detected the first atmosphere on a rocky, Earth-like planet located within a habitable zone, marking a potential milestone in the search for life.
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Meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey home is a rare solar system fragment
Scientists have discovered extraterrestrial amino acids and building blocks of life within a meteorite that struck a New Jersey residence in 2024.
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In a 3.5-billion-year-old clay-rich rock from Gale Crater, NASA’s Curiosity rover identified 21 carbon-based molecules — including a nitrogen-bearing ring structure linked to the chemistry that can precede RNA and DNA
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Scientists have found a billion-year-old hidden magma system on Mars that supported life on the Red plane
Researchers have identified a billion-year-old hidden magma system on Mars that potentially created a habitable environment for ancient life.
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In 1610, Galileo spotted a small, smooth moon circling Jupiter and wrote it down; four hundred years later, scientists confirmed it likely holds the largest ocean in the solar system, buried under ice and never once touched by sunlight
Ground-based radar data has provided new insights into Europa's icy shell and its potential to house the solar system's largest ocean.
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Comet from another star has a composition unlike anything else in our solar system
The discovery of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS reveals a chemical composition entirely foreign to our solar system and an age of up to 12 billion years.
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Study suggests life on Earth has around 1.8 billion years left
New research extends Earth's vegetative biosphere timeline to nearly two billion years
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'Titan is actually a very reasonable destination for humans': Scientists start mapping out crewed mission to huge Saturn moon
Scientists are evaluating Titan, Saturn's largest moon, as a potential destination for future human exploration and resource utilization.
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Scientists Challenge a Fundamental Assumption About Consciousness
A new academic paper is challenging traditional biological definitions of consciousness by proposing its existence in non-earthly forms.
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Organic carbon detected in Bright Angel rock formation on Mars
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Did NASA just find evidence of ancient life on Mars? Perseverance rover spots complex carbon in Red Planet rocks
NASA's Perseverance rover has detected complex organic matter and signs of extinct life within the rocky terrain of Mars.
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New analysis finds signs of life on Mars actually came from Earth
New scientific analysis suggests that signs of life previously detected on Mars may have actually originated from Earth.
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Consciousness Could Exist in Bodies Nothing Like Ours, Researchers Say
Researchers and philosophers argue that consciousness is not exclusive to Earth's biology and could exist in vastly different physical forms.
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Mars life search gets boost as rover test distinguishes mirrored biosignature molecules
New testing of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover confirms its ability to distinguish life-related mirrored molecules in Martian-like conditions.
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Contact? Groundbreaking Israeli method may soon detect life in outer space
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In January 2005, the Huygens probe parachuted for 147 minutes through Titan’s orange haze, landed on a cold plain scattered with ice pebbles, and kept transmitting from the surface of Saturn’s largest moon for 72 minutes before Cassini carried its signal
New interest is surfacing regarding the legacy of the Huygens probe and the resource potential of Saturn's moon Titan.