Extraterrestrial Life
New Evidence Discovered That Saturn’s Moon Could Support Life
Molecules in Enceladus’s icy plumes suggest that alien life could exist in our solar system
Extraterrestrial Life471 articles archived since 1845
Microbiology
Subterranean ‘Microbial Dark Matter’ Reveals a Strange Dichotomy
The genes of microbes living as deep as 1.5 kilometers below the surface reveal a split between minimalist and maximalist lifestyles
Extraterrestrial Life
UFO Research Is Only Harmed by Antigovernment Rhetoric
Conspiracy theories and, relatedly, antigovernment sentiment could prove toxic to any factual and scientific discussion of unidentified anomalous phenomena
Extraterrestrial Life
NASA Wants to Make UFO Studies a Real Science
NASA has appointed a director of unidentified anomalous phenomena research to advance that area of scientific investigation
Extraterrestrial Life
How Wealthy UFO Fans Helped Fuel Fringe Beliefs
There is a long U.S. legacy of plutocrat-funded pseudoscience. Congress just embraced it
Astronomy
Can You Decode an Alien Message?
An artist, a programmer and a scientist have created a simulation of extraterrestrial communication to test Earthlings’ ability to understand it
Extraterrestrial Life
Congressional UFO Hearing Shows Need for More Transparency
All who testified before a congressional subcommittee claimed that UFOs pose a threat to national security. So why haven’t the reports been made public?
Extraterrestrial Life
UFOs Keep Appearing in the News. Here’s Why We Can’t Quit Them
For most of us, aliens are a source of mystery and fun, which keeps them forever in vogue
Extraterrestrial Life
To Find Life in the Universe, Find the Computation
The discovery that life on Earth looks a lot like information propagating itself offers new clues, and new directions, to the hunt for life elsewhere
Extraterrestrial Life
Most Aliens May Be Artificial Intelligence, Not Life as We Know It
Human intelligence may be just a brief phase before machines take over. That may answer where the aliens are hiding
Extraterrestrial Life
Is E.T. Eavesdropping on Our Phone Calls?
Cell-phone towers leak radio waves into space, but they’ll be tough for aliens to detect
Extraterrestrial Life
JWST’s Exoplanet Images Are Just the Beginning of Astrobiology’s Future
Hints of life on distant worlds will come from signals pioneered by NASA’s jumbo space telescope
Extraterrestrial Life
How Far Should We Take Our Cosmic Humility?
For centuries, scientific discoveries have suggested humanity occupies no privileged place in the universe. Now, however, studies of worlds beyond our solar system could place meaningful new limits on our existential mediocrity...
Extraterrestrial Life
Mars Rovers Might Miss Signs of Alien Life, Study Suggests
The hunt for Martian life focuses on detecting organic molecules that could indicate its past existence. Are our instruments up to the task?
Extraterrestrial Life
Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ‘Artificial Life’ Evolve, Too?
Do efforts to create life—by cooking up imitations in computers, robots and molecules—point toward a universal definition of biology?
Extraterrestrial Life
‘Unstable’ Moons May Be Obliterating Alien Life across the Universe
Collisions between moons and planets may be a regular danger for possible extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial Life
How Do We Find Aliens? Maybe Unlearn What We Know About ‘Life’ First
Science might be redefining what “life out there” really means.
Defense
Chinese Spy Balloon Saga Shows UFOs Deserve Serious Investigations
By shunting pilot observations aside, the Pentagon likely fostered a UFO fad and overlooked Chinese intelligence technology entering U.S. airspace
Extraterrestrial Life
At Jupiter, JUICE and Clipper Will Work Together in Hunt for Life
A new European mission is the first of two spacecraft—with the other coming from NASA—that will hunt for signs of habitability on Jupiter’s icy moons
Extraterrestrial Life
Scientists Try to Get Serious about Studying UFOs. Good Luck with That
New dedicated observatories and crowdsourced smartphone apps will study strange sightings in the sky. But questionable data quality and a lack of shared research standards remain key challenges...
