Martian water nothing but a mirage
Hope for groundwater on the red planet dries up
A wave of excitement rippled through the scientific community in 2018, when researchers announced they had found evid...
Astrobiology
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False fossils could hamper search for life on Mars
Chemical processes could mimic signs of extraterrestrial life, study says.
If you’re an interplanetary alien hunter scouring the red expanses of Mars for signs of life, you’re more likely to c...
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How do we protect ourselves from alien invaders?
Invasion scientists are neccesary for building space biosecruity policy.
We’ve already been warned by such books as War of the Worlds and The Day of the Triffids – so how do we protect our t...
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NASA proposes playbook for communicating the discovery of alien life
Sensationalising aliens is so 20th century, according to NASA scientists.
Imagine you’re the very first scientist to discover aliens. Maybe it’s a clear message picked up by a radio telescope...
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New class of exoplanet could put search for ET into hyper-drive
Until now, the search for extra-terrestrial life has been focused on planets like ours. But the h...
Astronomers have identified a new class of exoplanet they believe could be a candidate for the search for extra-terre...
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Methane on Saturn’s moon, meth-addicted trout and da Vinci’s DNA – here’s what went on in last we...
Methane on Enceladus might hint at alien life In the vast ocean beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, ...
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Mining with microbes in space
Can bacteria extract useful materials from rocks?
The first mining experiments in space have revealed that microbes can efficiently extract elements from rocks in zero...
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Bayesian statistics and the hunt for ET
Astrobiologists ponder what finding a sign might mean.
One of the goals of the next generation of giant telescopes, now rapidly nearing completion, is to scour the nearby h...
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Focus
Is anybody down there?
Paul Davies makes the case for looking Earthward.
The question of whether or not we are alone in the Universe has always fascinated me, but when I was a student the id...
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Bacteria found in solid rock
A decade of work creates the potential for more to come.
Japanese researchers say they have found single-celled creatures living in tiny cracks inside volcanic rocks taken fr...
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SunRISE to learn more about the Sun
NASA selects mission to study causes of solar particle storms.
NASA has selected the mission that will study how the Sun generates and releases giant space weather storms – known a...
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Ancient water reservoirs inside Mars
Meteorites tell story of Red Planet’s early history.
Mars’s mantle may contain multiple distinct reservoirs of mineral-bound water preserved from the planet’s early histo...