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Astrobiology Research
A big open question in 21st-century science is how life began here on Earth. The metabolism-first scenario just might be the best one.
No claim has even made it halfway up the Confidence of Life Detection (CoLD) scale, but 21st century science is just beginning to unfold.
Astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger spoke with Big Think about how "the colors of life" could leave detectable traces on distant planets.
What if the first search for life beyond Earth actually succeeded?
Red dwarfs are the Universe's most common star type. Their flaring now makes potentially Earth-like worlds uninhabitable, but just you wait.
In 2025, Earth remains the only planet where life is known to exist. Without a second example, "The Stand" has a vital lesson to teach us.
Big Think spoke with astronomer David Kipping about technosignatures, "extragalactic SETI," and being a popular science communicator in the YouTube age.
Organic compounds can form through simple chemistry alone — making the search for true biosignatures trickier than it seems.
The red planet, Mars, may once have been teeming with life, just as Earth is today. Finding "organics" on Mars, however, doesn't mean life.
In the search for life in the Universe, the ultimate goal is to find an inhabited planet beyond Earth. How will we know when we've made it?
Long before the search for biosignatures, scientists imagined a cosmos teeming with intelligent life.
A Cambridge-based team claims to find molecules on an exoplanet that are only produced by life on Earth. Don't fall for the unfounded hype.
In all the known Universe, Earth is the only planet known to have native life. What should guide us in expanding humanity beyond our world?
Recent controversies bode ill for the effort to detect life on other planets by analyzing the gases in their atmospheres.
How did life on Earth begin? Is there life on other worlds? An answer to either question will reflect heavily on the other.
Caption:“At this time in Mars’ history, we think CO2 is everywhere, in every nook and cranny, and water percolating through the rocks is full of CO2 too,” Joshua Murray says.
Scientists might be looking for Martian life in the wrong place.
The recent discovery of a large cave on the Moon highlights the importance of caves not just for future space explorers but astrobiology as well.
This research team is working out how to detect extraterrestrial cells in the liquid water ocean hidden beneath Enceladus’s icy crust.
NASA's minivan-sized drone is scheduled to search for signs of life on Titan in 2034.
An interview with Lisa Kaltenegger, the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute, about the modern quest to answer an age-old question: "Are we alone in the cosmos?"
Forensics has reached the final frontier, and could be used to solve future space accidents—or crimes.
Well-preserved ancient plants and other finds at the Clarkia fossil beds hint at what kind of evidence any Martian life may have left behind.
Fire was crucial to the evolution of human technology. That's why alien species stuck in the "oxygen bottleneck" may be forever primitive.
Every astrobiologist wants to find an alien. But the public should be skeptical when the "aliens" look like tiny humans.
With such a vast Universe and raw ingredients that seem to be everywhere, could it really be possible that humanity is truly alone?
Some fascinating observations of K2-18b have come along with horrendous, speculative communications. There's no evidence for oceans or life.
In one experiment, the Viking landers added water to Martian soil samples. That might have been a very bad idea.
The truth is out there, but it's probably not in the latest whistleblower's report.