astrobiology

On June 14, 1949, a rhesus monkey named Albert II was launched into space aboard a V-2 rocket from White Sands, New Mexico. Prior to Albert II, animals including fruit flies, mice, and another monkey (Albert I) had been launched in rocket and balloon flights as part of American space biology research, but Albert II’s Continue reading "June 14, 1949: The first mammal in space" The post June 14, 19…

NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution of these elements throughout the young solar system. The study, published in Science Advances, examines this history by looking at the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen in iron met…

Earth was bombarded by impactors in its first couple billion years. These impacts created a vast network of hydrothermal systems in the crust that could've spawned life. New research examines their extent.

Sulfur is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. If you peer into a diffuse interstellar cloud, you find loads of it - about the amount expected based on fusion patterns of the stars it was born in. However, if you look at a dense, cold, molecular cloud - the kind where those stars actually form - it seems like 99% of the sulfur that is expected to be there is missing. Scientists have…

Ancient asteroid impacts may have done more than reshape Earth’s surface. For decades, asteroid impacts have been viewed mainly as agents of destruction. But on the young Earth, they may have done something far more surprising: helped create some of the planet’s first habitable environments. A new study from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) suggests that [...]

Scientific Reports, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-57245-3 Acidophilic fungi as possible candidates for living forms in the Venus clouds

Between the mid-70s and early 80s, two physicists (Michael Hart and Frank Tipler) published a controversial series of papers arguing that extraterrestrial intelligence didn't exist. As they argued, the likelihood that extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) would have had enough time to develop advanced computing, spaceflight, and self-replicating machines (Von Neumann probes) means they would have…

A new study analyzed how NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory might be able to confidently spot biosignatures in the atmosphere of a distant ancient Earth.

When we scan the skies for signs of alien civilisations, where exactly should we be looking and perhaps more importantly, where should we not? A high school student from Ankara has just published a remarkably sophisticated answer to that question, building a filtering system that sifts nearly 1.75 million stars and identifies which ones are genuinely worth our attention. The result is a publicly …

The NASA Astrobiology Program and DARES Task Force 2 are pleased to announce the opening of the public comment period for the draft Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES). The post NASA-DARES Draft Strategy Open for Public Comment appeared first on NASA Science .

Scientists searching for life beyond Earth have developed a new way to identify which distant planets might be able to support life. Their new tool, called the Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM), focuses on a simple but important question: Can a planet hold onto an atmosphere long enough for life to develop? Since the […] The post How small is too small for life? New study reveals whic…

Only 6.6% of surveyed astrobiologists agreed that scientists had probably found extraterrestrial life on exoplanet K2-18b.

Scientists have discovered that huge clay deposits near the landing site of the upcoming ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover are much larger than previously thought. The finding strengthens the idea that large amounts of water once existed on Mars and may even suggest that a vast ocean covered part of the planet around 4 billion years […] The post Ancient Martian ocean? Vast clay deposits may hold cl…

The IAA SETI Committee announced today updated rules for evaluating and revealing the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence. A University of Manchester astronomer has led a major international overhaul of the rules that would govern how scientists announce evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence to the world. Professor Michael Garrett, the Sir Bernard Lovell Chair of Astrophysics, chaired …

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 05 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02876-9 Following two major 2025 announcements of possible extraterrestrial life — on exoplanet K2-18 b in April and in the Cheyava Falls rock on Mars in September — we surveyed the astrobiology community to capture the spread of expert opinion. These datasets establish baseline measures of scientific confidence in each case…

A new NASA-supported study suggests that Jupiter may have played a surprisingly important role in helping Earth acquire some of the key ingredients needed for life more than 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists have long wondered where Earth got essential elements such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which are necessary for living organisms. These elements are […] The post How Jupiter May Have Helped De…

A hidden Antarctic lake may reveal why finding life in alien oceans will be far harder than scientists once hoped.

NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution of these elements throughout the young solar system. The study, published today in Science Advances, examines this history by looking at […]

Comment Deadline: 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 2nd, 2026. Dear Colleagues, The NASA Astrobiology Program and DARES Task Force 2 are pleased to announce the opening of the public comment period for the draft Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES). The draft report, available in slide form, is available here: NASA-DARES Draft Report […] The post NASA-DARES Draft Str…

Scientists propose that a moon base could act as an isolated first line of biological defense against extraterrestrial samples that might be harmful to Earth's biosphere.