Astrobiology – The Conversation

The Viking missions paved the way for future Mars missions and helped researchers understand the red planet’s climate and geology.

A specific set of chemical conditions led to the emergence of life on Earth. But can life emerge from other chemistries?

A new machine learning model explores the boundary between biological and nonbiological chemistry.

Microbes hidden deep in ocean volcanoes could resemble life on other planets or moons.

On what would’ve been the astronomer’s 90th trip around the Sun, here’s a look at his legacy as a scientist, advocate and communicator.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has geysers shooting tiny grains of ice into space. These grains could hold traces of life − but researchers need the right tools to tell.

While NASA rovers on the surface of Mars look for hints of life, researchers back on Earth are studying ‘echoes of life’ from ancient basins – hoping that the two sites might be similar.

The rock is peppered with spots that could have been formed by microbes four billion years ago.

Determining whether or not life exists on another planet is an extraordinarily complicated – and expensive – scientific endeavor.

An instrument on the Europa Clipper mission might be able to detect biological cells from space.

Some space rocks you can get for free – if you know how to identify them. Rarer materials cost more, and the asteroid sample NASA just brought back has a high price tag.

Studying Venus’ water loss can help scientists better understand how planets go from potentially habitable to incapable of supporting life.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has spotted carbon-containing minerals that can tell scientists more about what ancient Mars’ atmosphere may have looked like.

Only 10.2% of astrobiologists disagree with the claim that intelligent aliens likely exist.

Study of extreme environments on Earth, along with exploration of the lifeless surface of the moon, can help us understand what life on Mars might look like.

It’s not easy to collect rocks on a budget when the rocks are 140 million miles away.

‘Assembly theory’ aims to explain evolution without biology. Is it a dazzling breakthrough or an attempt to answer questions nobody asked?

The Perseverance rover has arrived at what’s thought to be an ancient shoreline on Mars.