Beyond that, in the decades to come, we might be able to see the colours of an exoplanet’s surface, and determine if plant life might be present there. And then we can search for changes in a planet’s ...

When it comes to the space sciences, nothing is quite as exciting as the search for alien life, and NASA thinks it has a good idea of where to look.

For decades, scientists have grappled with a profound question known as the Fermi Paradox: if the galaxy is teeming with the potential for extraterrestrial life, why is the cosmos so quiet? A new ...

Is intelligent alien life really out there? With powerful telescopes identifying more potentially habitable planets each year, the possibility continues to grow. But what would happen if we actually ...

A new book details the turn-of-the-century Mars craze It’s not aliens. It’s never aliens. Claims of extraterrestrial life are so common that experts now have this cheeky retort at the ready. In The ...

An international team of researches has announced the discovery of a super-Earth exoplanet (designated GJ 251 c) situated in its host star’s habitable zone less than 20 light-years from our own. What ...

Florida Tech astrophysicist Howard Chen is offering new insights to help aid NASA's search for life beyond Earth. His latest theoretical work investigates the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, one of the ...

We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American. Explore our legacy of discovery and look ahead to the future. In the late 1800s Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli pointed a telescope at Mars ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

A new study used mathematical formulas and demonstrated that it’s highly unlikely life began on Earth. Instead, the researcher points to panspermia, a theory that life or the ingredients for life came ...