This summer, exoplanet science—the study of planets orbiting stars beyond our sun—took a big step forward. Reports of helium gas escaping from the atmosphere of LHS 1140b propelled this exoplanet from ...

To support alien life, a planet doesn’t have to be exactly like Earth, but it does need a few key ingredients. First, it ...

It’s a dizzyingly busy time for scientists searching for life on distant planets. To date, astronomers have cataloged more ...

What would our atmosphere look like if there were no life on Earth?

A new model simulates a rocky planet without life, giving astronomers a baseline to judge whether gases in an exoplanet's ...

In 1995, a pair of scientists discovered a planet outside our solar system orbiting a solar-type star. Since that finding—which won the scientists a portion of the 2019 Nobel Prize in ...

From lava tubes on Mars to ice pockets on Europa, subterranean environments may offer the best chance of finding life—and living safely—beyond our planet. “I was like, ‘OK, I'm pretty sure that ...

This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. The Milky Way galaxy has more than 400 billion stars in it. Over the last few decades, ...

Astronomers have narrowed down the cosmic search for life, identifying fewer than 50 rocky planets among thousands of known exoplanets that may have the right conditions to support life. Using new ...

On planet Earth, our 'secondary atmosphere' has been with us for billions of years and its chemical balance reflects the ...