The aliens are silent because they're dead
Life on other planets would likely be brief and become extinct very quickly, say astrobiologists from The Australian National University (ANU).
View ArticleIn search of new Earths and life in the Universe
Twenty years ago, in Geneva, PhD student Didier Queloz discovered a planet orbiting another sun – something that astronomers had predicted, but never found. Today he continues his terra hunting for...
View ArticleWhat if extraterrestrial observers called, but nobody heard?
As scientists step up their search for other life in the universe, two astrophysicists are proposing a way to make sure we don't miss the signal if extraterrestrial observers try to contact us first.
View ArticleMap of rocky exoplanet reveals a lava world
An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, has obtained the most detailed 'fingerprint' of a rocky planet outside our solar system to date, and found a planet of two...
View ArticleHow to hide Earth from ET? Massive lasers
The fate of humanity if aliens were to discover Earth with its balmy climate and bountiful resources, has long been a concern for scientists—many of whom fear the worst.
View ArticleBayesian analysis rains on exoplanet life parade
Is there life on other planets, somewhere in this enormous universe? That's probably the most compelling question we can ask. A lot of space science and space missions are pointed directly at that...
View ArticleAre we alone? Setting some limits to our uniqueness
Are humans unique and alone in the vast universe? This question—summed up in the famous Drake equation—has for a half-century been one of the most intractable and uncertain in science.
View ArticleMore than 1,000 new exoplanets discovered – but still no Earth twin
NASA astronomers working with data from the Kepler space observatory have presented the largest single crop of newly discovered exoplanets to date. It's impressive – 1,284 new planets have been...
View ArticleMysterious happenings around the star KIC 846852
The Kepler satellite was designed to search for Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of stars by measuring dips in a star's brightness as orbiting planets move across the stellar disc (transits)....
View ArticleHunting for hidden life on worlds orbiting old, red stars
All throughout the universe, there are stars in varying phases and ages. The oldest detected Kepler planets (exoplanets found using NASA's Kepler telescope) are about 11 billion years old, and the...
View ArticleResearchers pioneer new calibration strategies for detecting 'habitable'...
EU researchers have pioneered new calibration strategies for detecting "habitable" planets outside our solar system – with impressive results already.
View ArticleFriendly giants have cozy habitable zones too
It is a well-known fact that all stars have a lifespan. This begins with their formation, then continues through their main sequence phase (which constitutes the majority of their life) before ending...
View ArticleNumber of habitable planets could be limited by stifling atmospheres
New research has revealed that fewer than predicted planets may be capable of harbouring life because their atmospheres keep them too hot.
View ArticleCombined climate, orbit models show that Kepler-62f could sustain life
A distant planet known as Kepler-62f could be habitable, a team of astronomers reports.
View ArticleAlien life on most exoplanets likely dies young
Astronomers have found a plethora of planets around nearby stars. And it appears that Earth-sized planets in habitable zones are probably common.
View ArticleLush Venus? Searing Earth? It could have happened
If conditions had been just a little different an eon ago, there might be plentiful life on Venus and none on Earth.
View ArticleSurface composition determines temperature, habitability of a planet
KU Leuven astronomers have shown that the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere of an exoplanet has major consequences for the temperature on the planet. This temperature, in turn, is a...
View ArticleTeam catalogs most likely 'second-Earth' candidates
Looking for another Earth? An international team of researchers has pinpointed which of the more than 4,000 exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission are most likely to be similar to our rocky home.
View ArticleWhy are we now? Researchers suggest life on Earth may be early in cosmic terms
Why are we now? We know that the universe is roughly 14 billion years old, and that someday it is likely to end—perhaps because of a Big Freeze, Big Rip or Big Crunch.
View ArticleDiscovery one-ups tatooine, finds twin stars hosting three giant exoplanets
A team of Carnegie scientists has discovered three giant planets in a binary star system composed of stellar ''twins'' that are also effectively siblings of our Sun. One star hosts two planets and the...
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