Human habitation of the Moon and Mars might still seem like a far-off dream, but visionaries are already taking incremental steps toward that goal. One such initiative comes from the EuroMoonMars project, which has just completed field tests of a prototype for human habitats and …
Here’s a buzzword you might or might not have heard before: technosignatures. SETI pioneer Jill Tarter has proposed that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) be renamed the search for technosignatures. Although the question of whether we’re alone in the universe is one of humanity’s …
Mercury, the smallest terrestrial (rocky) planet and closest to the Sun, is relatively close to Earth, yet there is much that we still don’t know about it. Next month, the joint ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will be launched to this enigmatic world – but in the …
Is there – or has there – been life on Mars? We still don’t conclusively know the answer to that question, but scientists keep finding new clues suggesting that maybe life on the planet did, or even still does, exist. For example, the Curiosity Mars …
We often hear the term “habitable” next to the word exoplanets. Which exoplanets are habitable; that is, which are capable of supporting life? But how do scientists determine that? Are there different kinds of habitability? Rice University announced on September 17, 2018 that – to …
Of all the exoplanets being discovered these days, some of the most exciting – if not the most – are those that might be Earth-like. Astronomers are finding a growing number of rocky worlds, about the size of Earth or a bit larger. Some orbit …
Read MoreRoss 128 b and the search for Earth-like exoplanets