Category: What might life look like elsewhere in the Universe?

Energetic winds from a distant X-ray source

A team of astronomers were studying GRS 1716-249, an object believed to host a black hole. A wind of gas flowing out of it can be seen in visible light, making it the sixth object of its class to have shown this feature till date.

Mysterious gas found near Milky Way’s center

A mysterious cold gas shooting out of the center of the Milky Way galaxy has left scientists puzzled.

A peek into stellar childhood: How do stars grow?

Maybe you didn't have a stellar childhood, but stars definitely did. (Get it?) Learn about a major research project that investigated one mechanism involved in how stars get bigger.

How stars can limit life in the universe

For the past few decades, scientists have been looking at planets outside of our solar system to see if they could host life. Now, scientists have discovered another factor for habitability: radiation from the planet’s central star.

Could Life Thrive on Radiation? Scientists Say It’s Possible

All life on Earth survives because of the sun. Plants use a process called photosynthesis to transfer energy from the Sun’s rays into the sugars that build their stems and leaves. Animals either eat the plants directly, or eat other animals that have eaten plants. Countless other organisms, like bacteria, algae, and…

How water shaped the Earth

Posted on November 21, 2020April 1, 2021 by Romulo Cruz 204 views

Water has molded our planet into what it is today, in ways you may not have imagined! #water #waterislife

Could “Fools’ Gold” have helped build the first proteins?

Posted on September 21, 2020January 15, 2021 by Marcos Jusino-Maldonado 95 views

How and why humans exist are questions that have challenged different cultures ever since the dawn of civilization. Many scientists have taken upon their…

What beached whales can teach us about antibiotic resistance

Posted on September 17, 2020January 15, 2021 by Ma. Francesca Santiago 145 views

Researchers found that more than half of the bacteria collected from stranded cetaceans in the Philippines showed antimicrobial resistance to commonly used…

Deep-sea mining impacts on diverse ocean ecosystems

Posted on September 1, 2020April 7, 2021 by ACorpolongo 109 views

Sunlight does not reach the deepest parts of the ocean, but life still thrives in the darkness. Below depths of 200 meters, where sunlight cannot reach, some…

A new way to detect ET life using chemical profiles Rather than detecting one chemical at a time, scientists taught machine learning algorithms what different mixtures of compounds from living and non-living sources “look like” to chemical analyzers. The computer then used those fingerprints to correctly identify living and non-living samples in the lab!

Posted on April 26, 2021April 26, 2021 by Jim Cleaves 122 views

Researchers found a new way to tell the difference between the chemicals of life and the chemicals of non-life...using machine learning!

A software program builds alternative DNA molecules Scientists are using computer programs to build alternative DNA molecules called XNAs. These XNAs will teach us what is possible for life!

Posted on April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 by Rachel Holland 418 views

Scientists are using computer programs to understand our early beginnings. Click on the link to see how they are doing it, and how they might discover the genetic chemistry of life in the cosmos!

Microbes from extreme environments help us study space Scientists study extremophilic strains of bacteria and archaea from around the planet to gain valuable insights on their behavior in harsh space environment.

Posted on March 18, 2021April 7, 2021 by Anisha Shastri 292 views

Space is a hostile place. It has numerous stressors which make it seem impossible for Earth-like life to thrive there. Some of these stresses include harmful ultraviolet radiation, anaerobic conditions (environment devoid of oxygen), high temperature, and varying pressure. Extremophiles are organisms that live in…

Are we looking for Martian life in the right place? Is Mars truly a desolate, sterile desert? Some scientists think not, and suggest turning our sights to the planet’s hidden underworld for answers.

Posted on February 4, 2021April 2, 2021 by Chris Patterson 105 views

Thus far, we have not found evidence of life on Mars. Is it truly a sterile desert, or are we simply looking in the wrong place? #Mars #NASA

A stinky noxious gas could point us toward alien life Whatever happened with life on venus? Phosphine can accumulate in a planet’s atmosphere where telescopes from Earth might be able to detect it

Posted on February 1, 2021April 2, 2021 by Genesis Berlanga 53 views

Hold your noses! ET life might produce noxious gases in the form of #phosphine. Here’s why phosphine is an important marker in the search for alien life in the universe. #astrobiology #biosignatures #exoplanets

How “fast radio bursts” are used in the search for alien life Detecting fast radio bursts is difficult because the data is "noisy" so ruling out false positives is a current topic of study. A group of researchers improved detection using a computer method called a "convoluted neural network" that improved accuracy.

Posted on January 28, 2021April 2, 2021 by Rongrong Liu 26 views

Detecting fast radio bursts is difficult because the data is "noisy" so ruling out false positives is a current topic of study. A group of researchers improved detection using a computer method called a "convoluted neural network" that improved accuracy.

Microscopic animals glow in the dark to survive radiation Scientists found a new species of tardigrade that protects itself from UV radiation with the help of a naturally occurring fluorescence in its body.

Posted on January 18, 2021April 2, 2021 by Anurup Mohanty 104 views

Glowing #tardigrades?! Learn how a newly discovered species of tardigrade survive extreme UV radiation. #astrobiology

What underwater volcanoes can teach us about Saturn’s moon Studying underwater volcanoes called "hydrothermal vents" at the bottom of the ocean taught us that the hydrogen down there probably isn't a primary food source for life in this extreme environment.

Posted on December 3, 2020April 1, 2021 by Serhat Sevgen 52 views

How can we study far away plants using Earth environments? By looking at the bottom of the ocean! #hydrogen #hydrothermalvents #astrobiology

Is there life on Venus? An international team of researchers claim that a molecule called phosphine is a potential marker for life, and also happens to be in the atmosphere of Venus, according to their measurements. Other scientists are re-analyzing the results.

Posted on December 2, 2020April 1, 2021 by Nurbanu Erölmez 198 views

In September, a research group broke the internet when they said they discovered a molecule called phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. We'll try to break it down. #phosphine #venus #venuscloudlife

Algae in space teaches us how life responds to harsh environments A species of blue-green algae that can live in rocks could resist radiation and extreme space weather, and returned to Earth still viable!

Posted on October 25, 2020April 1, 2021 by Rabeea Rasheed 50 views

Extremophiles can literally survive in many conditions, even in the extreme radiation of space. Read this article to learn how extremophiles help us understand the search for life in the universe.