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

What might life look like elsewhere in the Universe? How do we search for life?

Searching for Martian life: Are we looking 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.

Chris Patterson

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 Phosphine can accumulate in a planet’s atmosphere where telescopes from Earth might be able to detect it

Genesis Berlanga

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.

Rongrong Liu

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.

Anurup Mohanty

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.

Serhat Sevgen

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.

Nurbanu Erölmez

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!

Rabeea Rasheed

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.

Could a deadly gas be a sign of life? The presence of carbon monoxide on exoplanets is no longer a reason to discount the possibility of the presence of life.

Emma Stefanacci

How do scientists look for life in the universe? Usually they look for gasses that would support life, and assume anything toxic to us would be toxic to life. Perhaps that isn’t true across the board.

Looking for life by looking for metabolism Metabolites like amino acids and lipids are potential biomarkers to guide life detection efforts beyond Earth

Dana Burton

How can amino acids, lipids, and other metabolites help scientists with life detection in space? #Astrobiologists look at how our cells function and use that information to develop strategies for searching for evidence of life beyond Earth.

There may be other ways to build DNA and RNA Researchers have made a synthetic DNA that is made of eight bases instead of the normal four. This genetic system was capable of supporting the requirements of life. This work lays the foundation of how life could look on a different world.

Madeline Garner

One of the most fundamental building blocks of life on earth is DNA. This molecule consists of four base pairs and a negatively charged backbone that come together to form the double helix. If life existed elsewhere in the universe, READ MORE