Best known for dissolving bodies in bathtubs, sulfuric acid has the potential to be the elixir of life on other worlds.

Aliens have long been a staple of science fiction. Yet the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth is more than a matter of imagination—it is also a subject of serious scientific inquiry.

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

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 ...

Two major alien-life announcements in 2025 generated enormous excitement, but most astrobiologists remained unconvinced. Only 6.6% of surveyed experts thought possible biological molecules on K2-18b ...

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

Everyone has probably looked up at the night sky and wondered, 'Is there someone out there somewhere in this universe?' It's ...

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 ...

A new study from researchers in Japan suggests that a better way to search for alien life might be to look for suspiciously similar planets that are close to each other. The idea is that if life has ...