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Articles on Astrobiology

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Artist’s rendition of one of the billions of rocky exoplanets in our galaxy. Did life once exist on its surface? NASA/JPL-Caltech

RIP E.T. – alien life on most exoplanets dies young

Complex life may be rare in the universe because most planets become either too hot or too cold before life has a chance to get a foothold. This might explain why we have yet to bump into E.T.
No green little men as far as the eye can see. ESA/Rosetta/NavCam

There’s no evidence to suggest there is life on Comet 67P

As far as underwhelming headlines go: “No Alien Life Found on Comet” must rank very close to the top. An article with this title appeared in the Guardian on July 6 in response to a story claiming that…
Hydrothermal vents: nurseries for life on Earth? Wolfgang Staudt/Flickr

Was life on Earth kickstarted by hot water?

Scientists have simulated the electrical energy produced in the Earth that may have led to life 3.5 billion years ago. Using a fuel cell, researchers from the University of Leeds and NASA’s Jet Propulsion…
Funny looking alien. University of Sheffield

Proof of alien life? You need a lot more evidence than that

Could life really exist on other planets? The most positive scientific answer we can offer is: well, maybe, but we do not yet have enough evidence for or against. Yet Milton Wainwright and colleagues from…
The red planet’s McLaughlin Crater may have contained water sourced from within the ground. NASA

Hope springs: signs of life could be waiting for us on Mars

A recent article in Nature Geoscience suggests that at least one large, deep crater on Mars may once have supported an alkaline lake that was fed by water from kilometres below the planet’s surface. This…
Sponges and hydra, which are made of colonies of cells with a small number of cell types, have some similarities with cancer. Biodiversity Heritage Library

An astrobiological view of cancer’s evolutionary origin

Life originated on Earth about four billion years ago. Death, sex and multicellularity came along about a billion years later. According to our new atavistic model, cancer came with multicellularity. About…
The “Rocknest” site has been Curiosity’s laboratory for the past few months. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

NASA’s Curiosity shows there’s more to life than life

The Curiosity rover has landed on Mars, driven around, started its scientific mission and, as of 4am today (AEDT), started reporting integrated science results. In a news conference at the American Geophysical…
It’s long been suspected that Mercury’s poles are home to water ice. That speculation has now been confirmed. NASA

Water ice found on Mercury – has the ‘heavy metal’ planet lost its edge?

Whenever I’m telling students or people at conferences about Mercury, I always describe it as the “heavy metal” planet. Many things on this closest planet to the sun are extreme, from its 88-Earth-day…

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