An artist’s impression of Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star’s habitable zone - the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist.
NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
Josh Calcino, The University of Queensland and Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland
Life could exist in another solar system in a different part our galaxy. Or in another galaxy far away. We don't have the perfect technology yet to study such far away places but we're still trying.
Artist’s impression of Proxima b, a planet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri within the closest known star system outside of our solar system.
(ESO/M. Kornmesser)
Using AI to search for ET might help us find things we couldn't even imagine we should look for, but to succeed we also have think critically about how we create and use that technology.
Illustration of a gamma ray burst in space.
ESO/A. Roquette
Some argue that it would be impossible to understand an alien language, as it wouldn't have the same grammar as humans use. But others are more optimistic.
Artist’s rendition of one of the billions of rocky exoplanets in our galaxy.
Did life once exist on its surface?
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
#FoundThem.
ESO/José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org)
The chance that Kepler has spotted construction of a Dyson sphere are very low but it could also be the ruins of such a structure.
Is this what we’re seeing around KIC 8462852 - a colossal megastructure built by alien intelligence? Probably not. The reality might be even more interesting.
Kevin Gill/Flickr
There's a lot of speculation about a star behaving strangely in our galaxy. But even if it's not evidence of alien intelligence, it's sure to be an amazing discovery.
The discovery of Kepler-452b raises questions that go to the heart of religion.
NASA/AAP/ Artist's impression of Kepler-452b.
Kepler-452b's discovery last week has raised the perennial question: are we alone in the universe? While the find's scientific import is huge, it also poses questions that go to the heart of religion.
What kind of creatures might we find populating the cosmos?
Sebastian Münster
Simple mathematics suggests that if there are aliens out there, they should have reached us by now. So is it really worthwhile trying to communicate with them?
The Parkes radio telescope is part of the US$100 million search for life elsewhere in the universe, but the investment will also benefit other space research at The Dish.
The Conversation organised a public question-and-answer session on Reddit in which Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, explained why searching for intelligent life is so important and…