When scientists observed planets revolved around the Sun, they posited we were now like other planets. And if other planets were like Earth, then they most likely also had inhabitants.
Earth’s North Sea coastline, including the Stacks of Duncansby in Caithness.
David Rothery
Control experiments are critical in informing the search for alien life.
The exoplanet K2-18b might host a water ocean.
Credits: Illustration: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected key carbon-bearing molecules on the potential ocean world K2-18b, including tantalising hints of a substance produced by tiny plankton on Earth.
UFOs usually have non-extraterrestrial origins, but many have urged the government to be more transparent about UFO data.
Westend61/Westend61 via Getty Images
Whistleblower allegations that the government possesses UFOs may not be backed up by public physical evidence, but some argue that listening for extraterrestrial life is the first phase of contact.
Photos claiming to be UFO evidence are often doctored or otherwise ambiguous.
Ray Massey/The Image Bank via Getty Images
While UFO videos might seem compelling, they’re rarely backed up with evidence. A sociologist explains why claims of alien life gain traction through both social and mass media every few years.
Phosphorus is the most elusive element crucial for life as we know it – and we now have the first evidence there’s some available in the oceans of Enceladus.
Ice particles, with just a trace of phosphates, venting from near Enceladus’s south pole, as imaged by Cassini in 2010.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute