19 January 2023
Many planets that have the right temperatures for liquid water on their surfaces used to be too hot or too cold, which may affect their ability to host life now
18 January 2023
My new novel The Terraformers explores what you might include - and leave out - if you were building an Earth-like planet. I spoke to some scientists to see what might work, says Annalee Newitz
9 November 2022
The James Webb Space Telescope can peer into alien skies like never before. With six potentially habitable planets within its sights, astronomers are entering a new era in the search for biology beyond our solar system
26 October 2022
New ¾«¶«´«Ã½'s weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss
24 October 2022
Astronomers think that planets covered in water, with oceans hundreds of metres deep, could be relatively common in our galaxy. Now the race is on to find one
1 October 2022
The outer solar system holds some chunks of ice and rock that orbit so far from the sun it’s hard to imagine how they got there – but an ancient rogue planet may hold the key
26 September 2022
Planets orbiting M-class red dwarf stars have been suggested as some of the most promising places to look for alien life, but now it seems powerful outbursts from the stars could render them uninhabitable
21 September 2022
Experiments on Earth mimicking the rays from a red dwarf star show that cyanobacteria, algae and moss can grow under these light conditions, backing the idea that some exoplanets could host life
13 September 2022
A brown dwarf – partway between a planet and a star – has been spotted engulfed in a cloud of gas, which it probably produced after a huge pulse of heat blasted through it
24 August 2022
set by Katie Steckles
