Habitability
Could Life Survive on Frigid Exo-Earths? Maybe Under Ice Sheets
Our understanding of habitability relies entirely on the availability of liquid water. All life on Earth needs it, and there's…
What’s the Best Mix of Oceans to Land for a Habitable Planet?
Earth is about 29% land and 71% oceans. How significant is that mix for habitability? What does it tell us…
Curiosity Arrives in a Salty Region of Mars. Was it Left Over From a Dying Sea?
The Curiosity rover has now reached its primary target on Mount Sharp on Mars, the mountain in the middle of…
If Earth Were an Exoplanet, it Would Still be Tricky to Figure Out if There’s Life Here
How would Earth appear to alien astronomers? What would their observations tell them about Earth if they searched the heavens…
These are the Best Places to Search for Habitable Exomoons
Our Solar System contains eight planets and more than 200 moons. The large majority of those moons have no chance…
Planet Found in the Habitable Zone of a White Dwarf
Most stars will end their lives as white dwarfs. White dwarfs are the remnant cores of once-luminous stars like our…
We Might Know Why Mars Lost its Magnetic Field
Mars is a parched planet ruled by global dust storms. It's also a frigid world, where night-time winter temperatures fall…
An Exoplanet Found Protected by a Magnetosphere
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has spotted the magnetosphere of an exoplanet for the first…
Eggshell Planets Have a Thin Brittle Crust and No Mountains or Tectonics
Planets without plate tectonics are unlikely to be habitable. But currently, we've never seen the surface of an exoplanet to…
Rocky Planets Might Need to be the Right age to Support Life
In a new study, a team of Earth scientists shows how scientists could look for signs of a carbon-silicate cycle…