life
Did Life Need Plate Tectonics to Emerge?
It's widely accepted that Earth's plate tectonics are a key factor in life's emergence. Plate tectonics allows heat to move…
A New Place to Search for Habitable Planets: “The Soot Line.”
The habitable zone is the region around a star where planets can maintain liquid water on their surface. It's axiomatic…
The Raw Materials for Life Form Early on in Stellar Nurseries
Life doesn't appear from nothing. Its origins are wrapped up in the same long, arduous process that creates the elements,…
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…
How Dangerous are Nearby Supernovae to Life on Earth?
Life and supernovae don't mix. From a distance, supernovae explosions are fascinating. A star more massive than our Sun runs…
Europa Could be Pulling Oxygen Down Below the Ice to Feed Life
Jupiter's moon Europa is a prime candidate in the search for life. The frozen moon has a subsurface ocean, and…
Even More Complex Organic Molecules Have Been Found in a Protoplanetary Disc. Was Life Inevitable?
Will we ever understand life's origins? Will we ever be able to put our finger on the exact moment and…
Does the Entire Planet Have a Mind of its Own?
What is humanity? Do our minds set us apart from the rest of nature and from the rest of Earth?…
Massive Rocky Planets Probably Don’t Have big Moons
The Moon has orbited Earth since the Solar System's early days. Anyone who's ever spent time at the ocean can't…
Curiosity Sees a Strong Carbon Signature in a Bed of Rocks
Carbon is critical to life, as far as we know. So anytime we detect a strong carbon signature somewhere like…