All posts tagged: Extraterrestrial Life

Promising biosignatures on alien worlds could take years to confirm

Promising biosignatures on alien worlds could take years to confirm

Published by Jenni Sidey

A faint blip on a telescope readout can set off a wave of excitement. Maybe it is a molecule tied to life. Maybe it is drifting through a distant nebula where stars are forming. Or maybe it is hanging in the atmosphere of a neighboring planet. However, it might even change how you think about chemistry across the universe. Astronomers now know of more than 350 molecules in the spaces between and around stars. This knowledge was built up over just under a century of work since the first such molecule was reported in 1937. Each year adds anywhere from a few to a couple dozen more. Some of them are considered precursors to biomolecules. That is one reason each new claim can draw so much attention. That growing catalog has opened an extraordinary view of cosmic chemistry. However, it has also made one thing clear: finding molecules in space is hard, and getting the answer right often takes time. That growing catalog has opened an extraordinary view of cosmic chemistry. (CREDIT: DESY, Bastian Manschwetus …

Researchers propose a broader new way to detect life beyond Earth

Researchers propose a broader new way to detect life beyond Earth

Published by Jenni Sidey

A single alien world can be misleading. A strange gas in an atmosphere might look promising, then turn out to come from ordinary chemistry. A seemingly unusual planet might only be unusual because astronomers do not yet understand it well enough. That uncertainty has long haunted the search for life beyond Earth, where one planet at a time is often treated like a possible smoking gun. Now, a research team led by Harrison B. Smith of the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Institute of Science Tokyo and Lana Sinapayen of the National Institute for Basic Biology is arguing for a different way to look. Instead of asking whether one distant planet carries a clear sign of life, they suggest scientists may eventually spot life through broader patterns spread across many planets. Their idea is built around what they call an agnostic biosignature. In plain terms, that means a way to search for life without needing a precise definition of what life is, or what chemistry it must use. In this example, life from a planet …

The Caves That Could Help Us Find, or Become, Aliens

The Caves That Could Help Us Find, or Become, Aliens

Published by skeptic

A benefit of caves is that they can provide protection from dangerous conditions on a planet’s surface, such as exposure to cosmic radiation or harsh temperatures. For example, it may be that caves deep under the Martian soil could be warmer, wetter, and more conducive to life. “The queen of questions, from my point of view, is our prediction from 1992 that there could be a remnant microbial biosphere on Mars at depth,” says Boston. What’s the Best Way to Search for Cave Aliens? Over the past few decades, scientists have discovered hundreds of caves on the Moon and Mars, often by looking for “skylights” that expose cave entrances. In February, a team announced the discovery of a colossal lava tube under the surface of Venus that is several thousand feet in height and width. Scientists have also speculated that ice caves filled with water, known as interstitial lakes, may be common in the frozen shells of moons like Europa, which orbits Jupiter, or Enceladus, which orbits Saturn. While these ice moons are famous for …

Every building block of DNA and RNA has been found on an asteroid

Every building block of DNA and RNA has been found on an asteroid

Published by Jenni Sidey

A rock measuring 900 meters is on a journey through our solar system, providing what is arguably one of the strongest pieces of evidence yet that life originated from outside of planet Earth. Scientists from a Japanese research group published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy. They verified, through analyses of material taken from the asteroid Ryugu, that all five nucleobases—the molecular components that contain the genetic information of both DNA and RNA—exist in all samples from Ryugu. This was not totally unexpected. Over two years ago, when uracil was discovered in one of the Ryugu samples, a more complete picture began to emerge. Now, there is confirmation of five nucleobases in total: adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. These originated from less than one teaspoon of asteroidal material that has traveled over 300 million kilometers to Earth. According to Prof. Toshiki Koga, from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and the senior author of this study, the existence of these nucleobases means that “primitive asteroids may be capable of synthesizing and …

The asteroid Ryugu has all of the main ingredients for life

The asteroid Ryugu has all of the main ingredients for life

Published by skeptic

Ryugu is an asteroid that sometimes passes close to Earth JAXA All five of the main ingredients for DNA and RNA have been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This strengthens the idea that asteroids may have brought the ingredients for the first living organisms to Earth long ago. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft visited Ryugu in 2018, where it shot two projectiles – one small and one large – into the surface of the asteroid and collected the resulting debris. It arrived back at Earth with the samples in 2020 and researchers have been analysing these in detail ever since. Yasuhiro Oba at Hokkaido University in Japan and his colleagues examined two samples, one from the asteroid’s surface and one comprised of subsurface materials excavated by the projectiles. In both, the team found all five primary nucleobases, which are the compounds that make up the nucleic acids DNA and RNA when combined with sugars and phosphoric acid. This isn’t the first time that nucleobases have been found in asteroid samples: they have been seen …

Don’t Expect Big Surprises in the Government’s Alien Files

Don’t Expect Big Surprises in the Government’s Alien Files

Published by skeptic

“Even some sort of really remarkable and extraordinary revelation would certainly not satisfy the social-media-verse,” says Eghigian. “‘Hey, is this another hoax? Is this another game that the government is playing with us? What else are they keeping from us?’” “I don’t foresee almost any way for this thing to be definitively resolved in terms of the public interest,” he adds. What’s Likely in the Files? If history is any guide, a new release would center on UAP sightings and the government programs that track and study them. Since the first major UFO craze in 1947, the US government has periodically released documents and reports from internal teams, such as Project Blue Book, which covered the years from 1947 to 1969, the 1994 Roswell Report, and the more recent declassification of the Pentagon UAP videos, which had previously been leaked. Many of these files contain eerie visuals of UAP that have defied explanation. UAP “can be a number of things,” says Berea. “It’s not like they are all in one bucket. Many of them actually …

World’s chief alien hunter: They exist… but don’t look anything like ET

World’s chief alien hunter: They exist… but don’t look anything like ET

Published by Sam Flores

Are aliens real? The question has animated conspiracy theories for decades and enthralled at least one former president of the United States. In a recent interview, Barack Obama became the first American president to affirm a belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life, but insisted that it was not being stored inside the top-secret Area 51 military base in Nevada. For Bill Diamond, the president and chief executive of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (Seti) in California, Obama’s beliefs are hardly radical. Seti is the world’s leading research organisation dedicated to the scientific search for life beyond our planet – and Diamond insists that aliens are out there. “Oh yes,” says the 69-year-old scientist. “I do believe aliens are real. Definitely… It is one of the questions we ask if you want to get a job at Seti. If you don’t believe in aliens, there’s probably no point having a job with us.” Diamond’s job involves overseeing teams of scientists working on various projects and sifting through torrents of data from radio telescopes, searching …

Barack Obama confirms that aliens are real as he sheds light on truth of Area 51 | World | News

Barack Obama confirms that aliens are real as he sheds light on truth of Area 51 | World | News

Published by Sam Flores

Barack Obama has confirmed that aliens exist, but has firmly denied that the top-secret US military base Area 51 houses extraterrestrials. Speaking in a podcast interview, the former president became the first US leader to openly affirm his belief in life beyond Earth, while simultaneously dispelling longstanding conspiracy theories about the Nevada facility. Mr Obama replied: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them – and they’re not being kept in Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s some enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.” His comments mark a rare moment of candour on a topic that has fascinated the public for decades and stirred countless online debates. Area 51, officially an air force base established in southern Nevada during the Cold War, has long been at the centre of rumours claiming it conceals alien technology and UFOs. Despite the speculation, the CIA only publicly acknowledged the base’s existence in 2013, nearly six decades after it first opened. The site has also been the subject of bizarre viral …

Salty ice may hold the key to life on Jupiter’s moon Europa

Salty ice may hold the key to life on Jupiter’s moon Europa

Published by Jenni Sidey

Scientists with expertise in geophysics at Washington State University have developed an alternative pathway for the transport of nutrients to the deep ocean under Europa’s exterior surface. Europa, a huge moon orbiting Jupiter, holds great promise as a site for life beyond Earth. WSU researchers developed this hypothesis, indicating that salty surface ice would slowly descend through Europa’s heavy ice shell and deliver nutrients into the ocean below. Austin Green is the primary author of this study and was also a postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech. He completed much of this work while earning his Ph.D. degree from WSU under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Cooper, associate professor of geophysics in the School of Environment and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and her research team. Dr. Green explains, “The new concept we are proposing is unique to planetary science but based on a well-established theory in Earth science. Importantly, this new notion will potentially help fill in the gaps related to a long-standing issue regarding Europa’s habitability as it pertains to …

Largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever found in space links interstellar chemistry to life

Largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever found in space links interstellar chemistry to life

Published by Jenni Sidey

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and the Centro de Astrobiología, part of Spain’s CSIC-INTA, have identified the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever confirmed in interstellar space. The discovery fills a long-standing gap in astrochemistry and strengthens the link between space chemistry and the origins of life. The molecule, called 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione, has 13 atoms arranged in a stable six-membered ring. It was detected inside a dense molecular cloud near the center of the Milky Way, about 27,000 light-years from Earth. Until now, sulfur compounds found in space were much smaller, usually fewer than six atoms. “This is the first unambiguous detection of a complex, ring-shaped sulfur-containing molecule in interstellar space and a crucial step toward understanding the chemical link between space and the building blocks of life,” said Mitsunori Araki, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute and lead author of the study. The cloud, known as G+0.693-0.027, sits near the Galactic Center and has become a hotspot for complex molecule discoveries. It contains no stars, yet it shows surprisingly rich …