A new ‘agnostic biosignature’ method searches for patterns across exoplanets, suggesting alien life could be detected by how it spreads and reshapes entire planetary systems. Harrison B. Smith & Lana Sinapayen used an agent-based model to show that if life can spread between star systems and affect the observable properties of a planet, then a…
Using data from ESA’s Gaia mission and the NASA Exoplanet Archive, astronomers at Cornell University have identified 45 rocky exoplanets in the empirical habitable zone and 24 worlds in the narrower 3D habitable zone, offering scientists a focused guide in the search for extraterrestrial life. An artist’s impression of a planetary system around a slightly…
Samples returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 mission from the C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases — purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil) — pointing to a cosmic origin for some of life’s fundamental chemistry. Hayabusa-2 image of the asteroid Ryugu as seen from a distance of 3.7 miles. A…
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…
