The co-evolution of life and Earth has profoundly transformed global biogeochemical cycles over the past 3.5 billion years.
Exploring our solar system and returning pieces of it to Earth is a central part of the existential quest to search for life beyond our home planet.
As focus for exploration of Mars transitions from current robotic explorers to development of crewed missions, it remains important to protect the integrity of scientific investigations at Mars, as well […]
Combining 25 years of space-based data with ocean sampling, scientists have uncovered a change in the microscopic organisms that underpin the Southern Ocean’s food chain and carbon storage.
Thousands of exoplanets orbit nearby stars, showcasing a remarkable diversity in mass, size and orbits.
Searching for signs of life is a primary goal of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). However, merely detecting oxygen, methane, or other widely discussed biosignatures is insufficient evidence for a […]
Today, at the Living Planet Symposium, ESA revealed the first stunning images from its groundbreaking Biomass satellite mission – marking a major leap forward in our ability to understand how […]
If you’re an animal living through a mass extinction, it’s best to be one that’s found a unique way to make a living.
![Odds ratio of the hypotheses that abiogenesis is a fast vs slow process. Each curve represents the odds ratio, computed using Equation 1, as a function of the biosphere’s ultimate lifespan, T - although we have subtracted off the modern epoch to yield remaining time on the x-axis. Previous estimates [1, 8] for the earliest evidence of life yield the dotted and dashed lines, but the new LUCA date of 4.2 Gya [10] greatly improves the odds factor. Indeed, the three solid lines show how the odds are always above 10:1 irrespective of how one chooses T or indeed fairly extreme choices (Carboniferious and Cambrian period) for the earliest civilization on Earth, t ′ I - evident by the circles which denote the minima. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Strong-Evidence-That-Abiogenesis.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
The early start to life naively suggests that abiogenesis is a rapid process on Earth-like planets. However, if evolution typically takes ~4Gyr to produce intelligent life-forms like us, then the […]
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is a strange, alien world. Covered in rivers and lakes of liquid methane, icy boulders and dunes of soot-like “sand,” its topography has long fascinated scientists […]
