Nearly four billion years ago, life arose on Earth. Life appeared because our planet had a rocky surface, liquid water, and a blanketing atmosphere. But life thrived thanks to another […]
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures
Globular Clusters Could Nurture Interstellar Civilizations
“A globular cluster might be the first place in which intelligent life is identified in our galaxy,” says lead author Rosanne Di Stefano of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). […]
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Panspermia
Interstellar Seeds Could Create Oases of Life
We only have one example of a planet with life: Earth. But within the next generation, it should become possible to detect signs of life on planets orbiting distant stars. […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
Water Could Have Been Abundant in the First Billion Years
How soon after the Big Bang could water have existed? Not right away, because water molecules contain oxygen and oxygen had to be formed in the first stars. Then that […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Eight New Planets Found in "Goldilocks" Zone
Astronomers announced today that they have found eight new planets in the “Goldilocks” zone of their stars, orbiting at a distance where liquid water can exist on the planet’s surface. […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
New Instrument Reveals Recipe for Other Earths
How do you make an Earth-like planet? The “test kitchen” of Earth has given us a detailed recipe, but it wasn’t clear whether other planetary systems would follow the same […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Super-Earths Have Long-Lasting Oceans
For life as we know it to develop on other planets, those planets would need liquid water, or oceans. Geologic evidence suggests that Earth’s oceans have existed for nearly the […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Ground-Based Detection of Super-Earth Transit Paves Way to Remote Sensing of Small Exoplanets
Astronomers have measured the passing of a super-Earth in front of a bright, nearby Sun-like star using a ground-based telescope for the first time. he transit of the exoplanet 55 […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Harsh Space Weather May Doom Potential Life on Red-dwarf Planets
Life in the universe might be even rarer than we thought. Recently, astronomers looking for potentially habitable worlds have targeted red dwarf stars because they are the most common type […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Astronomers Find a New Type of Planet: The 'Mega-Earth'
Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new type of planet – a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn’t form […]