Beyond that, in the decades to come, we might be able to see the colours of an exoplanet’s surface, and determine if plant life might be present there. And then we can search for changes in a planet’s ...

Alien life could exist on hot, rocky planets, sustained not by water but by a type of salty fluid, new research suggests. Reading time 3 minutes The search for alien life usually hinges on finding the ...

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 ...

For decades, scientists have grappled with a profound question known as the Fermi Paradox: if the galaxy is teeming with the potential for extraterrestrial life, why is the cosmos so quiet? A new ...

Is intelligent alien life really out there? With powerful telescopes identifying more potentially habitable planets each year, the possibility continues to grow. But what would happen if we actually ...

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have identified a ‘super-Earth’ less than 20 light-years away, which could potentially harbor extraterrestrial life. This exoplanet, six times larger than our ...

An international team of researches has announced the discovery of a super-Earth exoplanet (designated GJ 251 c) situated in its host star’s habitable zone less than 20 light-years from our own. What ...

We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American. Explore our legacy of discovery and look ahead to the future. In the late 1800s Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli pointed a telescope at Mars ...

Florida Tech astrophysicist Howard Chen is offering new insights to help aid NASA's search for life beyond Earth. His latest theoretical work investigates the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, one of the ...

A new book details the turn-of-the-century Mars craze It’s not aliens. It’s never aliens. Claims of extraterrestrial life are so common that experts now have this cheeky retort at the ready. In The ...