The Strangest Alien Worlds Are beyond Astronomers’ Wildest Dreams
Alien worlds that glow like lightbulbs or harbor molten-rock rain are revealing planets’ profound cosmic diversity—and pointing the way toward finding those that truly resemble our own familiar Earth
The Science of ‘3 Body Problem’: What’s Fact and What’s Fiction?
The hit sci-fi show’s adviser and two other researchers discuss its portrayal of scientists and their technologies
Sorry, Little Green Men: Alien Life Might Actually Be Purple
Purple may be a likely color for extraterrestrial organisms, research suggests
SpaceX’s Starship Could Save NASA’s Beleaguered Mars Sample Return Mission
Facing budgetary pressure for its Mars Sample Return program, NASA has turned to private industry for ideas—perhaps with one specific company in mind
If Alien Life Is Found, How Should Scientists Break the News?
At a recent workshop, researchers and journalists debated how to announce a potential discovery of extraterrestrial life
Don’t Panic, But A Lot of Stars Seem to Eat Their Own Planets
At least one in a dozen binary stars shows signs of eating their planets
‘Interstellar’ Meteor Signal May Have Been a Truck—So What Was Collected from the Ocean Floor?
New analyses cast doubt on claims that a meteor witnessed over the South Pacific in 2014 came from another star system and raise questions about a high-profile expedition to recover the fireball’s fragments from the seafloor
JWST Will Finally Hunt for Alien Moons—And Much More
The next year of science for the James Webb Space Telescope has been selected. It includes remote galaxy observations and, at last, a hunt for exomoons
We Need to Investigate UFOs—But Without the Distraction of Conspiracy Theories
A former government official calls for investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena without succumbing to conspiracy theories about extraterrestrials
Low Oxygen May Smother Life’s Prospects on Europa, Jupiter’s Ocean Moon
The subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa may have far less oxygen—and less potential for life—than previously believed, according to data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft
NASA’s Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Ends Mission on the Red Planet after 3 Years
NASA’s enterprising Mars helicopter and its remarkable 72 flights offered a new vision of planetary exploration
Here’s What I Learned as the U.S. Government’s UFO Hunter
A forthcoming investigational report from an office of the Pentagon has found no evidence of aliens, only allegations circulated repeatedly by UFO claim advocates