extraterrestrial life

The three smaller water bodies join a previously discovered lake buried beneath ice at the red planet’s south pole.

Giovanni Schiaparelli’s maps of Mars sparked the belief that intelligent life exists on the planet.

Growing evidence points to a once-habitable world—and recent findings suggest that life could exist on Mars today.

High levels of radiation, among other health risks, challenge the future colonization of the Red Planet.

By simulating the structure and composition of Mars’s rocky materials, scientists observe how the metal-eating, extreme environment–inhabiting microbe Metallosphaera sedula could alter extraterrestrial environments.

Extremophiles can thrive on perchlorates and metabolize carbon monoxide, researchers report.

Kepler-452b revolves around a sun much like our own.

Microorganisms continually challenge our assumptions of what life can achieve.

NASA’s Curiosity rover finds chemical signatures that point to the possibility of life on Mars.

A body of liquid water beneath Enceladus’s surface makes the tiny moon a potentially hospitable home for extraterrestrial life.

The possibility of Martian life gets a boost from evidence of an ancient freshwater lake.

Meet some of the people featured in the August 2013 issue of The Scientist.

NASA’s rover has identified clay in its first drilled sample, signaling that the planet once had a wet and hospitable environment.

J. Craig Venter plans to develop a machine to find and sequence DNA on Mars, but another genomics mogul, Jonathan Rothberg, may beat him to it.

The Curiosity rover discovers pebbles that were likely formed by ancient streams on the Red Planet.

Researchers discover microbes in Oregon thriving in extreme, Mars-like conditions.