The “alien” is actually a potato. Specifically, it is a purple tuber nicknamed Spudnik-1, grown and photographed by Pettit.

Assembly Theory shifts the search for life from identifying specific molecules to measuring chemical complexity, offering a ...

As humankind moves toward the goal of establishing a long-term presence on the moon and Mars, the question of whether ...

Mars is a very dry planet with very little water in its atmosphere and hardly any clouds, so you might not expect it to have ...

From Calle’s habitat, known as MDRS, the cotton candy sky against the red rocks of the Western United States “felt like Mars, ...

As the New Scientist Book Club reads Kim Stanley Robinson’s science-fiction novel in April, George Bass digs into why this ...

Astronomers have narrowed down the cosmic search for life, identifying fewer than 50 rocky planets among thousands of known ...

This artistic illustration shows the TRAPPIST-1 red dwarf star system, home to seven Earth-sized exoplanets, several of which ...

Astronomers have just revealed the most promising places in the universe to search for extraterrestrial life, identifying almost 50 rocky worlds that are most likely to be habitab ...

Evidence of alien life or cosmic pyramid scheme? A documentary filmmaker sparked a discussion of advanced Martian civilizations after sharing footage that appeared to depict a “three-sided pyramid” on ...

The northern ice ap of Mars seen from space - NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Humanity has dreamed about discovering life on alien planets for as long as we have dreamed about visiting other worlds. Since Mars ...

Life's capacity to survive in simulated lunar and Martian soils has been explored in two papers published in Scientific Reports. Treating simulated lunar soil with both symbiotic fungi and ...