We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive

What's up in

astrobiology

Latest Articles

Researcher Chris German standing beside a remotely operated vehicle at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Q&A

An Explorer of Abyssal Depths Looks to Oceans on Other Worlds

By Steve Nadis
June 7, 2023
Comment
Read Later

The marine geochemist Chris German brings decades of experience studying seafloor hydrothermal vents to NASA’s preparations for visits to other ocean worlds in our solar system.

Legos coming together to make a person.
origins of life

A New Idea for How to Assemble Life

By Philip Ball
May 4, 2023
Comment
Read Later

If we want to understand complex constructions, such as ourselves, assembly theory says we must account for the entire history of how such entities came to be.

Illustration of asteroids in space that are interconnected into a structure like that of the amino acid glycine.
explainers

Inside Ancient Asteroids, Gamma Rays Made Building Blocks of Life

By John Rennie +1 authors
Allison Parshall
January 4, 2023
Comment
Read Later

A new radiation-based mechanism adds to the ways that amino acids could have been made in space and brought to the young Earth.

Lisa Kaltenegger, a woman with red hair, peers through the eyepiece of an antique telescope.
astrobiology

A Dream of Discovering Alien Life Finds New Hope

By Joshua Sokol
November 3, 2022
Comment
Read Later

For Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection.

an illustration of various objects (a chair, a rocket, a cell phone, etc.) as well as biological objects such as a DNA double-helix and microbe, all against a lime green background
The Joy of Why

What Is Life?

By Steven Strogatz
June 15, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist, and Sheref Mansy, a chemist, to learn more.

planetary science

Secrets of the Moon’s Permanent Shadows Are Coming to Light

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
April 28, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds.

Collage illustration of the JWST
astrophysics

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

By Natalie Wolchover
December 3, 2021
Comment
Read Later

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

Q&A

The Astronomer Who’s About to See the Skies of Other Earths

By Thomas Lewton
October 12, 2021
Comment
Read Later

After the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, Laura Kreidberg will lead two efforts to check the weather on rocky planets orbiting other stars.

The zoologist Arik Kershenbaum of the University of Cambridge and his dog.
Q&A

Why Extraterrestrial Life May Not Seem Entirely Alien

By Dan Falk
March 18, 2021
Comment
Read Later

The zoologist Arik Kershenbaum argues that because some evolutionary challenges are truly universal, life throughout the cosmos may share certain features.


Previous
  • 1
  • 2
Next
Follow Quanta
Facebook
Facebook

Twitter
Twitter

Youtube
YouTube

Instagram
Instagram

RSS
RSS

Newsletter

Past Month

Most Read Articles

This Data is Current Loading...
This Data is Current Loading...
This Data is Current Loading...
The Quanta Newsletter

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

Recent newsletters
Quanta Homepage
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram

  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2023