Astrobiology News
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Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we search the universe for life and discover more about life on our home planet.
In one of the biggest surprises of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, its target asteroid, Bennu, turned out to be a jagged, rugged world covered in large boulders, with few of the smooth patches of sandy or pebbly material scientists had expected…
With the first images from the spacecraft now in hand, the team behind NASA’s Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, is ready to begin charting the energetic lives of the galaxy’s most common stars to help answer one of humanity’s…
Lake Unter-See in Antarctica, sealed beneath thick ice, contains unusually high levels of dissolved oxygen and cone-shaped microbial reefs resembling some of Earth’s oldest fossils.
NASA Dragonfly’s integration and testing – the activities involved in assembling the mission’s rotorcraft lander and testing it for the rigors of launch and extreme conditions of space – is officially underway in clean rooms and control rooms at the…
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A NASA-sponsored team has developed electronics that can operate reliably in the harsh radiation and temperature conditions found on distant planetary bodies like Europa, an ocean world orbiting Jupiter. Not only could this new technology enable autonomous sensors and robotic…
For about six months, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring a region full of geologic formations called boxwork, low ridges standing roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall with sandy hollows in between. Crisscrossing the surface…
In a new study, researchers say that non-biological sources they considered could not fully account for the abundance of organic compounds in a sample collected on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover. In March 2025, scientists reported identifying small amounts of…
NASA-supported scientists have resurrected an enzyme first used by organisms on Earth 3.2-billion years ago and, in the process, have validated a chemical biosignature in rocks that is used to understand ancient life on Earth. The research provides a new…
New analysis of decades-old data has turned up a significant result: the first discovery of ammonia-bearing compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Ammonia is a nitrogen-bearing molecule, and nitrogen — like carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen — is key…
A candidate planet that might be remarkably similar to Earth, HD 137010 b, has one potentially big difference: It could be colder than perpetually frozen Mars.