We all know Earth is special, but we may not fully appreciate how good we have it on this planet. Unlike its planetary neighbors, Earth has remained habitable for billions of years thanks to a ...

Scientists have discovered that an ultra-reactive chemical in Earth's atmosphere lasts much longer than we previously believed. In fact, they believe that millions of tons of the chemical could linger ...

If you were looking for the signatures of life on another world, you would want to take something small and portable with you. That’s the philosophy behind the “Chemical Laptop” being developed at ...

Scientists have uncovered the earliest chemical evidence of life on Earth, in a discovery that could revolutionise our understanding of how ancient molecules evolved. As part of a groundbreaking study ...

Dimitar Sasselov teaches astronomy at Harvard University. HOW THINGS COULD HAVE BEEN: The image from Mars (L) shows us four billion year-old sediments from an ancient lake on the rocky planet. In ...

Water has made the Earth the planet that it is—a planet known for its blue oceans. Water shapes the land through erosion and is fundamental to Earth’s ability to support life. But we have a hard time ...

A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic ...

Learn about the chemical signature that may be the first evidence to come from proto Earth, the unruly first phrase of our planet's history. Earth’s earliest days were so chaotic that it’s hard to ...