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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: extraterrestrial life

extraterrestrial life stories: 34 news summaries

21 - 34 of 34 Stories | << Prev 1 2

Stowaway Molecules
Could Taint Mars Results

Microscopic hitchhikers might provide false evidence in search for life

(Newser) - Missions searching for signs of life on Mars could be fooled by organic molecules that hitched a ride from Earth, a new study suggests. University of Florida researchers using simulated Martian conditions found that ATP, an energy-storing molecule fundamental to terrestrial life, could survive the trip and hang around for... More »

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NASA space exploration Mars extraterrestrial life Phoenix Mars Lander ATP Mars rover

 On Mars, 'Something
 That Looks Like Ice' 

Phoenix probe sends home photos from arctic region

(Newser) - The Phoenix probe sent home photos today of what looks like ice just under Mars' rocky surface, Space.com reports. "The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice,” one mission scientist said. NASA picked the landing spot, in... More »

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NASA Mars extraterrestrial life Phoenix Mars Lander robotic arm ice

Spacey Colorado Man Captures 'Alien' On Video

Film of 'less wrinkly ET' to be aired today

(Newser) - A Denver man claims to have film of an alien peering through a window, and plans to show it to the media today, the Denver Post reports. The closely encountered alien is said to be 4 feet tall and appears "innocent, benevolent, youthful" and less "wrinkly" than ET... More »

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updated

 Phoenix Touches Down on Mars 

NASA now awaits first photos of historic mission

(Newser) - The Phoenix probe has landed safely on Mars' icy surface and begun its search for life, Space.com reports. Exultant NASA scientists are now awaiting a second radio signal to see how much power it has left—a critical element of the mission. And they await the probe's first snapshots.... More »

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NASA Mars extraterrestrial life Phoenix Mars Lander

 Vatican: OK to Believe in Aliens 

If God wants to create aliens, 'we can't limit his freedom,' says astronomer

(Newser) - Believing in God doesn’t mean you can’t believe in aliens, the Vatican’s chief astronomer told L’Osservatore Romano. God may well have created other creatures, including intelligent ones. “We cannot place limits on God’s creative freedom,” he noted. More »

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astronomy Christianity religion Vatican extraterrestrial life aliens

 Saturn Moon Holds 
 Recipe for Life  

Life's 'building blocks' found in massive geysers

(Newser) - Basic components of life like heat, organic chemicals, and water have been found on a Saturn moon, Reuters reports. A spacecraft flying over Enceladus this month spotted 500-mile-high geysers spouting off its surface, containing water vapor and the organic molecules found in living things. Though no one’s saying there’... More »

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space extraterrestrial life Saturn solar system moon organic compounds Enceladus geyser

Hidden Ocean Found on
Saturn Moon

Watery Titan and salty Mars could have evidence of life

(Newser) - NASA has unlocked two more of the solar system's secrets, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The Cassini orbiter discovered evidence of an underground ocean churning deep below the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found ancient salt deposits on the red planet. Both discoveries have... More »

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 Methane Found on Far-off Planet

Compound, crucial ingredient in early-life chemistry, detected 63 light years away

(Newser) - Methane, one of the simplest compounds known to play a role in the chemical genesis of life, was discovered for the first time to exist on a planet outside Earth’s solar system, the BBC reports. The planet, designated HD 189733b, is 63 light years away and also contains water,... More »

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Hubble space methane extraterrestrial life Spitzer orbiting telescope carbon Jupiter extrasolar planets gas giant prebiotic chemicals organic compounds

Sky's the Limit in Powerful
New Searches for Alien Life

Pioneering technology
rachets up ET hunt

(Newser) - Powerful new instruments will help scientists in their search for extra-terrestrial life, the Christian Science Monitor writes. New telescopes will make it possible for the SETI Institute to scan millions of star systems for alien radio signals. Only a thousand have been analyzed in detail so far, but the institute... More »

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Mars Was Too Salty for Life

Rock analysis shows even microbes couldn't have survived in planet's early history

(Newser) - Hopes that Mars may once have supported life have taken a blow with the discovery that the planet has been too salty for life for much of its history, the BBC reports. "It was salty enough that only a handful of known terrestrial organisms would have a ghost of... More »

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New Solar System Sparks Hope for
Other Life

Maybe we're not alone, say astronomers

(Newser) - Excited astronomers say that the discovery of a solar system with strong similarities to our own raises the chances of other life out there. The system has two gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn orbiting at a similar distance from the alien sun 5,000 light years away, and... More »

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ET May Be Hiding In Plain Sight

Life which utilizes 'alien' chemical processes to exist may be on earth

(Newser) - One popular theory on the origin of life holds that it is a “cosmic imperative”—inevitable on any Earth-like planet. That theory is being tested in a novel way, Scientific American reports: by searching for evidence of a “second genesis”—life on Earth that in some... More »

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Planet with Water Discovered

HD 189733b holds superheated water vapor but is too hot for aliens

(Newser) - Astronomers located the first planet beyond our solar system that hosts water—a giant gas ball bigger than Jupiter and named HD 189733b. Its sizzling climate, which can reach upwards of 3,600 degrees, renders it uninhabitable to any extraterrestrials, but the discovery shows that water is more common in... More »

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NASA water European Space Agency planet space extraterrestrial life Spitzer orbiting telescope wobble light aliens HD189733b Vulpecula the Fox Jupiter discovery

Earth-Like Planet Could Sustain Life

Scientists claim major breakthrough
in search for extraterrestrial life

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a planet that can sustain liquid water, the prerequisite for life as we understand it. Named Gliese 581 C, the new planet orbits a red dwarf star in what's called the "Goldilocks zone"—not so close that water melts, and not so far that it... More »

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21 - 34 of 34 Stories | << Prev 1 2