Extraterrestrial life
16 articles-
If We Believe in Dark Matter, Why Not Extraterrestrial Life?
Avi Loeb has a lot of thoughts about aliens and scientific prejudice. -
The Romantic Venus We Never Knew
Venus used to be as fit for life as Earth. -
Is Physical Law an Alien Intelligence?
Alien life could be so advanced it becomes indistinguishable from physics. -
The Surprising Importance of Stratospheric Life
The science of bacteria in the atmosphere is getting its moment in the sun. -
Spark of Science: Chiara Mingarelli
How stars and UFOs set one astrophysicist on her path.
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Why Alien Life Will Be Robotic
If life off Earth exists it has probably transitioned to machine intelligence.
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Why Discovering Martians Could Be Disappointing
There are two kinds of extraterrestrial life with very different implications.
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The Beckoning of the Ice Worlds
We’ve been looking for life on Earth-like planets. Will Europa teach us better?
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Will ET Drink Water?
The intricate compatibility of water and life on Earth may not extend to other planets.
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Humankind’s Most Ambitious Search for Life’s Beginnings
A rendering of Hayabusa2 using its “horn” to gather materials from the crater it will make using an explosive-propelled projectile. In the lower right is MASCOT, a lander that will be left on the surface to carry out ongoing studies.Akihiro Ikeshita / JAXA Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . […] -
Don’t Write Off ET Quite Yet
It’s true that we haven’t seen alien life, but neither have we seen much of the universe. -
The Best Way Yet to Talk to Aliens (If They’re Out There)
“None knows whence creation arose; And whether he has or has not made it; He who surveys it from the lofty skies. Only he knows—or perhaps not.” Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . This is an edited snippet from a 3,500-year-old Vedic creation myth. I sent each of its […] -
Carbon Fated: We’re Built This Way for a Reason
In each issue of Nautilus, we shine a spotlight on one “Ingenious” scientist whose work makes us reconsider our world and ourselves. The Ingenious for our first issue, “What Makes You So Special,” is Columbia University astrophysicist Caleb Scharf, who contributed an essay about our place in the universe and talked about his life and […] -
The Fun-House Mirror Earths
It’s been just over two decades since astronomers announced the first discoveries of exoplanets—planets orbiting stars other than the sun—and their progress in the intervening years has been so routinely remarkable its recitation now seems mundane: There are now thousands of cataloged exoplanets, and hundreds of billions more probably await discovery in the Milky Way […]