Although news of the presence of water on Mars is nothing new, the discovery of a massive amount of liquid water—enough to cover the planet’s surface in a mile-deep ocean—has been made by a team that used seismic data to map the interior of the Red Planet. Using data collected by theread more
A potential biosignature indicating the presence of ancient lifeforms has turned up in a rock on the surface of Mars, in the form of what may be traces of chemical reactions from the life processes of ancient microbes. Although the sample will need to be returned to Earth to confirmread more
In what may be the first sign of life detected beyond our Solar System, the James Webb Telescope has detected the signature of a chemical compound that is known to only be produced by biological organisms, in the atmosphere of an exoplanet 124 light years from Earth. Although its detection is stillread more
In 1976, NASA’s Viking landers conducted a series of biological experiments designed to determine whether or not there was life present in the soil on Mars’ surface, the only such tests conducted on another planet. The results of the tests, at least at the time, perplexed the scientists in charge of the Viking landers’read more