According to NASA scientists, the rock samples taken from the Jezero Crater on Mars could indicate that life previously existed on the planet. The samples, taken by the rover Perseverance (which first drilled into Mars on 6 September and then again a few days later) have been identified as volcanic in origin. To the scientists’ surprise, these samples also contained salts—likely calcium sulphate or calcium …
For the first time in their history, NASA recently began funding searches for artificial extraterrestrial megastructures. While the agency has looked for life in space for decades, it’s been via biosignatures rather than technosignatures; signs of biological processes rather than signs of technological activity, which indicate higher intelligence. As Mordechai Rorvig writes for VICE, the existing department SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, founded in 1984) …
NASA has found large amounts of methane wafting within plumes from Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, Enceladus, suggesting that life may exist within its “subsurface sea.” This evidence was discovered thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, which also discovered dihydrogen and carbon dioxide molecules there. Scientists believe the methane is produced biologically, rather than through a geochemical process. Thus, Régis Ferrière, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s …
