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A new planet-hunting instrument has begun studying our bright neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri.

The Search for Habitable Alien Worlds in Earth's Backyard Heats Up

By Mike Wall

The NEAR instrument has been hunting for planets in the Alpha Centauri system.

A terrestrial bacterium called Sulfurihydrogenibium yellowstonense makes its home in hot springs with conditions similar to certain areas on Mars. The bacteria trigger the formation of a rock type called travertine, which can form in pasta-like strands.

Weird 'Fettucine' Rocks May Help Us Spot Life on Mars

By Meghan Bartels

Let's be very clear: No one is suggesting that Martians feast on pasta during a Red Planet all-you-can-eat buffet.

In 2014 and 2015, pilots with the U.S. Navy reported multiple UFO sightings during training maneuvers.

UFOs Are Real, But Don't Assume They're Alien Spaceships

By Mike Wall

UFOs are very real, as we have recently seen — but that doesn't mean E.T. has been violating our airspace.

The top-secret Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, founded in 2007, investigated UFO encounters under the direction of the Pentagon. This footage was captured by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet in 2004 Nimitz, off the coast of San Diego.

Former Head of Pentagon's Secret UFO Program Has Some (Strange) Stories to Tell

By Mindy Weisberger

The former leader of the U.S. government's top-secret UFO program has stories to tell, and he is sharing some of them for the first time in a new documentary.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this view of Pluto's nitrogen-ice plain Sputnik Planitia during the probe's flyby of the dwarf planet in July 2015.

On Icy Pluto, Volcanoes May Spout Liquid Water

By Charles Q. Choi

Artist's illustration of a Breakthrough Starshot miniprobe arriving at the potentially Earth-like planet Proxima b.

Breakthrough Needed? Starshot Interstellar-Flight Project Faces Challenges

By Mike Wall

It's still unclear if the bold interstellar-flight project Breakthrough Starshot can actually work.

Artist's illustration of advanced aliens.

How Dead Aliens Could Help Save Humanity

By Mike Wall

Those who don't learn the lessons of an extinct alien civilization's fall may be doomed to repeat it.

Artist's illustration of NASA's 2020 Mars rover on the Red Planet.

You Can Send Your Name to the Red Planet on NASA's Mars 2020 Rover

By Mike Wall

NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names for inclusion on microchips that will fly aboard the life-hunting Mars 2020 rover, which is scheduled to launch next summer.

An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA's next Mars rover to the Red Planet, prior to a May 2019 test in the Space Simulator Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

NASA Puts Mars 2020 Rover's Space Ride to the Test (Photo)

By Mike Wall

Earlier this month, engineers put the Mars 2020 rover's fully assembled spacecraft through some tests at the Space Simulator Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

This view of Pluto's Sputnik Planitia nitrogen-ice plain was captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby of the dwarf planet in July 2015.

Pluto Has a Buried Ocean — And So Might Many Other Worlds

By Mike Wall

Buried oceans like the one sloshing beneath the icy surface of the Jupiter moon Europa may be far more common across the cosmos than scientists had imagined.

Artist’s impression of a 6-mile-wide asteroid— the size of the dinosaur-killing object — striking the Earth.

How Earth Life Could Come Back from a Sterilizing Asteroid Impact

By Mike Wall

Supervillains take note: Even the biggest and baddest asteroids may not be 100% effective as a doomsday devices.

An artist's illustration of the K2-138 system, which contains at least five "sub-Neptune" planets orbiting closely around their parent star.

Mysterious 'Sub-Neptunes' Are Probably Water Worlds

By Charles Q. Choi

Water worlds that each possess thousands of times more water than Earth does may be more common than Earth-like rocky planets in the Milky Way galaxy, a new study finds.

Mars, as imaged by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter in the 1970s.

Could There Be Life on Mars Today?

By Mike Wall

The search for life on Mars shouldn't focus exclusively on the distant past, some researchers say.

This series of simulated images shows how conditions changed around NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity as a huge dust storm intensified throughout June 2018. At left, the sun appears blindingly bright but darkens as the dust storm intensifies. At the far right, the sun is a mere pinprick, with the dust storm in full swing.

Monster Mars Dust Storms May Have Helped Blow Red Planet's Water Away

By Mike Wall

Huge Mars dust storms like the one that killed NASA's Opportunity rover may have helped to blow some of the Red Planet's ancient water away for good, researchers say.

Artist's illustration of 'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object spotted in our solar system.

Could Life on Earth Have Come from Another Star System?

By Mike Wall

Life may have traveled to Earth from afar, aboard an interstellar visitor like the weird, cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua.

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Navy Plans to Document UFO Sightings, But Keep Them Confidential

By Laura Geggel

The U.S. Navy plans to set up an official reporting and investigative system that will monitor reports from its pilots about UFOs.

An artist's conception of the planet HD 219134b, one of the nearest rocky exoplanets to our solar system. This planet, which is about 1.6 times as big as Earth, is blazing hot, with a partially molten surface.

There's Basically 'No Chance' for Earth-Like Planets to Form an Atmosphere Around Hot Young Stars

By Brandon Specktor

The odds of an atmosphere forming around an Earth-like exoplanet are even slimmer than previously thought, a new study suggests.

Artist’s concept showing a young sun-like star surrounded by a planet-forming disk of gas and dust.

Life May Have Evolved Before Earth Finished Forming

By Mike Wall

Life may have arisen in our solar system before Earth even finished forming.

The ExoMars mission's Trace Gas Orbiter analyzed the Martian atmosphere, finding a surprising lack of traces of methane.

What's Eating Mars' Methane? ExoMars Results Deepen Mystery

By Megan Gannon

The first findings from the ExoMars orbiter show no signs of methane in Mars' atmosphere.

Strange and colorful light configurations after an aurora were part of a NASA rocket test.

'Alien' Lights in Norway Were a NASA Test, Not an Extraterrestrial Visit

By Mindy Weisberger

'Alien' lights in Norway were a NASA mission, not an extraterrestrial visit.