Life could have the time and energy to arise and prosper on Earth-like worlds in the rapidly shrinking "Goldilocks zones" ...

These gases — composed of carbon, hydrogen, and a halogen, like chlorine — are mostly made by bacteria, algae, fungi, and ...

Searching for planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars is key to understanding the potential for life beyond Earth. It also helps scientists explore conditions similar to those that allowed ...

It is "orbiting within the habitable zone of its star – the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface," according to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The TOI ...

Three of those planets are located in the "habitable zone," where conditions allow for liquid water to exist and offer the potential for life to form, at least in principle. Because stars with ...

The 2025 astronomical calendar has no shortage of excitement. Starting Friday, Feb. 28, an unusual "planet parade" will be visible in the night sky. USA TODAY explains that seven planets will be ...

These enhancements enable researchers to create digital twins of extraterrestrial environments, identifying potentially habitable zones and informing future space exploration. Beyond astrobiology, ...

The red color of Mars could be due to the presence of an iron-containing mineral, which requires cool water to form, suggesting that the planet may have been habitable in the past, according to a new ...

"Oceans are important on planets. Oceans have a large effect on climate, they shape the surface of planets, and they are potentially habitable environments," geophysicist Michael Manga of the ...

The Red Planet’s distinctive color may hint at a much wetter – and more habitable – past. A water-rich iron mineral ferrihydrite may be the main culprit behind Mars’ reddish dust, according to a new ...

Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images Astronomers have discovered that sulfur may be a key to helping us narrow down our search for life on other planets. It's not that sulfur ...

If a planet has a lot of water vapor, it might have a good chance of hosting life as well. This requirement is the basis of the habitable zone, the region around a star where the radiation onto a ...